Memoir in the Making: A May-December Romance (2 page)

Sam plopped down next to her and stole the book from her hands. She rolled her eyes when he read the back of it and dropped it on the table with a loud smack. Meredith leaned back in her chair and glared at him.

“What has you in such a mood?” she asked.

“It’s the end of summer.”

“You sound like a student.”

“Hey now, I like my summers.”

“You like the free time to read steamy gay romance novels.”

Sam snickered and moved to press a kiss to her cheek. “It’s good to see you again, love. It’s been almost a month.”

“I was busy,” she answered but kissed him back with enthusiasm. “How’s that husband of yours?”

“As well as can be expected. They don’t think much longer.”

Sam’s face moved from giddy to sorrowful. Meredith reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing it hard. She should have spent more time with them the past few months than she had, but summers were her free time to write, and she was loath to give up the time. Meredith blinked back tears that charged forward and nodded in Sam’s direction.

“Let’s do dinner next week.”

“Sounds good, but you’re cooking because we all know I can’t cook. I’m sure Jeremy would love to eat edible food before—” he choked.

“I know,” she said, squeezing his hand again. They would have to get it together before the rest of the staff came into the room. “Hey! I have your favorite student in my class this semester.”

“Ainsley?”

“That’s the one.”

The smile lit up his eyes. “If any one of them is going somewhere with creative writing, it’s her. She’s fabulous, real strength.”

“I know. You’ve told me all this before.”

Sam chuckled and let go of her hand when the door opened again. Professors filtered into the room, and Sam’s and Meredith’s happy conversation died off. Both were intensely private people, Meredith more so than Sam, and she was reluctant to let anyone into her life.

Before everyone was settled, Sam leaned over to Meredith and whispered in her ear, “You know, it’s your turn to host the potluck.”

Meredith let a noise out the back of her throat and shook her head. “Unfortunately.”

“You’ll be volunteering, right? I don’t have to volunteer you for it?”

“Hardly,” she answered and turned to smile at her department chair when everyone was ready.

“We have a few orders of business to discuss, but this should be a quick meeting.” Henry sat at the head of the table as was commonplace for him and had his own notebook and calendar laid out. “The potluck is the easiest, so let’s get that out of the way. Any volunteers for hosting this year? Remember, it’s preferred for you to live fairly close to campus.”

“I’ll host. It’s about time I did it again anyway,” Meredith said, her voice echoing around the quiet room.

Henry cocked his head to the side and gave her a curious glance. She always hated when he looked at her. She’d let several things slip over her years of working at the university, and she was certain he knew. If he knew outright, it could affect her having a job in the end. Private universities weren’t always fond of having gay and lesbian faculty. Though, Sam had never had a problem and he’d been out for years. Fear still edged its way into her each time the topic came close to hand.

“Good. Any date in particular you need?”

“The first weekend in October would be excellent,” Meredith answered and wrote it down in her own planner.

It was set. She would have close to fifty people in her tiny two-bedroom house for an entire evening, and unfortunately, she doubted Sam would be able to help her out. She listened to the rest of the meeting with boredom, and then she walked back to her office with Sam at her side, giving her tips on how to woo the other faculty. Laughing at him, she entered her office and sat down, ready to finish planning the rest of the semester.

Chapter Two

Ainsley finally got up the courage to walk to the library. Her best friend was grabbing some books and supposed to be waiting for her so they could get lunch together, but she doubted they would be anywhere near on time, though. She trudged through the library doors, sliding her student ID card in order to get in and then looked around for her friend.

He was supposed to be on the main floor with all the computers, but the amount of computers and seats he could be in was overwhelming. Ainsley whipped out her phone and sent him a quick text, asking where he was specifically. When she didn’t get an immediate answer, she took to strolling around in circles on the main floor, looking for his carrot-top head. Surely he would stand out.

