He pushed his own door open and stepped out into the still cool air. It was almost spring, but it had just snowed a few days ago, and there were still icy, dirty chunks of it in the gutters and in between the parked cars. He walked carefully around the back of his car, taking the time to compose himself. Deja was so nervous she’d looked near tears when he’d picked her up this morning. Actually, every time he’d seen her in the past few weeks, it had seemed like some small part of her — some tiny thing he loved — was slowly eroding.

He rounded the car to the passenger side and immediately met Deja’s eyes in the side mirror. She smiled at him, and he smiled back, hoping that after today, things would be different.

Alejandro pulled Deja’s door open and offered her his hand.

“I can get out of a car on my own,” she said, squinting up at him.

“I’ll remember that,” he said, still holding his hand out to her.

She sighed before finally letting him help her from the car. They pulled their bags from his backseat, and Alejandro held his hand out to Deja.

Her eyes widened. “We can’t,” she hissed.

“Yeah. We can.”

Being able to hold Deja’s hand on campus was the entire reason they were both on campus today even though Deja didn’t teach, and Alejandro didn’t have to teach his graduate course until this evening. If they hadn’t taken this nine o’clock appointment with Human Resources, they’d have had to wait until mid or late April, and while Alejandro hadn’t wanted to push Deja, he had.

She’d been so terrified after they’d heard that door slam that her eyes filled with tears, and she’d started shaking in his arms. He’d watched as the fear of being discovered caused her to fall completely apart.

When the hallway was quiet, Alejandro had jumped into action. He’d cleaned them both up with a bottle of water and paper towels from her desk and rushed her to his car and his apartment, and then he held her until she cried herself to sleep, mumbling that her career was over until she passed out.

Toni’s voice was a faint echo in his head the entire night. He hadn’t doubted her, not necessarily, but he realized that night that she’d been absolutely right. Deja was one of the smartest people he’d ever met — on a campus full of smart people. She was also stronger and more resilient, and if she was this on edge all the time… He couldn’t fathom it. So, he’d pushed her to take the earlier meeting with HR. It wouldn’t fix all the problems, but it would at least take the fear that they’d be discovered off her plate. Something was better than nothing.