Joie de Vivre

by Micheala Lynn

  Chapter Six

  Lisa walked through her front door to be bowled over by her cat. As she put down her keys, Breslin wrapped his body around and around her legs. She sat down quickly before he could trip her and slipped out of her shoes. Breslin plopped down on his haunches, stared up at her with his big eyes and let out a loud, howling meow. Lisa laughed and bent down to scratch him behind the ears. “What, did you miss me big boy?”

  To answer her question he let out another long meow and jumped into her lap. As Lisa stood, Breslin snuggled into her arms, his front feet over her shoulder, and began to purr, nuzzling his nose against her neck.

  “Wow, you did miss me.” Lisa patted him as she walked into the kitchen. Then she noticed his empty dish. “Oh, let me guess. You’re not glad I’m home—you just want food.”

  Breslin squirmed in her arms, clearly wanting down. The moment his feet touched the floor he turned around and let out his loudest howl yet, a meow to beat all meows.

  Lisa dug out a scoop of food and poured it into his dish. “There you go. Happy now?” She stroked him on the head as he jammed it into his dish, gulping voraciously and purring so loudly he sounded like a diesel truck in her kitchen. Satisfied her cat was happy, she made her way up the hall toward her bedroom.

  It would feel good to slip into her silk lounge pants and cami, maybe even pour a glass of wine and put on some soft jazz, not that she hadn’t had a great time this weekend with Riley. Going on that dig had been remarkable. Never be afraid to throw yourself into something and get your hands dirty. Throw herself into it she had. And then there was after. From the heated, intense passion of Saturday night to the slow, relaxed lovemaking of the lazy Sunday afternoon, she still wasn’t sure what to make of it all. Most of it still felt like a dream, which was why as much as she would have loved to stay for the rest of the evening, she really needed some time to herself to process everything before the crazy workweek started up again. Or if nothing else, at least try to wind down and clear her head.

  She hooked her thumbs under her shirt and peeled it over her head just as the doorbell sounded. Now topless, she had no choice but to tug her shirt back over her head and race down the hall. The doorbell rang again, this time without letting up. “I’m coming, I’m coming.” Whoever it was, it had better be important. She slid to a stop in front of the door and yanked it open to find a very harried-looking Caroline on her doorstep.

  “Thank God, Lisa, there you are. I’ve been trying to get hold of you all weekend.” The words all tumbled out, nearly an incoherent jumble.

  Lisa’s chest tightened. “What? What’s wrong? Did something happen to Susan?” A hundred different scenarios flooded her mind, each escalating in severity.

  Caroline stared at her wide-eyed. “No, Lisa, nothing like that. I’ve been worried about you. You were supposed to come over to our place last night to brainstorm ideas for the school Halloween party coming up. Remember?”

  Lisa slapped her forehead. “I’m so sorry, Caroline. It completely slipped my mind.” How could she have forgotten? Actually she knew exactly how, not that she was going to just blurt out that little tidbit of information—kiss and tell and all that.

  Caroline calmed. “I tried calling you on your cell all night and all today. Where were you?”

  “I’m sorry, I left it in my car.” Lisa cringed. It seemed like the only thing she could do was apologize.

  “I called your house too and couldn’t get you. I even swung by. Where on earth have you been?”

  This was going to take a little more explanation than a short conversation on her front porch, so she stepped back and waved Caroline in. “You might as well come on in, Caroline. This is going to take a bit.”

  Looking perplexed, Caroline followed her into the living room and flopped down on the opposite end of the couch.

  Lisa took a deep breath. She knew Caroline was only being protective and she loved her for that. Caroline had taken it upon herself to be her protector. She took another deep breath. “Riley invited me on a dig yesterday morning.”

  “It couldn’t have lasted all day, could it? So, where else have you been?” Caroline’s eyebrows were beginning to narrow.

  “Well…” She didn’t quite meet Caroline’s eyes. “I’ve been with Riley.”

  “What? All night?” Now, Caroline’s voice was beginning to rise.

  “Well…yeah.” What more could she say?

