What I Want for "But a Whimper"

What I want is for my short story titled "But a Whimper" (from T.S. Eliot) to win the contest for the college's yearly literary journal. In order to do that, I need some feedback. I walked into the Poetry Professor's office before his official office hours, and found him looking at the screen of his laptop that was sitting next to the screen from his desktop, apparently using both at once. "Are you multi-tasking?" I ask him.

"Always," he says with a smile. He talked about how busy he was with grading and with students needing help. He drove to a nearby town, and met up with a student for an hour. "She got an hour's worth of instruction for free." Another student arrives outside his doorway, so he says, "Send me that short story."

I take it as my hint to leave. I did, of course, send the piece to his email account, but realized a day later that he shouldn't do something like that for free. I thought about offering him money directly, but assumed that he wouldn't accept it. So, I sent an email saying that I didn't like the idea of professors working for free, so would he accept me buying him lunch? I hope he didn't read it as me coming on to him, although even if he did, there was probably no harm done.

He replies, "Ha! No worries. It's not for free. I get the street cred of saying, 'I knew her when...' :)"

Which I just thought was overwhelmingly sweet. I've been trying to figure out a way to stay at the community college instead of transferring back to The University (just down the road) or perhaps even going to a UC. I don't know anyone at the University in the English Department, and most of the people I knew in Animal Science, like The Advisor, have retired. VN probably still teaches classes. I would have to start all over again, trying to get to know the faces of the faculty.

Of course, I thought about sending "But a Whimper" to the English instructor, since I value his feedback so much, but I know that he is working three jobs, taking classes himself, and dealing with his personal life. So, asking for him to spend an hour on something he's not getting paid for seemed almost cruel. I thought about offering him a $100 to review and edit it, and saying that he didn't need to meet with me in person, I could drop off payment either through the mail in a form of a check or put it in his faculty box. However, he hasn't responded to my last email, asking him to join the faculty poetry reading contest, so I doubt I will even ask. But $100 for an hour's worth of work (he obviously could spend more time than that, if he wanted) isn't bad money, unless you're a prostitute (in which you should make a lot more than that for "full service"). I couldn't help but find parallels between the two types of work. I realize that most of the time, editing between friends is free or at most, considered a favor repaid by a drink. But I'm not exactly the type of friend to either the English instructor or the Poetry Professor in which you can ask those types of favors.