“I don’t know.” Audrey took another sip of her tea.
“Audrey, you’re a brilliant professor. You truly inspire your students. The whole department likes and respects you. You made changes on campus—real changes, like the transcription software—and you’ve only been teaching here six months. Imagine what you could do with more time? I foresee you running the whole department someday, to be frank.”
“Stop.” Audrey hid her face behind her mug. “You’re making me blush.”
“I speak the truth.”
“I love you.” Audrey put her mug down and kissed her, and Michelle tasted the warmth of honey, lemon, and whisky in her mouth. “Seriously, I love you so much.”
“Mm. Same.” Michelle’s eyes closed as Audrey pressed her into the cushions. She was half-drunk, from both the whisky and theemotions of the day. And now, with Audrey’s hand creeping beneath the waistband of her pants, she was burning with desire. Her back arched, hips pressing upward to meet Audrey’s touch.
“Michelle?” Audrey traced hearts over her lower stomach, and Michelle whimpered.
“Mm?”
“I’m sorry you were so unhappy at work. I wish it hadn’t come to this.”
“I wish you hadn’t lost your job, but I’m not at all sorry about mine.”
Audrey met her eyes as her fingers slipped lower. “Really?”
Michelle sucked in a breath, nodding. “I don’t know what will happen next for me, but I think it’s going to work out for the best. I’m ready for new things.”
“I meant what I said.” Audrey teased the seam of Michelle’s underwear, and she let out an embarrassingly needy sound. Audrey made her feel like a teenager when it came to sex, all hormones and cravings. She couldn’t get enough.
“What?” Michelle wriggled beneath her, ready to rip her own clothes off if Audrey didn’t hurry up.
“Just say the word, and I’ll move to London with you. Even if Stuart offers me my job back, I’d go. Whatever you want. All I need is you.”
Tears leaked from her eyes as Michelle absorbed Audrey’s words and the sincerity with which she spoke them. For over twenty years, Michelle had put someone else first. She’d suppressed her own wants and needs in favor of Kelly’s. And now, she’d found someone who valued her, someone who wanted her to succeed no matter what that success looked like or where it took them. Someone who wanted to put Michelle first for a change. The reality was exhilarating ... and overwhelming.
She couldn’t put her thoughts about it into words at the moment, especially not with Audrey’s hand where it was. “What I want is you inside me, right now.”
Audrey chuckled as she complied. Her hand slipped inside Michelle’s underwear, touching Michelle where she ached for her. There was no more talking as Audrey’s fingers slipped and plunged, quickly taking Michelle over the edge into oblivion.
Getting drunk on a Monday night hadn’t been Audrey’s best decision. She woke on Tuesday morning with a pounding headache, but her heart was lighter than it had any right to be, given the circumstances, and it was all because of the woman in bed beside her. As long as they had each other, everything else would work itself out in time.
This had only been Audrey’s first shot at a tenure-track position. She would find another. With a groan, she slid out of bed and went into the bathroom to freshen up, then ventured downstairs for water and ibuprofen. Since Michelle had been just as drunk last night, she grabbed two glasses and four tablets.
Michelle was just coming out of the bathroom as Audrey reentered her bedroom. “Oh god, yes,” Michelle said when she saw what Audrey had in her hands.
They sat on the bed and swallowed their hangover cures, then stepped into the shower together. Audrey wished they could spend some time talking, because she really wanted to check in with Michelle and see how she was feeling about things in the light of day, but there just wasn’t time. They both had to get to work.
Audrey didn’t see any regret on Michelle’s face, though. On the contrary, she smiled through her shower, an almost dreamy expression on her face.
“You look happy,” Audrey commented as they were toweling off afterward.
“I feel happy.” Michelle leaned in to press a quick kiss on Audrey’s cheek. “I feelfree. I should have quit years ago.”
“Wow. I didn’t know you werethatunhappy at NU.”
“I’m not sure I did, either, but now that I’m leaving, I feel so relieved.”
“Even without a new job?” Audrey asked because, to her, it felt undeniably scary and uncertain that both their jobs would end in a few months. Surely they’d find something new, but it might take a while. And what if they couldn’t find jobs in the same city? The job market in America really wasn’t great, especially for a newly minted professor like herself.
Audrey was trying not to panic about her finances, at least not yet, but she had mountains of student loans. How was she going to pay them?
“We’ll find jobs. I don’t know why I feel so sure about it. I just do.”