  Caroline sprang from the couch so quickly that Lisa gasped. Breslin scurried from the room, looking for cover. Caroline whirled around on her heel. “That damn Riley! I can’t believe she did this. Susan even told her that you weren’t…that you…that…” She couldn’t seem to finish her thought as she stomped across the room.

  If Caroline hadn’t been so serious, it would have been funny. She was now in a towering rage. “Whoa, whoa, Caroline. Riley didn’t do anything.”

  “How can you say that?” Caroline stared at her aghast. “She…she…she seduced you.”

  Lisa burst out laughing. “She seduced me?”

  “Yes, she seduced you. And after all you’ve been through.”

  Still laughing, she shook her head. “Caroline, seriously, you’ve got it all wrong. Riley didn’t seduce me. If you must know, I seduced her.”

  Caroline froze, her mouth gaping. “Wha…what?”

  “Caroline, come on over here.” She patted the couch beside her and waited for Caroline to sit, her mouth still hanging wide open. She took Caroline by the hand. “Believe me, this was my doing. Riley didn’t make the first move, I did.”

  “But how?”

  Lisa bit back a retort. Caroline should know full well how. Still, her best friend deserved an explanation. “Well, yesterday I went on a dig with Riley—it was this huge mud pit. I didn’t even make it two steps and down I went…”

  Caroline sat dumbfounded as she recounted the story. The only time she interrupted was when she mentioned number twenty-two on her list.

  “I can’t believe you told Riley about your Anti-Bucket list.” Caroline spoke with her hands over her mouth.

  “Besides you and Susan, she’s the only one I’ve ever shared it with.”

  “Wow.” The word was no more than a whisper.

  When she got to the scene in Riley’s bathroom where she dropped her towel, she faltered, her cheeks suddenly flaring deep red. “And then…well…you know…” She shrugged her shoulders. Even thinking about it now, she could feel her body starting to respond.

  Caroline seemed to have lost the ability to blink.

  “All I can say is it was amazing. We’re talking unbelievably passionate and sensual.”

  Caroline finally snapped out of her trance. “This is Riley we’re talking about, right?”

  “Yes, this is Riley we’re talking about. There is a lot more to her than meets the eye.”

  “Wow, I guess.” Caroline bit her lip, continuing to stare hard at her. “I know I’ve been telling you forever you should get out, meet people, have fun, but this…this seems awful fast.” She then swallowed, her eyes beginning to water. “I just love you and don’t want to see you get hurt.”

  If she ever wondered how much her best friend cared about her, just hearing that proved it completely. She fought back her own tears. “Thanks Caroline. I’ll be okay. I just need some time to process everything.”

  “Okay sweetie but if you need anything…”

  “You’ll be the first I’ll call.”

  Long after Caroline had left, Lisa sat on the edge of her bed, staring off into space, trying to absorb all that happened over the weekend. Most of it seemed like a dream. Sharing everything with Caroline had a surreal quality. Yet as good as it had been, was Caroline right? Had it perhaps been too fast? She turned to the photograph propped up on her nightstand—the last photograph taken of Jessie before her diagnosis. As she picked up the photo and held it in her hands, she felt that sudden familiar pain stab through her heart once again. She ran her thumb slowly along the edge of J
essie’s image, the tears that had threatened earlier now flowing freely. “Oh Jessie, I miss you so much. What should I do?” And as her chest hitched with the first sob she clutched the photo to her breasts in a tight embrace.

  * * *

  “Wakie, wakie, doc. I’ve got java.” Carrying two tall cups of coffee, Grace strutted through the door.

  “Oh thank God, Grace. You’re a lifesaver.” Riley grabbed a cup from Grace’s hand. “Mmmmm, oh my, that’s good.”

  “Whoa, slow down, doc.” Grace stared on, her eyes wide. “You’re going to get the collywobbles faster than a frat brat milking a barley binge.”

  Riley choked on her coffee. “A what?” She held up a hand. “No, scratch that. I don’t want to know. It’s too early on a Monday morning and I’m too tired to figure that out.”

