Page 70 of Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl
Feeling relieved that Miranda trusted me to grow from doughnut-gate and a little smug that she saw political potential in me, I head back to the adjunct office for my coat before I head out for the day.
Dr. Wallace steps into stride with me and then in front of me, blocking my path. “Young lady,” he says.
“You can go to Dr. Salazar with that, Dr. Wallace,” I tell him, my tone never anything but polite.
He stammers for a moment, eyes wide and bulging. “Perhaps if you have a problem with me, you can address me directly and privately.”
“Oh,” I say, “I have, but I fear you have missed the point,sir, so please hear me when I explicitly say: You are not welcome to interrupt my class and undermine my authority. You may wait in the hallway until I am through. You will not speak over me, especially in front of a student, and you will not ever again in your life refer to me or anyone else asyoung lady. I’m sure that you woke up one day and realized the world had changed and that people who you had always thought beneath you were suddenly your peers and in some cases even your superiors. So here’s a little advice for you: Evolve or go extinct. You decide.”
The man vibrates with anger, but something behind his eyes changes. Guilt? Fear? Whatever it is, it’s not my problem.
“Have a lovely day, Dr. Wallace,” I practically sing as I spin on my heel. My body is charging with energy as I leave the old man speechless.
God, that felt so good. It felt so right!
My thighs press together as I remember Bram encouraging me and then pushing his come back inside me and sending me to stand up for myself with my panties stuffed in the pocket of his seemingly innocuous corduroy pants. Wow, we are a fucked-up little pair, and it really, really works for me.
After getting my coat, I march over to Gerhart Hall and straight into Bram’s office, where a young man is trying to engage him in flat earth theories.
Bram looks directly over his head and right at me. “Corbin, email me those links and we can discuss after my next lecture.”
The kid stands up and gathers his backpack as he looks me up and down and grumbles something about open office hours.
I slam the door shut behind him. “Is that kid really a flat earther?”
Bram shakes his head as he stands. “No, not seriously, at least. He just likes conspiracy theories. Last week, he tried to tell me birds aren’t real.”
“Do you know what is real?” I ask.
“What?”
“The way I told Dr. Wallace to fuck off.”
Bram’s plump lips split into a proud, beaming smile and the warm feeling he’d left in the pit of my stomach spreads to every inch of my body like sunshine after days of gray overcast.
He stands from behind his desk and takes my panties from his pocket. “I guess I owe you these.”
I close my hand around his fist—well, as far as it will go, at least—and then stuff it right back into his pocket. “I rather like the idea of you keeping them.”
The noise he makes is an approving rumble as he dips his head to kiss me, his arm curling around my waist until our bodies are pressed together. I try not to think too hard about how well we fit.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Bram
No, no, of course it’s fine,” I’m saying as I push my way out of the Eco meeting room where Ali Darwish and I have given everyone their final marching orders for the seminar this weekend. “The girls miss you, but we’ll keep up the calls, and it will be okay, I promise.”
Sara lets out a groan-whine thing that sounds like a ghost on a toilet. “I just—Ihatebeing away from them for so long, and what if the twins forget who I am, and what if they make bad choices as teenagers, like playing organized sports, and it’s all in a desperate bid to fill the void I left in their little hearts while they were six? What if they try to replace a parent’s love with expensive shoes and travel tournaments and we have to learn what offsides is, because you know I can’t do that, I’ll never understand what offsides means!”
“First, Letty can’t play team sports, she’s too much of a tyrant for that. She’s going to end up as a drum major or a stage manager, or maybe she’ll get a job as a judgmental teen barista at one of those coffee shops that has only four things on the menu.”
Sara makes a small, barely comforted noise.
“And right now Berry only wants to bring caterpillars inside and name them elaborate names from her made-up fantasy world, so I don’t think sports are in the picturequiteyet.”
Even without the benefit of modern technology, I’d be able to hear Sara’s sigh all the way from Alaska. “I hate this,” she says in a small voice.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, having this grant extended another four weeks, and you know that I don’t mean that figuratively. This glacier won’t exist in another five years. This is important. Your work is important. And it’s for Letty and Berry and Fern and the world they’re going to live in too.”*
