Office Hours

by Katrina Jackson

  “See,” he said to her, “this isn’t so bad.”

  “Shut up,” Deja laughed.

  ***

  Two hours later and Deja felt as if she’d stepped into a brand-new world, on a brand-new campus.

  “That’s it?” she asked Alejandro for the third time since they’d stepped onto the elevator after leaving the HR office.

  “That’s it.”

  “But like… how?”

  He turned to her with bunched eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

  “I thought they would like… interrogate us or something. Ask for documentation? Something more than make us sign a bunch of paperwork.”

  “Is HR the CIA now?” he asked, laughing.

  “Shut up,” she said. “That can’t be it. Right?”

  “Do you want an answer, or am I still shutting up?” he asked playfully.

  “Don’t make me go right back up there and tell them we’ve already broken up.”

  Alejandro burst into laughter. He released her hand to wrap his arm around her shoulders. “That’s it. There’s nothing else we need to do. As far as the university’s concerned, they aren’t liable for any mess we make of this relationship. All we have to do is stop getting each other off in your office,” he said, whispering that last sentence into her ear.

  Deja shivered, in good and bad ways, but for the first time in weeks, she didn’t break out in a cold sweat thinking about that door closing.

  “No more,” she said resolutely. “No kissing on campus, either.”

  “What?” Alejandro stopped in his tracks and turned her toward him.

  Deja started laughing. “No one wants to see us making out in Brews! Chill.”

  “Okay, I’m not saying we should make out, but I can, like, kiss you hi or goodbye, right?”

  “No. Use your words.”

  “Deja,” he started.

  “What’s up, friends!” Mike called from across the Oval.

  They turned to see him walking toward them alongside Toni and Marie.

  “Is this a lover’s spat?” Toni yelled.

  “Jesus. We should get new friends,” Alejandro breathed to Deja.

  “Very much agree.”

  “What’s up?” Marie said when they were closer. “Did you meet with HR?”

  Deja nodded.

  “How’d it go?” she asked.

  “It’s just paperwork,” she shrieked.

  Alejandro groaned, shaking his head. “Here we go again.”

  “This is cute,” Toni said, gesturing between them. “I expect more of this to ease the pain of student papers.”

  “We’re not dancing monkeys,” Alejandro said.

  “Sure, about that?” Toni asked. “Anyway, come on, we’re heading to the Provost’s faculty town hall. We’re gonna sit in the back and act like undergrads, but we’re hitting up Brews! first.”

  “You two are coming, right?” Mike asked.

  “Yeah,” Deja said, slipping her right hand into Alejandro’s left.

  He smiled down at her and squeezed.

  “Oye, Profé’s got a girlfriend,” someone yelled from elsewhere on the Oval.

  “Is everybody and their mama out here today?” Deja mumbled, trying to hide her face behind Alejandro’s arm.

  Mike and Marie laughed and started following Toni toward the Union.

  “Mind your business, Tomás,” Alejandro yelled at a cluster of students he recognized from the LSU.

  They laughed in return.

  Deja pushed him to follow their friends. “This is why there’s no kissing on campus.”

  He smiled, “We can discuss it later.”

  She rolled her eyes at him with a smile. She wasn’t exactly back to normal, but in that moment, she felt more like herself than she had in days, especially with him by her side.

  26.

  APRIL

  Deja really needed a coffee. A big one.

  She might have made one at home, except she’d slept at Alejandro’s house last night, and while she’d remembered all the essentials — her satin bonnet, toothbrush, makeup, setting spray, and leave-in conditioner to style her hair — she’d forgotten her favorite coffee. That wouldn’t have been a problem, except Alejandro — this perfect man she’d been dating for five months and nine days, not that she was keeping exact track — only seemed to have two real flaws, he dunked his wings in ranch and he had the worst taste in coffee.

  She wished she had time to run by Brews!, but by the time she realized her mistake, she had ten minutes to get to campus for her office hours and no time to waste. She held onto the faint hope that she’d have time to make a cup of tea before her student arrived. She didn’t.

