Page 4 • Dec 15, 2025

“And sorry about the uncomfortable jokes. I hope none of them have crossed the line into harassment?”

“I’m a Black woman in a predominantly white department of a predominantly white university in an overwhelmingly white state, so I’ve been on the receiving end of more than my fair share of microaggressions, but let’s focus on the good stuff while I give you your tour of the building, hmm?” She led the way toward the stairs.

Page 26 • Dec 15, 2025

Recognizing that she was heading into what her therapist would call a negative thought pattern, Michelle set down her whisky and opened her laptop. She loaded her university email, frowning as her screen filled with unread messages. Somehow, she always forgot how much correspondence came with the start of a new academic year.

Page 28 • Dec 16, 2025

Audrey slipped into an all-gender restroom—something she was thrilled to see that her alma mater had adopted since she was a student—and took care of business.

Page 91 • Dec 17, 2025

Michelle wasn’t naive. She was forty-five years old, for god’s sake. She knew attraction when she felt it, but she couldn’t lust after her former student. She just couldn’t. Honestly, it had been so long since she’d felt anything for anyone. Her marriage had been dead romantically for years. She’d actually been excited about the possibility of feeling butterflies for someone new, but it couldn’t be Audrey.

Page 100 • Dec 17, 2025

“You know, when I asked if you had a thing for Michelle, you made a big deal about what a bad idea it would be to date a coworker, but you never actually denied having feelings for her.”

Audrey opened her mouth, then closed it again. Busted.

Page 132 • Dec 17, 2025

don’t feel much of anything when I think of my parents. I’m tired of talking about them, though.”

Page 134 • Dec 17, 2025

Audrey was thirsty

Page 138 • Dec 17, 2025

“You wouldn’t be imposing. I’d love to have the company, and showing people how to use the wheel is pretty much my favorite thing.”

Page 144 • Dec 17, 2025

“Oh, but . . .” I already have one, she wanted to say, but the words got lost, because Audrey’s fingers had dipped into the top of the clay. Not all her fingers, just her index and middle finger. They pressed into the clay in a gesture so undeniably sapphic that Michelle’s skin flushed hot, and her core clenched as if those two fingers had just dipped inside her.

Page 144 • Dec 17, 2025

Audrey pressed those two fingers into the clay, and Michelle couldn’t be the first lesbian to find this erotic. Because good lord, the way Audrey’s fingers dipped into that clay . . . Michelle pressed her thighs together, hating herself for reacting this way. Audrey had invited her over to show her a skill, not for Michelle to write mental porn about Audrey’s fingers.

Page 145 • Dec 17, 2025

So wet, Michelle’s sex-starved brain supplied.

Page 145 • Dec 17, 2025

Audrey was talking again, explaining her process as the clay slowly transformed into the shape of a teacup. She kept using the word “wet,” and it was having a most inconvenient effect on Michelle. Making a teacup didn’t take as long as Michelle had expected, and she attributed that to Audrey’s talent.

Page 147 • Dec 17, 2025

Michelle should say no. Drinking alcohol while her judgment was already impaired by her rampaging hormones was a recipe for disaster. Or maybe a glass of wine would help calm her down.

Page 147 • Dec 17, 2025

The wine was a mistake. Halfway through her second glass, Michelle found that her inhibitions were hopelessly blurred. She sat entirely too close to Audrey on the sofa as she waxed poetic on the most influential women in realism, including one of her all-time favorites, Rosa Bonheur.

Page 148 • Dec 17, 2025

“Don’t back out because of your shirt. Just borrow one. Please? We’re going to have so much fun.”

Page 149 • Dec 17, 2025

Too much fun, perhaps. Maybe that was why Michelle kept looking for reasons to back out. “Okay. I’ll borrow a shirt.”

Page 150 • Dec 17, 2025

“First, you want to get it wet.” Audrey gestured to the wheel head, and Michelle really needed her to stop using that word.

Page 150 • Dec 17, 2025

She’d forgotten what the process was called.

Page 150 • Dec 17, 2025

“Harder, Michelle.”

Maybe it was the wine, but those words from Audrey’s lips had a surprisingly arousing effect.

Page 151 • Dec 17, 2025

“It feels nice, right?” Audrey asked.

“Mm-hmm.” Michelle watched her fingers

Page 152 • Dec 17, 2025

You’re going to wet these two fingers”—she held up her index and middle fingers, making Michelle flush—

Page 152 • Dec 17, 2025

She should have declined wine and gone straight home because this . . . she should feel ashamed. Her headspace was so inappropriate, but all she felt was excitement. Her heart was speeding, and her stomach tingled pleasantly.

Page 153 • Dec 17, 2025

Michelle registered warmth against her back a moment before Audrey’s arms came around her. Her hands covered Michelle’s as she began to guide her.

Michelle inhaled, leaning back involuntarily so that Audrey’s breasts pressed against her shoulder blades. Audrey’s hands cradled Michelle’s, adjusting the angle of her fingers, and she watched in wonder

Page 154 • Dec 17, 2025

Her whole body shuddered, and her skin flushed warm. Her knees were parted

Page 154 • Dec 17, 2025

“Like this,” Audrey murmured, her fingers skimming over Michelle’s, making her ache.

Page 154 • Dec 17, 2025

Michelle could hardly breathe. Every sensation in her body had been distilled to her hands, nerve endings misfiring all over the place as Audrey caressed her fingers. For several long moments, neither of them spoke. Neither of them moved, except for the way Audrey’s fingers stroked hers. Michelle felt like she might pass out. She sucked in a rough breath, hearing it hitch in her throat in an embarrassingly needy way.

