She watched as he set his nameplate on the table facing her — Alejandro Mendoza, History — and turned to the man next to him — Michael Hernandez, Natural Sciences — and struck up a conversation.

Toni grabbed her nameplate and started fanning herself. Marie snatched Deja’s muffin and took a bite.

“I need a cigarette,” Toni said.

“Oh my god, shut up,” she said, ducking her head and swiping at her damp hairline surreptitiously. “The tie is definitely new,” she added, licking her lips.

And I want to take it off him with my teeth, she didn’t say.

Three

The next two and a half hours didn’t really fly by so much as crawl slowly toward death like a zombie that hadn’t gotten a kill shot yet. Or at least that’s how Deja thought her twelve-year-old nephew would have described it, but he could find a way to compare most things to zombies.

They’d just handed in their last ballot and were waiting in annoyance as the Secretary read out the final tally of their votes, and then, finally, the end of September’s Faculty Senate meeting arrived with a very sedate announcement.

“Motion to adjourn this month’s meeting,” Dr. Chris Branford, College of Business, Senate President said.

“Seconded,” Sheila Meyer, Senate Secretary, replied.

“We are adjourned,” Chris said in an unnaturally cheery voice that Deja absolutely related to.

And just like that, the dead quiet of the auditorium burst into the specific kind of excited chatter that Deja only heard at the end of these monthly meetings.

Marie all but sprinted out of the auditorium with a blind wave over her head to Deja and Toni. She had a class to teach in ten minutes on the other side of campus and not a spare second to waste.

Toni and Deja were already packed up and darted out of the auditorium behind Marie, moving fast enough to avoid getting pulled into conversations they didn’t care about with people they didn’t like.

Outside of the building, Deja turned to Toni. “I need to go to my office. I left my laptop charger. You coming?”

Toni opened her mouth but then snapped her jaw shut. Deja furrowed her brow just before his voice caught her attention, and not just because his voice was deep and gentle, but also because it was so close.

“Are you going to Mark?” Alejandro asked.