  “Hi, Amber,” she said as soon as she pulled open the door from the stairwell and saw her student sitting on the ground next to her office door, with a novel in her hand.

  Amber looked up. “Hey, Dr. Evans.”

  “How are you?”

  “Alright. I shouldn’t crash until two, I worked the overnight shift last night.”

  Deja didn’t have favorites among her students, but if she did, it would have been a tie between Jerome and Amber. “Just one more month,” Deja said, pulling her keys from her purse.

  “I know. I can’t wait.” Amber shoved her book into her backpack and stood as Deja unlocked her office door.

  “What’s the first thing you’re going to do after graduation? This’ll be your last summer to do as little as possible before graduate school eats all that up.”

  When Deja turned around, Amber was trying to bite back the smile on her face. Besides Alejandro, the best part of last fall had been writing Amber’s letters of recommendation and editing her graduate school applications only for her to get into every program she’d applied to. Amber was one of the students who somehow managed to hold down a nearly full-time job at a local fast food restaurant, while taking a full load of classes and still excelling in her coursework and holding executive board positions in the BSU and the Asian American Student Union. Of all her advisees, Amber was the only one who preferred email because she just didn’t have time to come into Deja’s office each week when she needed help. Some semesters, Deja only saw her as they rushed past each other around campus or accidentally at the library checkout desk. But next month, she was graduating with the best GPA in the department and having just accepted an offer to attend one of the best Sociology graduate programs in the country.

  “I’m going to sleep,” Amber said, resolutely. “I’m working right up until two days before I move, but every second I’m not working or packing, I’m just going to sleep.”

  Deja smiled, “You deserve it.”

  Amber’s face shifted in a way Deja recognized. “Do you think I’ll be okay out there?”

  The ‘out there’ could mean so many things. Amber had walked into college a first-generation student with a loving family that supported her emotionally but couldn’t help her financially. It was more than some kids had, but the material differences were stark. By the time Deja had arrived and Amber had been assigned as her advisor, she’d learned how to function nearly on her own, unsure of who to ask for help with things like applying for scholarships or graduate schools and too nervous to expose all the things she didn’t know. So, Amber could be asking about the ‘out there’ off-campus, graduate school, or just generally the world.

  Either way, Deja’s answer was the same. “You’re so much better prepared for the next phase of your life than I ever was. I think you’ll be amazing, especially if you learn how to ask for help.”

  Amber smiled, “I’ve been working on that.”

  “Good. Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?”

  “You wish? I have an idea for my master’s thesis. I want to walk into my new program with good ideas.”

  Deja groaned and dropped into her chair.

  Amber grinned. “You really thought I wouldn’t make you advise me right to the end of the road?”

  Deja chuckled warmly. “See?
Very prepared. I really need coffee, how about you?”

  Amber’s eyebrows lifted. “I’ve been up all night, if you’re buying…”

  Deja jumped from her chair and grabbed her purse from her desk. “Gladly. Come on, you can talk my ear off on the way.”

  ***

  Deja’s inbox was clear, and her desk was clean. Well, clean-ish. She was now officially ready to receive the influx of blue books and unstapled essays and last-minute requests for an extension. Okay, her desk and inbox were ready for all those things, she was not, but her desk was an important part of the battle. Now that that was done, she grabbed her laptop and purse, locked her door and headed downstairs.

  For whatever reason, the Sociology floor was the quietest. There were rarely students in the hallway unless Deja was holding office hours. Most of colleagues kept their doors closed, and sometimes it was so quiet up here she could hear a pin drop. Political Science was livelier, especially when Toni’s door was open. But Alejandro’s floor was always bustling.

  Maybe it was because they had the youngest faculty in the building, or because their student outreach was the best in the College. Deja didn’t know, but she did know that her department was equal parts annoyed and jealous of History, and she secretly loved it. She also just loved being on this floor. As soon as she pulled the door from the hallway open, she was shocked at how loud it was.

