Page 6 of Throuple Next Door

“Deal. But not a word to Austin. He’s such a water baby that it would be a great surprise for him. I set aside some of the money from the sale of the business for something nice for us, and I think we got it.” He put his hand up and Weaver slapped it, bro-style.

“What’s the high-fiving for?” Austin asked, wandering into the room, his hair askew, old sweats hanging on his hips, wearing one of Randy’s majorly faded New York Yankees T-shirts.

“Just happy,” Weaver said, handing Austin the McDonalds bag. “Randy got us food, and I’m going to get busy.” He went upstairs and began pulling the edging tape off the walls of Randy’s office before gathering up the plastic and tossing all of it in the trash.

“Austin, what did you have planned for the third bedroom up here?” he called down.

Weaver waited until he appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “Honestly, I think it can be a guest room or an office for you if you want one.” Austin slowly climbed the stairs. “Randy gets squirrely if he doesn’t have a space that’s his, especially when he’s working on a paper or something.” He was the least social of all of them, and sometimes he needed to hibernate for a while. “Do you want a workspace? If you do, then we’ll make that up as a second office.”

“What about you?” Weaver asked. Austin shrugged, but Weaver knew him too damned well. “How about we add a desk for me and bookshelves along that wall with a chair for you.” Austin was a reader—the dozens of boxes of books testified to that. “We can share it.”

Austin came right into his arms, and Weaver hugged him hard. Sometimes it shocked him just how surprised Austin seemed to be whenever they were good to him. It broke Weaver’s heart and made him determined to correct it.

Randy checked his department email with a sigh and then closed the app. “They want me to go in for meetings this afternoon and tomorrow.” He hated that he was going to be gone and knew he was adding work for the others.

“It’s all right,” Austin told him immediately. “The movers will bring things in. I have layouts for all the rooms, and every single box is labeled so they just need to get to the correct rooms.” He seemed so together.

“We got your back,” Weaver added.

Randy put his arms around both of them. “I know that, but I don’t want to dump more things on you.”

Austin snickered. “Don’t worry. We’ll leave plenty for you to do once you get home. Now go on and get yourself all respectable and looking like a professor. Do you need me to get you one of those jackets with elbow patches?”

Randy pulled Austin into a deep kiss, devouring his mouth. “No elbow patches required.” He pulled back and went upstairs to change before saying goodbye to both Weaver and Austin just as the moving truck pulled up in front of the house. After getting into his car, he headed to campus and his first meeting.

After two hours of nothing but talk, he shook his head before leaning to the woman next to him. “Are these committee meetings always this useless?”

She nodded and rolled her eyes. “They make people feel important, but nothing ever gets done.”

“Do you have something to say?” the man at the head of the table asked, looking pointedly at the two of them.

She leaned back and tried to disappear.

“Yes,” Randy said clearly. “Is there a point to all this, or is this just a waste of time so everyone can drink coffee and eat donuts?” Damn, he should have kept his mouth shut. “So far, we have been here two hours. There are no action items and nothing has been determined. So what’s the point? We all have better things we could be doing.” Lord knew he was wasting time while Austin and Weaver dealt with the movers.

“I don’t think you know how things are done here,” the leader said.

Randy shrugged. “You mean wasting hours and doing nothing?” He stared the man down, and the others around the table began to nod.

“I have plenty I could be doing,” the woman across from him said. “This is supposed to be about the curriculum, not a discussion about adding new classes that have nothing to do with our department.” A number of throats cleared, and the leader sat down, shuffling papers.

“Then maybe someone else would like to lead the group?” he asked, clearly challenging the rest of the room.

“I will,” the woman across from him said, and the man at the end of the table practically swallowed his teeth. “Our next meeting will be in two weeks. By that time, everyone is to have developed a list of two justified proposals for updates that should be made. Send them to me, and we will discuss and evaluate each of them at that time. They must be to me in ten days, and I will aggregate them and distribute. This meeting is adjourned.” She stood, and the others left the room, with Randy staying behind.

“I probably should have kept quiet,” Randy told her.

“I’m Violet Richards, and you’re Randy Mather. I think I’m going to love working with you. Gerald has led this committee for a decade, and nothing ever happens. Everything has stayed exactly the same, and I’ve wanted this chance, but I never got an opening. You gave me one.” She was clearly pleased. “I heard you just moved to town.”

“I did. The moving van is at the house right now.”

“Then go and help. And I’m looking forward to your proposals for updating what we teach. You have a great deal of practical experience that we should be incorporating into our program.”

“I’ll do my best.” He gathered his things and headed out of the building to his car. He drove home to find a well-oiled machine, with Austin holding his clipboard and the movers and Weaver obeying his every command.

“Go inside and get changed,” Austin said. “I need you upstairs. They’ve brought in a number of things for your office, and you can start setting it up. I have Weaver in the family room, and once the movers have everything inside, I’ll start in the kitchen.” One thing was for sure, it was best to do exactly what Austin said when he got into drill-sergeant mode.

To Randy’s surprise, the major pieces of furniture were placed, with boxes piled out of the flow of traffic. He raced upstairs, changed his clothes, and spent the next hour in his office setting up bookshelves and getting his papers organized in his desk. By the time he was done, the house was quiet. Randy opened the door, wondering what was going on. He descended the stairs and found Austin putting away dishes.

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