She was just about to give up and go wait outside the library for him to exit when someone gripped her from behind on her sides and made her squeal and jump. Ainsley spun around and glared whoever it was down. Adam stood right behind her with the cockiest grin on his face. She shook her head and punched him in the arm.

“That was not nice,” she said and headed out of the library. “Come on, I’m starving.”

“Hold your horses. I need to check out these books.”

“Adam, it’s the first week of school. You do not need to check out books.”

“I do. I have to start working on my senior thesis. The introduction is due in two weeks!”

Ainsley furrowed her brow and shook her head. “I’m so glad I’m not a senior.”

“Next year, love.”

She laughed. “You clearly don’t understand what English majors do for their theses. Specifically writing majors. Nothing. We put together a portfolio of our work and voila! Done!”

“Right. You can think that.”

Ainsley glared at him but followed him to the front desk. He set four books down on the desk and waited for the student worker to come over and help him. Leaning over it, she watched as he chatted her up, flirting with her the whole time. Ainsley bit her lip, envying his ease at flirting—she’d always been horrible at it. Adam had tried to give her lessons once, and it had resulted in a massive meltdown of giggling, ending the worst night of embarrassment she’d ever had.

He had her number on a sheet of paper before Ainsley could even see what he’d done to earn it, and they were walking out the doors to the library. She rolled her eyes and did a double step to keep up with him.

“Cafeteria or somewhere else?” Adam asked.

“Cafeteria,” she answered. “I’m back from summer and not disillusioned with the food yet.”

“How long do you think it’ll take you?”

“A week,” she said with a huge grin. “It’s the same food every day, so yeah—a week at best.”

“Good. It’s all you can eat today, and I’m hungry.”

“You would eat a whole cow if someone stuck it in front of you.”

Adam seemed to contemplate her comment before nodding his head in the affirmative. “I could probably manage that one.”

Ainsley rolled her eyes and then hooked her arm through his as they walked down the broken sidewalks toward the commons. She had it in her head this was going to be the best year of college yet. It was Adam’s last, but not hers, and she would be stuck next year without her best friend and comrade. A tear stung her eye, and she pushed the feeling away, wanting to focus on the fun times they would be having.

“There’s a party Friday down at the Loft.”

“Is there?” she asked.

They hadn’t been there since the end of the year bash last May. It was one of the biggest that the girls had thrown, and yet the cops still hadn’t been called. Ainsley shook her head and remembered just how drunk she had been, or at least she tried to remember it—she couldn’t actually remember more than three-quarters of the night.

“Jello shots?” she asked.

“Always.”

“We going?”

“Absolutely. We need to crash that thing with some people who really know how to party.”

“I don’t want to get as drunk as I did last time. That wasn’t fun the next three days.”

“Promises,” he said, grinning at her and then opening the door to the commons. “My lady.”

Ainsley blushed and walked into the commons in front of him. Before she could even turn around to wait, he had her arm in his again and steered her toward the line to get into the cafeteria. She looked down the hallway of fifty plus students waiting to be swiped in for their meal and wished they had gotten there ten minutes earlier. Ten minutes could make all the difference in how long they would have to wait for food.

“Are you done with classes for the day?” Adam asked her.

“Yeah. Tuesdays and Thursdays are my short days.”

“Good,” he answered. “I still have one more this afternoon. Economics.”

“Oh fun,” she said. “Sounds like a real interesting course.”

“Eh, should be entertaining at the very least. The prof is a bit eccentric I hear.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows up and down. “Apparently he’s okay with the whole student-professor thing.”

“And how the hell do you know about that?”

“Rumors.”

They took a few steps forward, and Ainsley looked around the commons, hoping to see someone else she knew. The beginning of the semester was always an odd time. She would look for all her friends from the last year in the first week—it always seemed like it would take her forever to see them again.

“He does this abroad course every year that’s three weeks in the summer, and apparently every year a new student gets deflowered.”

“That’s stupid,” Ainsley muttered.

“I guess he figures it’s safer on the other side of the world. His wife is probably less likely to kill him then.”

