There was a knock on the door, startling Ani and sending her heart rate even higher.
Tan responded, said, “Not now” to whoever it was and closed the door again. “I have an appointment with the dean in fifteen minutes. I’ll deliver those letters signed or unsigned. It’s up to you.”
Another woman might have flounced into the chair, but Monica coolly returned to her seat and pulled the letters toward her. “Dean Malmoat, School of blah blah blah, dear Dean, blah blah blah,” she read. “In the matter of the missing Kenbrink notebook, I acted with poor judgment regarding the facts of the matter, and allowed one of my graduate students to take unnecessary blame in that affair. I accept responsibility for my actions, and ask you to place this letter in my permanent file, for the eyes of disciplinary and advancement review committees only.” She looked up at Tan. “How very big of me, to make sure the powers that be are watching me more closely in the future.”
“I doubt that will limit you in any substantial way. Now the other one.”
Ani couldn’t believe how calm Tan was. Her heart was pounding so loudly she had to strain to hear. It was like watching a standoff at the UN.
“Dean Malmoat, blah blah blah all over again, members of the admissions committee, and so forth.” Monica sighed. “In the matter of graduate student Anidyr Bycall, new evidence clears her of involvement in the destruction or loss of the Kenbrink notes. As such, I ask you to reinstate the record of her first year of work. Should she wish to apply to finish her doctoral program, I further request her scholarship be reinstated and she be assigned to a different advisor.”
The room was now so still that Ani could hear the footsteps of people in the hallway beyond the closed door.
Without looking at either of them, Monica picked up her own pen and signed all three documents. Tan scooped up the folder and tucked it under her arm. Ani gave her back the notebook.
“Thank you,” Tan said.
“That’s it?” Monica’s gaze was on the pen she’d set down on her desk blotter.
“Should there be more?”
Monica lifted her gaze then, going directly to Ani. Bizarrely, there was a hint of betrayal in her look, as if Ani had played traitor to something she didn’t understand. “Don’t you even want to know what happened?”
Tan lifted her chin slightly. “It doesn’t change anything. It wasn’t yours. You had it. You didn’t say you had it, and you let someone else take the blame for the theft and destruction.”
“I thought more ice would come down on him. The notebook was open, under layers of slush and ice. I thought the notes would be ruined. I took them, made sure they were safe, and then the wall came down on me. I was lucky to get myself out alive. I knew no one would believe me—and you just proved my theory.”
“I’d have believed you,” Ani said. “Your students would have believed you.”
“I would have believed you, too.” Tan turned to the door.
“I tried to make it up to Ani. I got her a great job, if she’d only been bright enough to get in touch again.”
Wow, Ani thought. Everything is someone else’s shortcomings.
“I helped out Eve, too.”
Ani didn’t say anything about Eve’s friend Bennie, who was going to be buying Monica out of the Dragonfly. There was no point.
“Do you believe me now?” There was nothing plaintive in Monica’s expression, nothing of regret or remorse.
“I believe there’s a truth you still haven’t told, and you never will tell it because it’s not in your nature.” Ani looked back from the now open door. She’d never felt tall in Monica’s office, but today she did. “We all had faith in you. But your lack of faith in us was a real problem.”
As she and Tan walked toward the dean’s office, she asked, “Did my father really dig your car out of a snowbank?”
“Sure. But that’s not why I’m doing this.”
“You’re just doing your job.”
“Yes, and Lisa wouldn’t give me peace any other way.”
“I have to say I’m glad to hear that keeping peace with Lisa matters to you. It’s the only way to survive her.”
“I’m not a fool.”
Ani smiled and felt far less nervous than she had a few minutes ago. After facing down Professor Tyndell’s calculated deceits, a mere dean was nothing. She wasn’t sure if she’d reenroll. However, if the scholarship were put back on the table—and Tan wasn’t sure that was possible after three years—she would seriously consider it.
Lisa had asked her, on that long flight, what she wanted to be when she grew up. She’d said a glacial geologist—she wasn’t so sure now. She didn’t want to turn into Monica Tyndell. But she didn’t want her father’s lack of choices. So she was going to consider her options, talk it over with the most important person in her life, and then decide.
The Bycalls weren’t fools. They knew to come in out of sub-freezing temperatures. She’d learned her lesson. Talking through her future with Eve was the most important part of making sure they had a future together.
* * *
“Tan must be short for something.” Lisa was trying to make small talk as they stood next to the rental car parked in front of the Dragonfly. Her coat was on the car seat and she had returned to her clinging tank top and sweater-around-the-shoulders attire. It seemed to Ani that Tan wasn’t trying to hide that she really enjoyed the way Lisa was shaped, and that was as it should be.
Eve had made them a last meal together, just after closing, of shepherd’s pie and strawberry-apple-rhubarb cobbler. Ani and Lisa had to leave now to be comfortably sure of making their first flight to Seattle. Ani wasn’t looking forward to the red-eye into Atlanta. She wasn’t looking forward to any of it.
“It is.” Tan looked funereal, though she tried to smile. “Attankat.”
“Oh. I think I prefer Kat.”
Tan gave her a sideways look. “Only in private.”
“Okay, but you can’t ever call me Myra.”
“Why would I call you Myra?”
“It’s my name, silly. You promise you’ll come visit?”
“Yes, silly.”
Ani squeezed Eve’s hands. “I promise, I’ll be back. I’ll be back as soon as I pack up my stuff, close my accounts and can book another flight.”
“I’ll miss you every minute.” Eve had taken off her chef’s smock and Ani didn’t think she’d ever tire of seeing her in that shade of aqua with her bright yellow hair. It was her favorite, next to au naturel.
