Page 9 of Learning Curves

By the following Thursday, Audrey had come up with a plan to solve one of her work problems. She’d had enough of the awkwardness and avoidance with Dr. Thompson, and so, she was launching what she called a “friendship offensive.” She was going to do everything in her power to smooth things out with the grumpy woman across the hall, starting with today’s Sustainability Committee meeting.

Audrey had positioned her chair so she could see the doorway to Dr. Thompson’s office.

If she tried to sneak out like she had last week, Audrey was ready to rush out and join her.

Otherwise, Audrey planned to leave a few minutes early so she could stop at Dr. Thompson’s office and invite her to walk together.

Surely, Dr. Thompson wasn’t rude enough to outright refuse to walk over together, not when Audrey was prepared to be persuasive as hell.

She was going to keep up her friendship offensive until Dr. Thompson either warmed to her or told Audrey to fuck off altogether.

But she really, really hoped for the first outcome.

The meeting was scheduled to start at five, and they had about a seven-minute walk across the campus. Last week, Dr. Thompson had left her office at 4:50, but Audrey thought she might want to head over a bit earlier today since she was speaking at the meeting.

Audrey had bought a snack tray from the grocery store to satisfy Dr. Folchuk’s request for her to provide refreshments.

It was what any of the men probably would have done.

That or ask their wives to make something.

This would do for today, and if she was asked again, well .

.. she’d cross that bridge when she got to it.

She hated to say no and risk making enemies, but to keep saying yes? That didn’t sit right either.

Promptly at 4:45, Audrey picked up her satchel and the bag containing the snack tray, and crossed the hall.

Dr. Thompson was wearing royal blue today, a color that flattered her fair complexion and dark hair, and she had a teacup in hand.

Audrey had come to realize that Dr. Thompson was never without tea, at least not while she was working in her office.

“Hi,” Audrey said as she leaned against the doorway to Dr. Thompson’s office. “Want to walk to the committee meeting together?”

Dr. Thompson looked up. She’d always had the most expressive eyes. They were a warm whisky brown and brimming with emotion. When she’d taught Audrey, those eyes had danced with excitement about her favorite artists. Lately, they seemed to radiate her displeasure with the world around her.

Right now, those eyes had narrowed slightly as she regarded Audrey with thinly veiled annoyance.

For the first time, Audrey considered the possibility that her mission might end in failure.

Dr. Thompson might actually tell her to fuck off, and Audrey hadn’t properly prepared herself for how much that would hurt.

After a pause that lingered entirely too long, Dr. Thompson nodded. “Yes, that’s fine.”

Audrey gave herself an internal high five. Her friendship offensive had officially commenced.

Michelle stood, smoothing a hand over the front of her trousers to remove the wrinkles. As she began to pack up, her bladder reminded her of how much tea she’d consumed while finalizing her presentation on power conservation for the Sustainability Committee.

Speaking before a room of her peers always made her anxious, a fact she’d never been able to rationalize since she regularly spoke in front of lecture halls full of students. Kelly had ridiculed her about it to the point that Michelle stopped mentioning her nerves, preferring to suffer in silence.

She certainly couldn’t share her nervousness with Audrey, which meant Michelle would have to walk across campus with her while pretending to be at ease.

She held in a sigh as she tucked her laptop into her briefcase and shrugged into the blue blazer that matched her pants.

“I just need to stop at the ladies’ room on the way out. ”

“Oh, good idea,” Audrey said. “Are the meetings always as long as the one last week?”

“Yes,” Michelle told her, keeping her opinion on that to herself. Most campus meetings could be accomplished in half the time if people planned ahead and were concise with their points. Better yet, they could be held over Zoom from the comfort of their homes.

She led the way out of her office, locking the door behind them, and headed downstairs toward the restroom in the lobby, only to find it closed for cleaning. It wasn’t uncommon this close to the end of the day, but it was extremely inconvenient at this particular moment.

“Damn,” Audrey said.

“It’s fine. We can stop at the restrooms in Sierra Hall.” Even if she wasn’t looking forward to a walk across campus in her current level of discomfort. Her full bladder combined with her nerves about the presentation made her snippy and impatient, a terrible combination.

Michelle led the way out into the cool, drizzly evening. She pulled her umbrella out of her briefcase and shook it open, glad her pantsuit had allowed her to forgo heels today in favor of more sensible shoes.

Beside her, Audrey shuffled her bags to get out her own umbrella, drawing Michelle’s attention to the large shopping bag in her left hand.

“Please don’t tell me you let them rope you into providing refreshments.” She knew she’d failed to keep the disapproval out of her tone. Maybe she hadn’t even tried to hide it.

Audrey ducked her head. “Dr. Folchuk asked me after the meeting last week.”

“If he asks you again, you must say no. Don’t let him give you domestic chores he would never ask of your male coworkers.”

Audrey flinched. “I hoped ... well, I had hoped he asked me because I have the least seniority, not because I’m a woman. It’s just store-bought stuff, so maybe he won’t ask again.” She held the bag up somewhat apologetically.

“He will ask as long as you continue to say yes.”

Audrey was quiet for several seconds, keeping her gaze on her shoes as she navigated puddles on the sidewalk.

Michelle could already feel the hem of her pants getting wet, and she wished more than anything that she could reverse direction, get in her car, and go straight home.

This meeting was going to be so long and irritating.

She believed in the mission of the committee and would love to see NU take meaningful steps to improve sustainability, but she’d attended enough of these meetings to know that little would ever come of the measures she proposed. The university’s bottom line came first, always.

“I wanted to make a good impression,” Audrey said finally. “It’s hard to say no. Ugh. I’m so annoyed that he put me in this situation in the first place.”

“I understand, but you also want him to respect you, to see you as a peer. Brad Folchuk has a secretary. You are a professor, and please don’t let him forget that.”

Audrey gulped. “Yeah. Okay.”

They lapsed back into silence, and Michelle had no idea how to get the conversation going again. Had she hurt Audrey’s feelings? She’d only meant to offer advice, but sometimes she came off harsher than she intended ... or so she’d been told.

Before she could salvage the situation, they reached the entrance to Sierra Hall.

Audrey held the door for her, and they lingered in the entranceway for a few moments to shake off their umbrellas and put them away.

Luckily, the rain had been light enough that she felt mostly dry, except for her ankles.

She didn’t know how to read Audrey’s mood right now, though. Lord help her if she’d inadvertently made things between them even more strained. No one was better at fucking up Michelle’s life than Michelle herself.

Wordlessly, they headed down the hall toward the meeting room .

.. and the restrooms. Thank god . Michelle walked faster, putting on her most intimidating expression in hopes of making it past the group of committee members lingering in the hallway between her and her destination without someone attempting to stop her.

But almost immediately, she saw the out of order sign on the door to the ladies’ room. Michelle nearly whimpered. The notice indicated that maintenance expected to have the problem fixed by six p.m. An hour from now. The very idea of giving a presentation when she had to pee this badly ...

“I’ll cover for you,” Audrey offered, perhaps having noticed her distress. “I could tell them you’re on an important call that’s made you a few minutes late if you want to run next door to the student center and use the bathroom there.”

As tempting as that was, she couldn’t be late to her own presentation.

And she was overwhelmed with embarrassment over Audrey knowing about her predicament.

There was only one way to save face. Michelle pushed aside her discomfort.

“That’s not necessary. I only wanted to touch up my lipstick since I’m presenting. ”

Audrey looked vaguely confused. “Oh, okay.”

Without another word, Michelle turned and strode into the conference room.