“He’s married?”

“Oh yeah.”

“Which prof is this?” she asked, taking yet another step forward.

“Jones.”

“Such an unassuming name. Wait…isn’t he the one who likes to red wing?”

“Uhhh…”

“Yeah!” Ainsley’s eyes widened, and she looked Adam full on. “He’s the one. Damn, you’re in class with him? I hear he’s really hard.”

“Hard is sexy.”

Ainsley rolled her eyes realizing her unintended double entendre. She blushed again and then shook her head. “How do you even know he swings both ways.”

“Oh, I know,” Adam said and tapped his temple with a grin. “Trust me.”

“Are you going to try?”

“Hell no! I’m not that stupid. I don’t want my grade to be fucked up.”

“Yeah,” Ainsley said and looked at the ground. That was the number one reason she had to get Meredith out of her head. If anything it would only ruin in her grade for the class and cause more strife than necessary. She didn’t dare look up at Adam, afraid he would easily read her thoughts. It was just a stupid crush, a moment of instant physical attraction and nothing more.

“Hey, look! Two more people.”

“Good. I’m beyond hungry.”

Adam snickered. “You always are.”

“Shut it,” she said and punched him on the arm again.

“I don’t want him, but I’m certainly going to have a bit of fun trying to figure out which student he’s going after this semester.”

Ainsley sighed, not happy they were back on the professor-student conversation. If anything, she wanted to steer clear of that one as widely as possible. Adam would figure it out, and he probably wouldn’t do anything to discourage her either. He always said she needed to be in a relationship before he was, and that she was built for settling down unlike him.

Instead of asking him another question to keep the conversation going, she changed the topic. “Hey, when is Crossroads meeting again?”

“Next week. Same time and place as always.”

“We need to elect a new president, right?”

“Yeah, and vice and treasurer.”

“When’s the parade?”

“First weekend in October.”

“Good! I need to start thinking about my costume.”

“Hiding yourself again? Silly girl, you don’t have to do that.”

“It’s fun,” she said, pouting as the student swiped their ID cards through the machine and ushered them into the cafeteria. Once they got in through the doors, there were new lines formed for them to wait. Adam brushed around Ainsley and headed for the pizza—his go to meal when they ate there—while Ainsley debated between pasta and a burger.

#

Meredith was alone in her office again, door open in case any student wanted to stop by. She had office hours and was stuck there until they were done. The advantage to being a university professor was the flexibility of hours. The disadvantage was that she was stuck at the school during certain times of the day, particularly when she’d rather be in her home office working on her side projects.

Sam was in a conference with a student, otherwise she’d be hunting him down to chat with him. No one else in the department particularly interested her in conversation, so she stayed in her office and waited for some wayward student to come talk to her. She wasn’t the most popular professor in her department, but she was well-liked enough by students. Meredith had expectations, and she wanted them to work hard and learn a lot.

Her students weren’t handed out an easy A. She sighed and looked at her computer and then at her notebook she always kept next to her desk. Her meeting was done and over with, and she had two more hours of office time left before she could head home for the day. Her lesson plans were done for Thursday, and she really didn’t see the need to plan out Tuesday’s yet.

Biting her lip and looking out her office door, Meredith determined no one was coming in. She popped open the Internet and went straight to Google. Opening her documents, she chose the last chapter she had worked on and expanded the file. Settling down into her chair, she read through the last paragraph quickly and picked up right where she left off.

She typed furiously on her computer for a few minutes before checking back out her door. Her heart rapped in her chest, and she was scared to death she would be caught. Rarely did she find time to write when at work, but when she did, she always felt guilty. If there was one thing Meredith wanted, it was to keep her work life and her writing life separate as much as possible. Sam was the only one who knew she published on the side, and that was more because she had to ask him certain questions.

By the time the knock came at her door, she’d already finished three whole pages. Facing the door, Meredith saw one of her students from last semester smiling back at her. She ushered him in with her a wave of hand and grinned.