Toni sat back in her chair. “Yeah? I’m guessing it’s not a real estrogen-fest over in the math department, huh?”
“You’d be wrong in that,” Baxter said. “We’re about a third female in the faculty, and the undergraduate students majoring in mathematics are nearly fifty-fifty. Varies a little from year to year, but it’s quite close. I am not sure what anyone’s estrogen levels are though. So I can’t comment on that.”
Megan cocked her head. “I’m not gonna lie, I’m surprised by that.”
“That I don’t know everyone’s estrogen levels? I really don’t think it’s any of my business.”
“No.” Megan laughed a little. “I’m surprised that math is evenly split between women and men.”
“Me too,” Toni said. “I would have guessed more men.”
“Admittedly, our near-equality is an aberration, and I hand much of the credit to my cochair in the department. She is a true genius and one of the most brilliant mathematicians in the state system.” Baxter sipped his drink and rested his chin on his closed fist. “If you really want what the students might call a sausage fest, you’d have to look over in Katherine’s department. Physics at Central Coast is almost all male.”
Katherine could barely keep a straight face. After the day she’d had, laughing almost felt sacrilegious. “Did you just say my department is a sausage fest?”
He frowned. “Did I use the term correctly?”
Megan burst into laughter and Toni was watching them, shaking her head in amusement.
“You’re asking me?” Katherine said. Good Lord, time with Baxter was exactly what she’d needed. He was too funny. “I think so, yes. But please don’t use it again. It just feels wrong.” She turned to Toni. “And yes, my department is horribly unbalanced. I gather all the female grad students under my wings so they can’t escape and leave me alone to swim in a river of testosterone.”
Baxter frowned. “But are you a flying fish in this scenario? You’re both swimming and having wings.”
She tossed a walnut at him. “I’m a duck.”
“Yeah, Baxter.” Toni turned to him. “She’s a duck.”
“Obviously,” Megan said. “Bet you feel silly now.”
He winked at Katherine. “Immensely.”
“New rule for Wine Wednesday,” she said. “No questioning of metaphors after the second bottle of wine has been opened.”
“Hear, hear.” Toni raised her glass.
“I swear,” Megan said. “Y’all are the most adorable. Do all academics flirt like you two?”
“No, we’re very special academics,” Baxter said. “The kind who investigate mysterious behavioral studies and rescue grad students from sleepwalking off buildings.”
“The other day, Kaylee said that Ansel Shaver and Anita Mehdi were arguing about something.” Katherine looked at Baxter. “Is that your doing?”
“I may have suggested very quietly to Anita that some of the study participants were exhibiting aberrant behavior. She is firmly convinced that Ansel Shaver would never hide anything, and she was deeply involved in writing the study protocols, but she said she would take a second look.”
“Does she have access to the names of the students involved?” Megan said. “Can you ask her?”
Baxter and Katherine exchanged a look. “It’s quite a violation to do that, Megan. Privacy is paramount. It’s not a courtesy in academic research; it’s inviolable. To ask her to hand over names—”
“For their own good though,” Toni said. “To protect them.”
“You won’t get an argument from either of us,” Katherine said. “But what Baxter is saying is that an academic would lose their career over something like that.”
Baxter scooted closer to the table and reached for a slice of white cheddar and a cracker from the cheese board. “Was it the mention of Anita Mehdi that made you go looking for Kaylee today? Thank God you did; who knows what would have happened otherwise?”
Megan and Toni were watching her intently, and a feeling of inevitability began to grow in the pit of Katherine’s stomach.
This. Now.
Baxter frowned, oblivious to the messages Toni and Megan were shooting at her with their eyes. Unfortunately for them, Katherine had no idea what they were trying to say.
Now. Tell him now.
“Come to think of it…” Baxter frowned. “How did you know she was on the roof? Did someone see her? It’s what? Five stories? They wouldn’t have known who was up there. Did she call you? Why would she call you though?”
Tell him. Tell him now.
She could feel the press of secrets against her skin. Tell Baxter what? About her visions? Could she tell him about her visions without revealing Toni’s and Megan’s powers as well?
“Katherine?” Baxter looked around the table. “What is going on?” He waved a hand between the three of them. “This is… odd.”
“I saw her.” Katherine felt like a child again, offering a treasure she’d found along the beach to her indifferent father.
Look! It’s a sand dollar.
There are probably thousands of sand dollars on the beach. Tell me something I don’t know if you want to impress me.
But look, Father, there isn’t a single crack in this one. It’s perfect.
Perfection only exists in mathematics, Katherine.
“What?” Baxter was watching her. “Darling, I didn’t catch that. You saw her? From the ground? Why were you on that side of campus? Were you going to see—?”
“I saw her.” She spoke louder, more clearly. Please don’t break my sand dollar, my love. “I was in my office with Keisha and Sydney.” As she talked, her voice grew stronger. “I was going over my lecture notes for tomorrow and I… It feels a little like vertigo at first.”
Baxter’s eyes were narrowed, and he was frowning intently. “Katherine, what are you talking about?”
“Most of the visions since that day in the gym have come so quickly.” She swallowed the lump in her throat and pressed on. “But I’ve been working to try to… stretch them. I don’t know how to explain it. The first time it was just seconds. Like… a glitch in an old film reel. I saw something happen, but then when the vertigo passed, when the world came back into focus, the seconds hadn’t
