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There was a round of enthusiastic applause, which I joined in, even though I wasn’t a member of the faculty here; I was only a visiting professional. Jenna hadgiven a damngood acceptance speech. She had fully become who she was meant to be. In sending her away all those years ago, I’d set her free to become who she was now, much as it was the worsthurtI’d ever felt in my life.
For a moment I couldn’t stop myself reliving that time. Jenna and I were both anxious when we were first together, nervous about my family accepting her. My family aren’t bigots, but none of us had ever been with someone who was half “us” and half “them.” We didn’t know how they’d react. As it turned out, they embraced her.
My older relatives had older, magical ideas about some things. They thought there was a reason that Jenna and I fell in love. They saw Jenna and me as “destiny” mates, believing that she, whose father was one of us and whose mother was a “one-body,” was the one that nature had picked to be with me because of her ties to the human world. It would, they thought, weave our family more deeply into the web of all life. I never went in for magical thinking, myself, though I do get how everything is connected innature. The rest of my family, compared to me, was a bit more “orthodox” about these things. This was especially true of the elders. All I knew was that I was in love for the first time.
But I was young and proud (read, “stupid”), and thought I had my life figured out and that she was only my first love. When I broke it off and she went packing to her dreams of discovering the world, it was with no regrets. I ignored Jenna’s heartbreak, her pain, her anger. As a young Alpha of my tribe, I didn’t need to care. I let her go and shed no tears. I had no use for tears; I was too strong for them. And too stupid.
No matter how accomplished she was now, when Jenna saw me, she’d remember the hurt I’d caused her then. I had to be prepared for that.
My attention snapped back to the present when the guy next to her at the table stood up and lifted his champagne glass.
He faced her with glass raised, and she picked up her glass as well, as did the other people at the other tables across the ballroom. And he said simply, sincerely, “To Jenna Anderson. This University hasdamn good taste.”
Jenna laughed, and pockets of other laughter welled up around the room. The guy clinked glasses with Jenna, and the room was filled with the tinkling of other glasses connecting, and everyone drank a toast to thenewest tenured faculty member of Haven University: Jenna Anderson, Professor of WorldLiteratureand Interspecies Studies.
Elizabeth Erickson, the Media professor who had invited me to the party as her guest, spotted me and waved me over to her table. She both grinned at me and scolded me, “Will, you’re late! You didn’t even get a glass of champagne!”
I shrugged at her. “I’m sorry. When I get into editing something, I’m so engrossed that I lose track of time. I’m creative; you know the type.” I gave her a wink at that last part.
“Yes, yes, I know,” she said. “Well, join the party now; there are other glasses of champagne at the table over there. You can still go over and introduce yourself to Jenna.”
Inwardly, I smiled at the suggestion. “Introduce” myself to Jenna indeed. Jenna and I had “introduced” ourselves thoroughly almost two decades ago. And we’d been very well acquainted two or three times a night back then. But still, being polite and discreet, I told Elizabeth, “Don’t mind if I do.”
I glanced across the room again to Jenna’s table, where a few people had congregatedand she and that guy were chatting with them. And I kept my eyes on them as I quickly went to the serving table that Elizabethpointed out and got myself one of those other glasses. Then, just as I was ready to go and offer Jenna a little toast of my own, I saw her and the other two-bodies get up from the table and excuse themselves—and walk off to the glass doors, where the campus on a spring night lit with fireflies waited for them.
My nostrils flared a little harder and my eyes narrowed. Where was she going with him?
Not bothering to introduce myself to anyone, I weaved around people, making my way quickly across the ballroom to those doors.
They were standing at an elegant-looking granite railing, looking out on the grass and the marble paths of the commons and the stately University buildings beyond. They didn’t notice me at first, but I caught what the guy was saying to Jenna.
“To the best new professor that Haven could have brought on board for tenure—and to the best friend I’ve ever had.”
She chuckled warmly at that. They clinked glasses and drank. And then, as I looked on, the guy leaned in towards her with an unmistakable intention.
He was about to kiss her!
My head rang with the thought, Best friend he’s ever had, my furry ass!
Before that kiss could take place, I cleared my throat with a rumble as clear and audible as if I were in my other body and giving a hearty growl.
The guy stopped leaning in at her, and they both turned their heads in my direction. He furrowed his brow at me, and Jenna’s mouth dropped open. She looked as surprised as I’d ever seen anyone look in my life, and well she should.
Jenna scrambled to find her voice. “W-W-Will? WillGlenning? Is…is that really you? Will?”
Raising my glass to salute her, I said, “Yes, Jenna, it’s me.”
Her “friend” wasn’t saying anything yet, just quietly studying me.
I walked over to join them. “Congratulations,” I said, “on your tenure and that great speech.” And I offered her a clink of our glasses, which she mutely accepted. I could see wheels spinning with disbelief behind her eyes.
“Who’s your friend?” I asked Jenna, darting my own eyes in his direction.
Inhaling a bit, Jenna said, “Oh, yes, excuse me.” She touched him on the arm. “This is Skylar Montaigne. He’s a Professor of History and Antiquities.”
And now I had a name for him. Skylar offered hishandand we shook. He ventured, “And you are…?”
“Will Glenning,” I said. “Documentary filmmaker. I’ll be a guest lecturer and visiting faculty for the spring semester. It hasn’t been announced yet…”
