She nodded mutely and watched as he stood from the bed. The covers fell from his body, and he didn’t bother to cover his nakedness as he looked around the floor for his sweatpants. She was almost sad to see him dressed, but he looked so sexy with the pants hanging low on his hips and his muscled body covered in a light dusting of dark black hair everywhere. The heat of shame and failure burned away as the desire to touch him washed over her again.

He stopped in the bedroom door and turned back to her. “I don’t think you’re pathetic, by the way.”

“I do,” she shot back.

“Don’t. If you feel the need to run again, just leave a note. Please,” he said quietly and winked at her before leaving the room.

“Fuck, he’s perfect,” she breathed.

“I’m really not,” he called from the hallway with a laugh.

“You heard that?”

“These walls are thin as fuck.”

Deja’s entire body warmed, and she buried her face in the closest pillow.

Alejandro wasn’t just as great as she’d thought; he was better.

Ten

November

“Alright, there’ll be a special faculty meeting to go over the applications for the job candidates. I’m sorry to have to schedule this during finals week, but we really don’t have much time before the semester is over, and we don’t want to do this through email,” Sheila said.

Alejandro didn’t groan, but he sympathized with whichever one of his colleagues had. “That week is a scheduling nightmare,” he said, giving voice to the tension filling the room.

“I know, but it’s either this or ask you all to either stay in town for or video conference in during your winter break.”

“Not an option,” Marcus Ford said to Alejandro’s left. “I’m posting my final grades from the airport, and then it’s a complete technology blackout until two days before spring semester. Marriage retreat. Sasha and I have been looking forward to this all year,” he said with a wide smile on his face.

“Why?” Alejandro asked with a laugh.

Marcus shoved his shoulder playfully.

“I agree. I’ve got a ten-hour drive ahead of me after my last exam. Schedule the meeting, that’s fine with me,” Rachel Bloom said. “As long as I don’t have to postpone my trip home, I’ll agree to anything.”

Even though everyone was annoyed at adding one more meeting to their schedules, this was the best-case scenario. Alejandro nodded at Sheila just as his phone vibrated. It was a reminder for yet another meeting. Normally, he hated days like this, where he had to rush from meeting to meeting with barely enough time to think or breathe, but when he shoved his laptop into his shoulder bag and stood from the conference table, he felt a frisson of excitement shoot up his spine.