Deja’s car was moving with the force of her grinding on top of him, the windows were steaming up, they were both sweating under their winter clothes, and it was a kind of perfection. Soon enough, their hips were meeting each other with loud, wet slaps, and her car filled with their loud, grunting moans.

“Shit. Holy shit,” Deja screamed, her knees falling onto the seats and squeezing his hips.

Alejandro didn’t stop and let her ride out that orgasm, and she would tell him how grateful she was about that later. He kept pressing his hips up into hers until she felt his dick swell just before he came in the condom with a deep rumbling grunt.

She shivered violently in another shuddering release.

“Kiss me,” he moaned desperately.

Deja smiled dreamily, the post-orgasmic haze and foggy windows making the moment feel more special than it probably should have. She covered his mouth with her own and kissed him softly. Somehow, this kiss was the best of them all. The desperate passion of that first kiss in the terminal had made her blood rush, but this gentle familiarity made her heart swell.

“Welcome back,” she whispered against his lips, smiling when he cupped the back of her head and pulled her mouth back to his.

SPRING SEMESTER

Twenty-One

Late January

As far as Deja was concerned, there were only three weeks in the semester where she got to feel like a human being rather than a walking-talking calendar notification and library help desk; the first week of classes, Thanksgiving break/spring break, and finals week.

Now that winter break was over and it was time to start a new semester, she felt annoyingly optimistic. She hadn’t completed all the things she’d planned, but she’d submitted an article — and hadn’t been rejected yet — she’d made minor revisions on her book, and Alejandro had fucked her senseless all weekend in between completing their course syllabi and online course shells. If that weekend was anything to go by, Deja thought this might be the best semester of her entire career. She was in such a great mood that she wasn’t even complaining that the Faculty Senate had scheduled a meeting right at the beginning of the semester because of “urgent business.”

“Hi, please end my suffering,” Marie said, sidling up next to Deja.

They both took a second to find their name placards, and then Deja turned to Marie. “You look great. Classes just started. What’s up?”

“I just got invited to the on-campus interview for my job.”

“Oh my god,” Deja screamed. “That’s amazing.”

“Is it? I really don’t have time to write my job talk, and they’re going to observe one of my classes, which might suck because by then, my students might already hate me.”