“I don't care, James! You said this year!”

James? Was his first name James? For some reason, that thought made Maya feel slightly warm. She could hear him speaking, but his voice was lower than the woman's, so she couldn't make out anything.

“Goddamnit, why don't you quit this dead-end teaching gig, then?”

Maya stared at the door. Quit? Professor Reardon had been there for ten years. He was one of the most well-respected faculty on campus. His classes were almost impossible to get into-she had tried to get into creative writing her freshman year and hadn't made it.

Suddenly the door opened, and something sailed across the hall and hit the opposite wall. Maya ducked instinctively, even though it wasn't aimed at her. It was a book, she saw.

“You know you could make ten times what you do here, if you'd just write some more of that trash! Then maybe my alimony payments would improve!” A tall, dark haired woman stormed out of his office, her high heels clicking on the tile. She slammed the door shut behind her and the force of it shook the whole wall. She glanced down at Maya, who was staring at her, wide-eyed. “What, you didn't know that your dear professor was really Rebecca Winters?”

The woman sneered at her and then turned and stalked off down the hallway. Maya looked at the book on the floor and went to retrieve it, looking back over her shoulder at Professor Reardon's door. She was surprised that no one had even stuck their head out of their office to see what the commotion was.

The book was a paperback, and she recognized it immediately. She'd only read it a hundred times. “Sweet Ecstasy” by Rebecca Winters. It was one of her favorite writers. She carried it back to his office door, standing there for a moment, contemplating. Then she slipped it into her backpack and turned, going down the hallway to the bathroom.

She stood at the basin, her hands shaking as washed her face and took a drink with cupped palms. The cool water felt good, calming somehow. A thousand questions were running through her head. She didn't know what to do. She remembered her conversation out at the pond with him yesterday, and that decided her. She went back to his office door and knocked, softly.