She’d been up most nights with her headphones in — because she wasn’t a terrible neighbor — listening to Luther and Prince and Tina and Aretha, trying to tire herself out enough to sleep for a few hours at a time. She’d also taken to slinking into her office, so she didn’t have to see any of her colleagues. And she didn’t look anyone in the eye when she ran into them in the hallway. She’d even pretended to be sick to miss a faculty meeting because her brain had conjured a truly ridiculous scenario where someone would pull her aside and out themselves as the person who’d almost certainly heard her and Alejandro’s mutual masturbation session.

But she couldn’t avoid everything forever, and she needed to sleep. After almost three weeks, she was burnt out — even more burnt out than normal — and she didn’t have a concealer opaque enough to hide the dark circles under her eyes anymore. She was up most of last night cleaning before she conked out at three, slept fitfully for about four hours, then got up to clean some more. She was so busy that she didn’t immediately hear the alarm on her phone, blaring at her to get in the shower before Alejandro arrived. By the time she heard it, she was behind schedule and had to rush to get ready in time.

She’d just swiped on her best red lipstick when the intercom rent the silence in her apartment. She jumped and smeared some of the lipstick on the tip of her chin. “Shit,” she muttered to herself. She grabbed a tissue from the box on her bedside table and dabbed carefully at her chin, trying not to dislodge the foundation underneath. She didn’t have time to redo her entire face.

The buzzer blared again, and she jogged toward her front door.

“I’m up,” she accidentally screamed into the speaker. “Sorry.”

Alejandro’s laughter greeted her once she took her finger off the button to speak. “You ready?” he asked. “Or do you need me to come inside?”

Deja shook her head with a smile. She knew what he was insinuating, and if her stomach wasn’t tied tight with knots, she might have let him, but she really couldn’t do her makeup again, and they had an appointment to keep.

“No, you freak,” she laughed. “Give me a minute to grab my bag.”

“I’ll show you freak…” he mumbled into the intercom.

Deja laughed as she walked to her office to collect her things for work, her steps already so much lighter.

“Wait here,” Alejandro said after he put his car in park in the faculty parking lot closest to Mark Hall and the administrative building. He placed his hand on Deja’s knee, turning to look at her to cement the point, and waited until she smiled and nodded.