  Grace pulled out a chair and flopped down, completely unfazed by Riley’s comment. She kicked up her bare feet, a fashion statement much to the dismay of the department Chair. But it was quintessential Grace. Today she was sporting a long rainbow tie-dyed hippie skirt and a formfitting scoop-neck burgundy T-shirt that showed off her blessings. And to top it off she had tied her dreads back with a tie-dyed bandana color-coordinated to her skirt. She took a tentative sip from her coffee and eyed Riley over her cup. “Forgive me for saying so, doc, but you look pretty wrecked. Didn’t you get enough winks?”

  She probably hadn’t had more than four hours of sleep on Saturday with Lisa there. And then she’d spent a big portion of last night reflecting on all that happened over the weekend. But now today she was paying for it. “You’re right, I didn’t get nearly enough sleep.” At least it wasn’t from nightmares this time.

  “Geez doc, I would’ve thought after Saturday you would’ve gone home and crashed. I know I did. It was all I could do to shed clothes, scour in the shower and dive under the duvet.”

  Riley hid her smile behind her coffee cup. Getting out of her clothes had not been the problem. Getting back into them, that was another story. And then the shower, what could she say? They had given everything a thorough scouring, that was for sure. It wasn’t until she noticed Grace staring at her, lines on her forehead deeply creased, that she realized how much she had been lost in her thoughts. “Ah…yeah I agree.” She wasn’t sure what she was really agreeing to, but it sounded good.

  “And that friend of yours, doc, I bet she—” Grace cut off, her eyebrows shooting up. “Wait a minute, no wonder you didn’t get any sleep.” She gave her a patented Grace gregarious grin.

  Riley leaned back and rolled her eyes. Grace had never learned the concept of boundaries. If it had been anyone else… But a knock on the door saved her before she could respond.

  “Dr. Riley, I’ve got a message for you.” Jenny, one of the undergrad assistants who worked in the office, inched her way in. “Dean Stevenson would like to see you in her office at your earliest convenience.” As quickly as she delivered the message, she was gone.

  Maybe she wasn’t being saved after all. One thing she had learned during her tenure as an academic, anytime a Dean wanted to see you at your earliest convenience—a.k.a. right now—it didn’t bode well.

  “What was that about, doc?”

  “I don’t know, but it can’t be good.” She slowly stood and set her half-finished coffee on her desk. She gathered her notes for her ten o’clock lecture and slid them across her desk. “I’m not sure how long this is going to take, Grace, so can you cover my class?”

  “Yeah, yeah, sure, no problem.”

  “Great, thanks.” She smoothed her shirt and took a deep breath before walking to the door.

  Grace called from behind her. “Good luck, doc.”

  Somehow she had a feeling she was going to need it. Her Monday morning was quickly going downhill. She walked out the front doors and set off across campus. The leaves were just starting to turn. Any other time, a stroll in the early autumn might have been relaxing. She had offered to give Lisa a personal fall color tour through campus. Just the thought of it brought a smile to her lips as she cut across Benefactors Plaza.

  She wondered what Dean Stevenson wanted at such short notice. It was too early in the term to really piss off a student. That usually came much later, say after final exams and from a student who never showed up to class. And it couldn’t have anything to do with the mastodon dig on Saturday. As far as she was concerned that had been a raging success.

  She took the steps leading up to Berkey Hall two at a time and yanked open one of the heavy wooden doors, then bustled down the hall to Dean Stevenson’s office where she knocked on the half-open door.

  “Come on in.”

  She stepped through to find not only Dr. Sharon Stevenson, Dean of the College of Social Science, but also Dr. William Hastings, the Chair of the Anthropology Department. Riley’s Monday went from bad to worse. “Good morning, Sharon…” She nodded to her. “Bill…” Again, another nod. “What’s this all about?”

  Sharon pointed briskly to the empty chair in front of her desk. She steepled her long fingers in front of her face, unblinking. With her sharp jawline and intense stare, Sharon looked more like a hawk zeroing in on its prey than a college administrator. “Have a seat, Kate.” Only the Dean could get away with calling her by her first name. “We got ourselves a bit of an issue.”