The last four days had been exhilarating. Any administrative decision from GlacierPort would be slow in coming, and it had been healing to Ani to relax and play. They’d quit the motel, Lisa staying with Tan, and Ani feeling as if she’d moved in, finally, with Eve. Her boxes were back in Eve’s garage, and her photos back on the dresser. Tonk was there to slurp her toes in the shower, and she had made Eve dessert in bed, every night. Sometimes, as it had in the past, dessert had even included food.
The problem was, she’d promised Eve she would never leave her, and now she was. “I’m coming back,” she said again.
Tan was kissing Lisa as if she hadn’t just done so thirty seconds earlier. Ani wanted to cry too much to pucker up properly. Eve’s eyes, the exact color of today’s summer sky, were shimmering with unshed tears.
She wasn’t sure how she got into the driver’s seat. She dashed away her tears. Eve was all blues and greens in the rearview mirror.
She started the engine, pulled away from the curb. Slammed on the brakes.
Lisa clutched the dashboard. “Damn it, Ani! What was that for?”
Ani backed up, killed the engine, got out and marched around to where Tan was still standing next to Eve. “Okay, I don’t feel like being a brave little soldier right now. I’ve discovered if you don’t ask people for things, you won’t get anything, so I’m asking. How would you like a free trip to Key West? You have to leave now, and you have pack up a bunch of crap when you get there and ship it here.” There were a dozen bar
tenders who would jump at her job. Tan would love eighteen hours sitting next to Lisa. They’d probably join the Mile High Club or something. Regardless, neither of them would notice the airless, stuffy plane.
Lisa got out of the SUV, looking too scared of disappointment to say anything.
Ani continued, “I can close my bank accounts by phone or Internet or something, can’t I? Call my landlady and tell her to give you my deposit—like there’ll be anything back from her. Give stuff that’s too useless to ship to my neighbor Shiwan, she can use kitchen stuff, and—”
“Tell you what.” Tan put her hands on Ani’s shoulders. “Get yourself a goshdarned cell phone and we’ll talk it over when I get there.”
Lisa made a little noise and burst into tears.
“Honey.” Tan went to her, pulling her close. “I wasn’t lying. I was going to visit soon as I could. Apparently, that would be right now, because I was about to chase the car when Ani stopped.”
“So was I,” Eve said. She slipped her hand into Ani’s. There were still tears, but Eve’s brilliant smile was all that mattered to Ani.
“Can you drive this thing?” Tan pulled back to look into Lisa’s eyes. “I have to make some phone calls along the way.”
Lisa regained her composure. “Of course I can.” She held out a hand, palm up to Ani.
Ani gave her the keys. She had a feeling that Tan might not be alone when she came back. Alaska had as many bars as there were roads to lead to them, and Lisa would find work easily, one way or another. If that wasn’t how it worked out, then she was also willing to bet Tan might find a university in a warmer climate that wanted a highly skilled administrative miracle worker. Either way, they were going to be happy because neither believed obstacles could ever be insurmountable. They were the same, on the inside.
Lisa kissed Tan on the lips and said, “Let’s blow this popsicle stand.”
* * *
Ani stirred to find Eve snuggled in her arms. She blinked in the late evening light—not quite sunset. After eleven, maybe.
Eve stirred. “Hey, sleepyhead. I wondered when you’d wake up.”
“You wore me out.”
“Good.”
Ani felt a certain gnawing in her stomach. “Snack time?”
There was a clatter from Tonk’s collar.
“The both of you—I swear.” Eve swung her legs over the edge of the bed. “It’s a little chillier tonight. Put on something warm.” She disappeared into the bathroom.
“Okay.” Ani found a pair of sweats. Sitting on the porch might be nice, with hot cocoa. There had been no phone call, so she presumed Tan and Lisa were on their way to Seattle by now.
She and Eve traded places in the bathroom. She frowned at her reflection—her hair was having its own fun, which it often did after a nap. She fussed at it a little bit because Eve was worth the fuss.
By the time she got to the kitchen, Eve handed her the little picnic basket, Tonk’s gaze following its transfer. Ani grinned and got her boots.
After Eve parked the van, Tonk eagerly loped ahead of them, having forgotten, for now, that the contents of the basket could prove delicious for him as well. Ani had an insulated tarp slung over her shoulder.
They settled on the glacier with the two people on one half of the tarp, and Tonk happily splayed out on the other half. Snacks were produced, and Ani’s stomach was content.
“Thank you.” She pulled Eve into the circle of her arms. The lights were coming up green and gold and pink, with even a hint of orange—quite a show. “I love how romantic you are.”
“Good. I thought this was better than my other plan.”
“Which was?”
“Make you into a soup and mop you up with a slice of bread.”
“You are such a chef.” Ani was fairly certain she could live with food metaphors for the rest of her life.
Eve snuggled closer. The lights danced over them as Ani rested her chin on the top of Eve’s head. Midnight on a glacier with the woman she loved—it was magic. It was hers to keep. She was home to stay.
Sometime later, Eve said, “Okay, I’m getting cold and stiff.” She moved out of Ani’s arms, and opened the picnic basket. “Time to warm up.”
Ani expected another thermos with something hot to drink, but instead it was a little music player with a tiny speaker. Eve pressed a button, and the sound of Chubby Checker’s “The Twist” spilled over the ice, inviting them to go round and round.
Eve got to her feet, then looked down at Ani. Her face was glowing with pinks and yellows, her mouth curved in a loving smile. She held out a hand. “Dance with me?”
“Yes,” Ani said.
THE END
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