  Okay, she loved it, but she couldn’t have worked here.

  “Hello, Deja,” Sheila said as she stepped out of the department’s conference room with an iPad in her hand and a smile on her face.

  “Hi, Sheila. How are you?”

  The woman smiled and rolled her eyes. “Counting down now.”

  “Yeah, definitely.”

  “Are you here to see Alejandro?”

  For a second, Deja’s entire body clenched in fear, but then she remembered that there was nothing to hide. Granted, Sheila didn’t need to know all her business, but if she suspected that she and Alejandro were dating, it didn’t matter.

  “Yep,” she said cheerily. “We’ve got a meeting for that outreach committee we’re chairing.”

  “Oh, right. How’s that going?”

  Deja’s stomach turned in knots. “You know,” she said vaguely with a titter of nervous laughter and a head nod.

  Sheila watched her intently for a bit. “Caroline Enwright is on that committee, right?”

  Deja nodded.

  “She can be difficult to work with,” Sheila said.

  Even just hearing her name made Deja feel queasy; difficult was an understatement. “Hmmmm,” she hummed, not exactly sure how to respond. Sheila seemed nice, and Alejandro liked her, but after Deja’s review and tenure files left her department, they went to the College-level committee, and she couldn’t chance that anyone could hold a grudge and work against her. She couldn’t stand Caroline, but she didn’t want anyone besides her close friends to know.

  Sheila’s eyes narrowed, and Deja worried she could see the emotions on Deja’s face. She swallowed uncertainly.

  “Your department has never been great at mentoring,” she said, seemingly out of the blue.

  Deja started to protest — even though Sheila was correct — but Sheila stopped her with a nod.

  “You don’t have to agree. I know. I’ve been here much longer than you. But I’ve heard great things about you from Alejandro, and Toni, and the Dean herself. So, if you ever need some…advice, I’m here.”

  Deja swallowed again. “Th-thanks, Sheila.”

  Sheila brushed her hand through the air. “Please, this is the least I can do. This building used to hold the Men’s Smoking Room.”

  Deja’s eyes widened. “That was real?”

  “Yep. They got rid of it sometime in the early eighties. Sometimes in the summer, I swear I can still smell cigar smoke. Disgusting. So, if I can get as many women in this building to counteract that history, I’ll consider that a win.” She winked at Deja and then walked briskly away.

  Deja watched her go, dumbfounded.

  ***

  Alejandro might not have seen Deja flit past his door except by now he’d become so attuned to just the hint of her that even though he was very focused on the student in front of him, he saw her flit past his cracked door.

  “Give me a second,” Alejandro said, lifting from his chair.

  “No problem.”

  Alejandro was about to head for the door until Deja appeared fully in the doorway, a hand on her hip. She was beautiful, and she was not looking at him.

  “Jerome,” she said, in a tone of voice that shockingly made Alejandro wonder if she’d talk to their kids that way.

  “Oh, what’s up, Doc?” Jerome said with a smile on his face.

  “Boy, what are you doing here?”

  “Just talking to Doctor Mendoza,” Jerome said innocently.

  “About?”

  “Deja,” Alejandro said, but she put a hand up to him as if he wasn’t part of this conversation happening in his office.

  Jerome smiled sheepishly up at her. “Okay, look, Doc, what had happened was…”

  “Boy…” Deja warned.

  Jerome’s big shoulders jumped with mirth. “So, I think I want to double major in History,” he admitted.

  Deja turned to Alejandro with a frown. “So, you’re poaching my best student?” she accused.

  “I’m your best student?” Jerome asked, his voice full of pride and mystification.

  “He came to me,” Alejandro said. “And he said double major.”

  Deja rolled her eyes, “It’s always the ones you l…” Her voice trailed off, and Alejandro leaned toward her, his eyes widening in shock.

  Deja’s eyes widened as well, and she took a step back into the hallway.