  Riley slipped into the chair, glancing at Bill out of the corner of her eye. From what she could tell he didn’t look upset. Concerned, yes. She raised her eyebrows. “So?”

  Bill leaned forward, fiddling with his thick Einstein-like mustache. “Riley, do you remember a student from last term named Joshua Evans?”

  Riley sat for a second before straightening in her seat. “Of course I remember him. I failed him in my Human Osteology class for cheating.”

  Bill continued to play with his mustache, not meeting her gaze. “Well, it appears as if…there’s a situation…things being as they are—”

  “You’re being sued.” Sharon cut across him in her no-nonsense way. “You, Bill, Grace Krege, me, the college—we are all being sued.”

  It took her almost a full minute for it to fully sink in. Sued? Why? Then her confusion gave way to a bubbling anger. “I’m being sued! What the hell for?”

  Sharon smiled, her hands flat on her desk. “Apparently, this Mr. Evans is claiming that you discriminated against him because he’s a man when you failed him, thereby destroying any chances of getting into the grad program, and you also give preferential treatment to women especially…how’s he put it?” She glanced down at the paper on her desk, reading a couple lines before continuing. “Oh yeah, here it is—especially women of a moral perversion.”

  This was too much. If it weren’t so serious, she’d think it laughable. “What the hell does he mean women of a moral perversion?” She had a pretty good idea.

  “Mr. Evans is alleging that since you’re a lesbian, you show favoritism toward other lesbians, and here I’m assuming he’s talking about Grace Krege.” Sharon now gave a wry smile.

  “You have got to be kidding me.” Riley was fighting hard not to explode. “Since when does my sexual orientation have to do with anything? It’s not as if I parade it around the classroom. And as for Grace…”

  Bill now leaned forward and cleared his throat. “As you know, Riley, Ms. Krege doesn’t exactly hide the fact that—”

  “Don’t even go there, Bill.” Riley stared him down until he looked away. “Grace Krege is the most brilliant PhD student I have ever had. She could have gone to any school in the country but she chose here. She is a genius, if not a bit eccentric. And since when has someone’s sexual orientation been an issue at this college?”

  “I quite agree.” Sharon shot Bill a stern glance. “Kate’s sexual preference or even that of Ms. Krege’s is not the issue here. This is some sort of harebrained reverse discrimination lawsuit and we’re here to get to the bottom of it.”

  Looking quite contrite, Bill went back to his mustache. “What I don’t get is what lawyer would
even take a case like this in this day and age? It all sounds pretty weak.”

  Riley rubbed her thumb hard into her temple. Her head was beginning to pound. “I think I can answer that. Joshua Evans has been in college for over ten years but he was still only a senior. He has bounced from college to college. Anyhow, I remember him bragging up in class how his girlfriend was a lawyer, just passed the bar, so no one had better mess with him. That’s the type of guy we’re talking about.”

  “I’m beginning to get the picture.” Sharon pulled a scratchpad in front of her. “Why don’t you start at the beginning, Kate. I want to know everything you can tell me about Mr. Evans.”

  Riley took a deep breath—this was going to be a long day—and began. “I had Joshua in my three-hundred level Human Osteology class spring term. Right from the beginning he was trouble, always thought he knew everything. He’s the type that watches a couple episodes of CSI and now he’s an expert.”

  Bill was nodding his head. “I did get several complaints from other professors about Mr. Evans. Jan Hoople even kicked him out of Cultural Anthropology for making racist remarks. But my question is why did he zero in on you, Riley?”

  Sharon raised her eyebrows. “It is a good question. Do you have any ideas why that might be, Kate?”

  “Well, it might have something to do with the lecture I gave him when he shot his mouth off in class about how all lesbians just wanted to be a man like him.” Riley rolled her eyes. “Then he had a run-in with Grace after an Anthropology Club meeting one night. Apparently, he was saying something along the lines of one night with him would turn any lesbian straight. From what I heard, Grace tore him a new one.” She laughed. Not that anything about this was funny, but she would have given anything to see Grace in all her glory ripping that little pompous ass apart. Hell hath no fury like a mad scientist scorned and all that.