know? He’s a postdoc in your field, early modern studies, and—well, don’t tell anyone I told you, but you and he were neck and neck for this position—the one that you got? He’s Matthew Dancey’s protégé, so apparently there was a lot of wheelin’ and dealin’ goin’ on before you got the offer. I’m wondering whether he is behind this, or Dancey—allocating an office to you that isn’t habitable. That’s how mobbing starts, Anna!”
“How do you know this?”
“Sam Ruffin, my mentor, told me over coffee after I’d signed my contract.”
“I feel sick.” It is as if a large fist had knocked all the air—and all the joy—out of me.
“I shouldn’t have told you!”
“Yes, you should. It’s better that I know. If he—”
“Dr. Lieberman!”
I wish I didn’t immediately recognize the voice that stops me on the way to the main staircase. Giles Cleveland is striding toward us from the direction of the entrance portal, a leather satchel over his shoulder and a bag of books in each hand.
“Are you—”
“Sir, I believe you haven’t—”
“—rushing off somewhere? No, I haven’t, sorry. Giles Cleveland. Welcome to Ardrossan.”
“—met Yvonne Roberts.”
“Professor Cleveland.” Yvonne clasps the two fingers that he awkwardly lifts to greet her without putting down the bag he is holding, and I have to stop myself from staring at her fingers around his hand. She is touching his hand. Jealous!
Yvonne looks at him, then at me, and something registers in her face.
“Catch you later, Anna!” She gives me a quick hug and rushes off. I wish I could do the same. Run away. Cleveland looks confusingly sexy in jeans and a blue-and-white rugby shirt, with that graying hair and a grizzled five-o’clock shadow, and I can only assume that he won’t be coming to school in this outfit once teaching starts. This guy must be fighting them off with a stick. With a cricket bat.
I wonder how Amanda Cleveland deals with her husband’s no doubt extensive fan club. I also wonder whether Cleveland strays from the pen of his marriage into the greener fields of grad school to avail himself of the opportunities that no doubt offer themselves to him there. But mostly I wonder that I have any thought at all to spare for the Clevelands’ marriage, in view of the bombshell Yvonne just dropped. What with the bombshell—Dolph Bergstrom?—and the little hollow between Cleveland’s collarbones, that warm, fragrant little hollow and the tan skin below, I am finding it hard to focus.
“This is a little sudden, but—” He glances over my shoulder at the glass-fronted cafeteria, and I think he is about to ask me to sit down for a coffee. “Here’s the thing. We’ve just heard that Bob Morgan will be on sick leave for most of the semester, possibly for all of it. He’s—” He shakes his head and moves his shoulders as if he was in pain. “Anyway, this means we are short-staffed in the graduate program, and I was wondering whether you’d be willing to upgrade your class on parody and satire.”
He knows I can’t say no, and he knows that I know that he knows I can’t say no.
“What would that entail? The same syllabus, just tighten the screws a little?”
This earns me half a smile, but Cleveland doesn’t want to be nice to me, so he stifles it. He also doesn’t want to have coffee with me.
“That’s right. The only thing is, you have to decide, well, now, really, because there’s a bit of a flap on.” Now he is looking down at me closely, warily, as if he expects me to lash out at him. And he is mocking me. There is a tension around his mouth as if he wanted to grin but will not, because that would give the game away. I avoid his eyes, playing for time, groping for an excuse to go away and think about it.
But the man is in a hurry.
“Good. Well, in that case, can I also ask you to muscle in on the graduate advisement? Since you’ll be teaching them, it would make sense to also have you involved in their supervision, plus I expect there are a couple of people eager to pick your brain about your experiences on the job market.”
Does the chair know about this? Should I tell Hornberger that Cleveland has recruited me for grad advisement? Should I make a deal with Cleveland, I’ll teach your grad section if you’ll get rid of Corvin’s junk for me? On the other hand, teaching graduates