Michelle shrugged. “Tenure isn’t bulletproof. You won’t get far if you make enemies within your own department, especially enemies in positions of power. Besides, I had my eye on a different class ...” She stopped herself just in time.
“What class?” Audrey sat across from her, still staring intently at Michelle.
“It doesn’t matter.” She would never admit to Audrey that Stuart had given her Michelle’s class. “My point is that we don’t have total autonomy here. Stuart decides which classes get taught and how we teach them. I’ve tried—lord knows I’ve tried—to make a difference. Campus politics are exhausting. Stay here long enough, and you’ll see.”
“That’s just ... depressing.” Audrey deflated in her seat.
“Maybe it will be different for you.”
“But I don’t want opportunities you were denied,” Audrey whispered. “That’s not fair.”
“You already have them, but please, take them and succeed ... and now let’spleasechange the subject.” Because being examined this carefully made Michelle want to crawl out of her own skin, especially when it was done by someone she was uncomfortably attracted to, someone whose company she enjoyed far more than she had any explanation for.
“Okay,” Audrey murmured, and maybe she’d read Michelle’s discomfort the way she was uncannily good at, because she indeed changed the subject. “About these pages ... some of it feels almost conversational, like Eliza might start telling her story directly to the reader. Have you considered writing in that style? Like historical fiction? Because I think you’d be amazing at it.”
Michelle stared at her, eyes slightly squinted as she tried to envision what Audrey was suggesting. “Like a novel? With dialogue and all that?”
“Exactly like that. What do you think?”
“I don’t know,” Michelle admitted. “I’ve never written in that style before. I’d have no idea where to even start.”
“It’s just an idea.”
“Historical fiction—anovel—wouldn’t count toward my publication goal for the university the way an academic text would.” In essence, she’d be making more work for herself, which was the last thing she needed right now.
Audrey slumped even more in her seat. “You’re right. I didn’t think of that.”
“It’s something to consider.” Because while Michelle wanted to dismiss Audrey’s suggestion as ridiculous, she also felt the unmistakable stirrings of curiosity. The idea intrigued her.
It would be entirely different from anything she’d ever done before, but wasn’t that the whole point of this project? She was doing this for herself because she enjoyed it, and the more she thought about it, the idea of getting inside Eliza’s head and giving her a voice ...
It sounded like more fun than anything she’d done in years.
Chapter Ten
Audrey was in good spirits as she entered Holman Hall on Wednesday afternoon. The first professional article she’d written since joining NU, a look at pottery’s impact on human civilization throughout history, had just been accepted for publication by one of her favorite academic journals, and it had totally made her day.
She had just enough time to stop by her office and drop off a few things before she and Michelle would be heading out to their first Halloween-party planning meeting with the Pride Coalition. The fact that she was now ontwocommittees with Michelle was pretty much the icing on the cake as far as Audrey was concerned.
Every time they were together, their budding friendship seemed to strengthen, and Audrey could hardly wait to do something as offbeat as spending several hours with Michelle planning a Halloween party with a bunch of queer students. It might turn out to be the most fun they’d had together yet.
“Hi, Heather,” Audrey called as she passed the department secretary at her desk.
“Hey!” Heather motioned for Audrey to come over. “I wanted to tell you, Stuart was raving about you this morning. I’m sure you know he popped into your Women in Art class the other day. He does that with all the new professors, but anyway, he was impressed. He said if he hadn’t had another meeting to get to, he would have stayed longer because he was enjoying your class so much.”
“Really?” Audrey could feel herself glowing, but hey ... once a teacher’s pet, always a teacher’s pet, and this felt extremely validating.
“Yes, and he doesn’t give out compliments like that very often. I bet he’ll stop by soon to tell you himself, but I wanted to give you a happy heads-up.”
“Thank you. You just made meveryhappy.” Audrey did a silly little dance in front of the reception desk.
“Between you and me,” Heather said, lowering her voice as she leaned toward Audrey, “he turned down Dr. Thompson’s proposal to teach that class at least five times, so you were already winning just by getting to teach it, but you’re obviously doing a great job. Anyway, I just thought you’d want to know.”
Audrey’s stomach plummeted to her toes. “Dr. Thompson wanted to teach Women in Art?”
Heather nodded. “If she were a little nicer, I might actually feel bad for her, because she submitted that class proposal so many times, but ...” She shrugged. “Way to go, Audrey.”
“Thanks.” Audrey forced a smile as she excused herself and went upstairs. Since Michelle’s door was closed, she went into her own office and unloaded the books from her satchel so she wouldn’t have to carry them to her next meeting.
