She and Alejandro were on Marie’s left, and Toni and Mike were on her right. Alejandro was turned toward the group, his arm casually around the back of Deja’s chair, his hand lightly cupping her upper arm. Deja was a bit shocked at the casual affection, and apparently, so was Layla. She and Deja made accidental eye contact across the auditorium. The other woman’s face began to turn a bright red, and Deja looked quickly away, focusing on her friends instead.

“I’m giving this committee assignment to someone else next year,” Toni said.

“You can’t,” Mike said.

Toni frowned at him. “The hell I can’t.”

“We’re a team,” Mike said. “The five of us.”

“We’re overworked, underpaid, and on multiple committees together. Chill.”

Mike looked as if he was about to say something in return when the Senate President-elect’s gavel sounded.

“Let’s get started on our last meeting of the year,” Sheila called.

The entire auditorium erupted into applause, and a few people hooted.

“Yes, yes, it’s not that bad,” Sheila laughed.

“Speak for yourself,” someone Deja couldn’t see called.

Deja laughed as the meeting started. She’d thought maybe Alejandro would take his arm from her chair, but he didn’t. She turned to him.

“What?” he whispered.

“Are you going to keep your arm around me the whole time?”

He smiled at her. “I can,” he said simply. “I used to think about that, you know?”

“About what?”

“About sitting next to you like this during this long ass meeting.” He scooted his chair closer to hers to accentuate the point. Their thighs pressed together.

She licked her lips and moved her left hand to his thigh, just to let it rest there, to feel him underneath her palm for a second before she turned to her computer and started reading essay drafts. Alejandro kept his arm around her shoulder except when he needed to turn the page of the paperback in his other hand.

It was a surprisingly domestic moment between them, even though they were in the middle of the largest university committee on campus. It should have made Deja nervous or self-conscious, but it didn’t. She thought of Layla’s red face and decided not to look anywhere but at her computer. If she looked and saw that other people had seen them or were watching them, she might push his arm away, and she didn’t want to do that, because she didn’t care what anyone thought of what they looked like right now.

Besides, if any of the other faculty had an issue with them being together, they could waste their summer break dealing with it on their own time.

SUMMER BREAK

Twenty-Nine

“Turn it off,” Deja mumbled into Alejandro’s pillow. She’d been sleeping so well until his alarm started blaring.