She pulled her beanie over her ears, pushed her sunglasses higher on her face, and felt like a burglar sneaking into her office until she firmly shut her door behind her. She didn’t want to see or talk to anybody, including Alejandro. Actually, the only person that she wanted to talk to less than Alejandro was Caroline. Or maybe Layla. Everyone. Absolutely everyone she worked with was at the bottom of her list of people she wanted to communicate with today, so she was dodging everyone’s text messages and phone calls, including Toni and Alejandro’s.

She felt bad about it. She knew it wasn’t their fault that the meeting had imploded, and her sour mood was squarely on her own shoulders, but this was what Deja did. When she felt bad or stressed or insecure or anxious, she hid away, cocooning herself in her work and her apartment, and she never asked for help. She knew it was unhealthy, but she didn’t know how to break herself of the habit. Toni had, unfortunately, been through this with her before, and she understood. She’d keep texting Deja until Deja was ready to text back. But Alejandro… She didn’t know how to explain to Alejandro what she was going through and explain why she needed space even though she didn’t blame him, which added another layer of stress. Soon enough, she guessed that he would get sick of reaching out and break up with her, which only sank her deeper into the funk she’d been living in for most of the week because she knew a way to head that off was to talk to him, but...she was terrified that she’d tell him she needed space and he wouldn’t understand.

Yeah. Snapped marathon imminent, she thought as she opened her laptop and got down to business updating attendance scores, easing herself into the boring work she needed to complete before she could write this week off for good with wine and too much sleep.

“Come in,” Toni called through the crack of her office door.

Alejandro pushed it open and stepped inside.

Toni glanced up at him and smiled, almost as if she’d been expecting him. “What can I do for you, Dr. Mendoza?”

Alejandro shoved his hands into his pockets. “Deja,” he said simply.

“What about Dr. Evans?”

“Toni,” he huffed.

The pen in her hand froze over the essay she was marking up, and she looked at him. “Dr. Ward,” she corrected.

Alejandro rolled his eyes. “Deja hasn’t been returning my calls or messages.”

“Mine, either,” she said simply.

“I drove by her apartment, but the lights were off. I thought about going to her classes, but I just… Is she okay? Aren’t you worried about her?”