  “Never mind,” she said.

  “Deja,” Alejandro said.

  She ignored him and turned to Jerome. “Office hours. Next week.”

  “Doc, please, when do I miss your office hours?” Jerome replied with an adorably petulant roll of his eyes, completely oblivious to what had just almost happened.

  “Deja.”

  “See you at the meeting,” she said and darted down the hallway.

  He wanted to run after her, but that would be very dramatic and very unprofessional. But he gave it serious consideration, nonetheless.

  “So, y’all dating, huh?” Jerome asked.

  Alejandro sighed.

  27.

  Deja rushed down another flight of stairs to Toni’s office. Her door was open, and she peeked inside to see Marie sitting across the desk. She exhaled and slumped into the room without knocking.

  “Hello, please help me.”

  Toni put her hand up. “Marie’s just about to share some news.”

  Deja plopped into the chair next to Marie. “What’s up?”

  Marie’s mouth stretched into a tight smile. “I heard back from the committee.”

  “Holy shit,” Deja breathed. She didn’t know what the news was, but she was ready to picket outside of the Ethnic Studies department in a heartbeat.

  “And I got it.”

  Toni’s office was quiet, and Deja blinked.

  Marie’s eyebrows furrowed as she looked back and forth between them. “Hello.”

  “Can you say that again?” Toni breathed.

  Marie frowned, “I got the job. My job. I’ll be tenure track starting in the fall.”

  There was another delayed moment of quiet before Toni and Deja jumped up from their chairs with squeals and pulled Marie up so they could hug her.

  “God, I hate hugging,” Marie mumbled, but she let them hold her.

  “Congratulations, you downer,” Deja said.

  “You deserve this,” Toni added.

  Marie’s body softened into their holds at those words.

  When they pulled away from each other, Marie’s eyes were rimmed red. “Let’s change the subject.”

  Deja wanted to tell her no, they still had to celebrate, but Toni stopped h
er with a surreptitious squeeze of her arm.

  “So, what do you need help with this time?” Toni said.

  Deja rolled her eyes. “Shut up.”

  “Oh, it’s about Alejandro,” Marie said.

  “Oh my god, shut up.”

  “Girl, just tell us what cute shit he did so we can get to this terrible meeting.”

  “Hey, I’m running the meeting.”

  “Okay,” Toni said. “Do you not know this meeting is about to be terrible?”

  Deja rolled her eyes but didn’t refute her. “I almost told Alejandro I loved him.”

  “Y’all ain’t did that yet?” Toni shrieked, shaking her head. “Pathetic.”

  “We’ve only been dating for a few months.”

  “Girl, so what? That man is fine and none of us is getting younger.

  “Very, and I don’t even like dudes like that,” Marie said.

  “And he doesn’t talk all the damn time,” Toni said, grabbing her laptop from her desk.

  “Mike doesn’t talk that much,” Marie countered.

  “You only think that because you tune him out. When I tell you that man has never met a thought he didn’t want to share…” Toni shooed them out of her office.

  Deja squinted at the back of her head while she locked her door.

  “So y’all aren’t going to help me?” she asked.

  Toni turned around with a frown on her face. “With what? You got a fine boyfriend, all those cliquey white women in the English Department are jealous as hell, and your hair looks great today. Some of us have real problems, Deja Evans.”

  “Yeah,” Marie said with a smile on her face as they walked away.

  “I truly hate both of you so much,” Deja frowned at their retreating backs.

  “You can practice saying you love us, if that’ll help,” Marie said over her shoulder.

  Deja’s mouth fell open in shock as she jogged to catch up with them. “Not even fully on the tenure track and you’re already being an asshole.”

  Their laughter filled the Political Science hallway.

  ***

  Alejandro wasn’t rushing, but he was rushing.

  He’d hoped to get Jerome out of his office early enough to get to the meeting before everyone else and talk to Deja, but when he rushed into the conference room, he deflated. He was the last one there.