In response, Audrey dropped her head, her breath warm against Michelle’s neck.

“Audrey,” she gasped, and it came out low and pleading.

Page 154 • Dec 17, 2025

Audrey’s fingers moved, sliding up Michelle’s wrists to her forearms. She watched, mesmerized,

Page 155 • Dec 17, 2025

Hearts. She was drawing hearts on Michelle’s skin, hearts painted in clay.

Page 155 • Dec 17, 2025

Michelle’s lungs had lost their rhythm. Her breaths came out loud and raspy. Audrey’s fingers continued to doodle hearts on her arms, and every touch intensified the ache in Michelle’s core.

Page 155 • Dec 17, 2025

She’d completely lost control, and for once in her life, she didn’t care.

Page 157 • Dec 17, 2025

Michelle sucked in several deep breaths, and Audrey could practically hear her thinking, as that sexy brain of hers attempted to make sense of things. Audrey’s brain was starting to come back online, too, whirling with a combination of I actually kissed Michelle Thompson, and That was the hottest kiss of my life, and We really shouldn’t do it again.

Page 158 • Dec 17, 2025

“I just . . . what is there to talk about?” Michelle had clearly cooled off now.

Page 158 • Dec 17, 2025

“We kissed.” Audrey stated the obvious. “We are coworkers who kissed, so whether or not we plan to ever kiss again, we need to talk about it and get on the same page.”

“Oh lord.” Michelle rubbed her hands over her face, and bits of dried clay flaked off, drifting toward the floor. “I don’t know what to say.”

Page 159 • Dec 17, 2025

She kissed Michelle.

Michelle kissed her back.

For a minute there, Michelle had looked absolutely desperate to do more than kiss, and that was something Audrey would never forget. As long as she lived, she might never comprehend why she’d started finger painting hearts on Michelle’s arms like that. It was like she’d fallen into a hormonal trance once they sat at the wheel together.

Page 160 • Dec 17, 2025

She’d known better than to see Audrey outside work. Everything about today had been a terrible idea, even if it had been so refreshingly fun and exciting, right up to the moment she’d ruined everything. Michelle wanted to curl up in a ball and cry.

Page 170 • Dec 17, 2025

Michelle wasn’t sure how she’d reached this point, where she spent each day counting down the minutes until she saw Audrey. Their time together had become the highlight of her week, especially when Audrey came to her office for afternoon tea. Michelle would sip her herbal blend and enjoy some of the most intellectually stimulating conversations she’d ever had while trying desperately not to think about the way it had felt when Audrey kissed her and how badly Michelle wanted to kiss her again.

Page 171 • Dec 17, 2025

Michelle didn’t have that kind of relationship with her own mother. The idea of drinking margaritas and watching silly movies together was too foreign to even form a mental image.

Page 179 • Dec 17, 2025

As Michelle entered Holman Hall on Monday morning, Kate’s words were still ringing in her ears. She didn’t want to hope for another kiss. Audrey had been clear that it couldn’t happen, but Michelle couldn’t seem to rein in her fantasies. And she couldn’t wait to see Audrey again. If anything, the bond between them seemed to have strengthened over the break while they were exchanging all those messages. Michelle loved this new development in their friendship.

Page 187 • Dec 17, 2025

“We can . . . talk.”

“I want to do more than talk.” Audrey hardly recognized her own voice. It was soft and raspy, as if she’d just screamed for two hours at a concert . . . or had her entire mind blown by a thirty-second kiss from Michelle Thompson.

Michelle’s cheeks turned the sexiest shade of pink at Audrey’s words. “I . . . do too.”

“This is an extremely surreal conversation to be having at the lectern of my classroom.” Impulsively, Audrey gripped the lapels of Michelle’s blazer and pulled her in for another kiss. Their bodies bumped, and Michelle let out the sexiest little whimper.

Page 233 • Dec 17, 2025

He wasn’t the source of Michelle’s current discomfort. That was caused by the adults in the room. Both her siblings were here with their heteronormative families, sharing life updates that met traditional expectations.

Michelle’s mother oohed and aahed over anniversaries and school performances while giving her pointed looks as if to remind her that she was forty-five, childless, and divorced.

Page 233 • Dec 17, 2025

“Michelle, Oliver Braithwaite will be joining us for dinner.”

She turned toward her mother. “Oh?”

“Yes, dear.” Elizabeth Thompson regarded her over the rim of her wineglass. “It will help the table look more balanced.”

Page 233 • Dec 17, 2025

“He’s single,” her mother added, as if Michelle hadn’t caught on to where this was going yet. “He leads the youth group at church. All the women are quite taken with him. A real charmer.”

Page 234 • Dec 17, 2025

Her mother’s lips pursed. “Why must you always be so difficult? The Christmas service is a time to see and be seen. Oliver—”

Page 235 • Dec 17, 2025

With a huff, her mother sipped from her wine. “Fine, but you’ve disappointed me greatly, Michelle. I want you to know that.”

Page 278 • Dec 18, 2025

“You’re such a weirdo.” Audrey kissed her cheek.

“I’m your weirdo.”

Page 284 • Dec 18, 2025

Audrey grinned, swiping at her cheeks. “Oh my god, are we U-Hauling right now?”

Michelle scoffed, even as a smile tugged at her lips. “Hardly. We’ve been together for months already. If anything, we’re moving slow by lesbian standards.”

“I’m not a lesbian, but I still love it.”