He turned to her and had to force himself not to roll his eyes. He knew Layla had a crush on him. He wasn’t interested. He didn’t care. But he’d never been great at letting people down personally. “What can I help you with, Layla?” he ground out.

She smiled at him and leaned forward, laying her breasts on the table for him to see. He looked away.

“Now that everyone is gone, I just wondered…” She took a deep breath, and Alejandro felt his entire body seize. “This might be forward, but I was wondering if you wanted to get a drink sometime.”

“I’m seeing someone,” he blurted out. He’d struggled with deciding whether or not to tell Sheila this fact earlier, but not now, not with the memory of Deja’s sad smile in his mind. He saw Layla’s face crumple, but he didn’t sit around to help her through this rejection; it wasn’t his job. Besides, he stood with an angry heat in his limbs because Layla had kept him from comforting Deja.

He was mad at her and himself and Caroline and the whole situation. This was not how he’d expected this meeting to go.

Twenty-Four

Friday

One bad day always leads into two bad days. That’s at least what Deja had always found to be true. She could never have just one bad day, but a three-day bad day streak was a little much for her to handle.

The only good thing was that it was finally Friday.

She didn’t have any classes or meetings, but she was still on campus. She had a list of administrative things to do, and with her sour mood, she knew she wouldn’t get them done at home. Nope, if she stayed home, she knew full well that she’d stay in bed and watch Snapped all day. It was a tempting thought, but in the end, she’d decided to go to her office and save the murderous women for the weekend.

Normally, Deja took some care with how she looked when she came to campus on weekdays. She liked to look presentable and professional — at the very least she didn’t want to dress so casually that she could be mistaken for a student — but today, she didn’t care. She showered and threw on a pair of leggings, a t-shirt, a hoodie, and sneakers. She threw her laptop and a thermos of coffee in her backpack and walked to campus. She could have driven and not had to interact with anyone at all, but she needed the walk to campus to clear her head.