Page 38 of Love and the Laws of Motion
“Thanks for your help with the printer.You’re very proficient with it.”
The corner of Michiko’s mouth twitched, like she was suppressing a smile, and her dark eyes twinkled behind her glasses.“No problem.So, I guess I’ll see you around?”
“Sure.See you.”
Livie was disappointed in herself as she watched her leave.Michiko had gone out of her way to be helpful, intervening with Peter that way, then fixing the printer.And Livie couldn’t manage to engage in conversation with her for more than a few awkward sentences.Had she come across as rude?Ungrateful?She wished, for the thousandth time, that she was better at this stuff.Next time, she’d make a point of saying hello to Michiko first, no matter how nervous it made her.
Thanks to Michiko’s intervention, the printer spit out the rest of her handout in less than ten minutes.After she’d finished collating and stapling, she left them in her office, ready for class the next day, and made her way through the halls of the Astronomy building to Janet’s office.She’d emailed Janet some purchasing info last night and wanted to see if she’d had time to look it over yet.
She was nearly to her office when she heard raised voices, which was pretty unusual for the Astronomy department.Peter Hockman’s weirdness aside, confrontations were rare there.Livie was even more shocked when she realized one of the voices was Janet’s.In all the time she’d known her, she’d never heard her raise her voice about anything.
“If we don’t acquire the new software from Asid Tech, our whole line of research will be out of date inside of a year.”That was Professor Langley.He was also shouting, which was less surprising.He was kind of a showman, always talking the longest and loudest, and frequently touting his own brilliance.
“Yourresearch, William.Interstellar medium is your line of research, not mine.”
“But the software will benefit the whole department.”
“Come on, William,” Janet chastised gently.“No one else will have any use for it.It’s got absolutely nothing to do with my research proposal.You want it for your research.”
“What if I do?”Langley shouted.Livie flinched, imagining Langley blustering at the unassuming, soft-spoken Janet Finch.
“Then you should have tried harder to secure grant money to pay for it.Now if you’ll excuse me—”
“You’ve got plenty with the Skylight money.It’s a single line item, Janet.”
“A line item that has nothing to do with my work and is outside the parameters of my budget proposal.”
“You know as well as I do that departments fudge the expenditures all the time.You’re the department head.No one’s going to question your expenditures.”
“That may be your experience, William, but it’s not mine, and I have no intention of spending a dime of Skylight’s money on anything that’s not directly related to my work.”
You tell him, Livie thought proudly.Of course Janet would shut down Langley’s completely unethical proposition.
“Because you’re the fucking star of this department?Uptight fucking women.”
Livie gasped in shock.How dare he speak to her that way?But Langley wasn’t done.
“If it’s not part of your brilliant line of research, then fuck it?Is that it?You arrogant little—”
She’d heard enough.Ordinarily, she’d never dream of interrupting, but she wasn’t about to let Langley keep verbally abusing Janet that way.
“Knock knock.Hey, Janet, is this a bad time?”
She turned to look at Livie, and Livie’s heart squeezed at the expression on her face—so haggard and pinched.And she was pale.Confrontations like this weren’t in her nature, any more than they were in Livie’s.Screw Langley for attacking her that way.
“No, Livie, it’s fine.Professor Langley was just leaving.”
Langley shot her one more filthy glare before turning toward the door.“We’ll finish this later.”
“It’s already finished,” Janet said, recovering some of her usual equilibrium.“I have nothing further to say on the matter.”
“We’ll see about that.”Livie had to stumble out of the way to avoid being shoved by Langley as he stormed through the door.No wonder Peter Hockman was such a sexist douchebag.His mentor had trained him well.
Once he was gone, Livie turned back to Janet.Her back was turned, her hands rifling through a stack of papers on her desk in an aimless fashion.Livie could feel her discomfort coming off of her in waves.She was probably as shaken up as Livie would be in that situation, and she needed a moment to compose herself.She busied herself getting out her laptop, giving Janet the time she needed.
“Your purchasing proposals look good, Livie,” she said at last, her voice tight and small.“I’ll sign off on them and get them emailed to the dean for approval tomorrow.”If she wanted to pretend that ugly scene hadn’t happened, Livie was happy to let her.
“Thanks.”
