Chapter Text
You huff in relief, setting down the last box on the floor, finally taking in the space around you. A studio apartment above a bagel shop. It's the cheapest rent you could find in the area given that you've moved hundreds of miles away from where you last lived for this job. A ‘not exactly what you were looking for’ job that doesn't pay as well as your last one. But it's a job and you have student loans to pay. The rent includes water, gas, and electricity. If you budget correctly you can pay your loans, pay the rent, pay your phone with a hotspot, and still be able to buy vegetables. You sold your car when your now boss said that there's a bus that comes right by your apartment that goes to the college.
Your friends back home think you’re crazy. But Westview State is one of the best schools on the east coast. You had applied as a joke to yourself thinking that your far away location would have left you not even getting a first interview. But apparently they loved that you had a background in working with the disability community more specifically with teenagers and young adults. Granted it’s a tutoring job. A full time tutoring job but tutors are making lowest scale salaries in comparison to others there. But you aren't deterred. You have your Masters in psychology and plan to start a PhD as soon as those employee benefits kick in for tuition reimbursement. Westview is an amazing school. You'd learned while doing research that most employees take one of two paths. One: get a based job, work for a few years, and apply to an even more prestigious school. Two: get a job of any kind and work up the ladder until they have a position they'd be happy with for the rest of their working life and never leave. Westview is known for hiring from within when they can.
You’re hoping for track two. Westview is close to New York City, a train ride to Philly, Baltimore, and DC, and close to a bunch of sports stadiums. Most of that stuff will have to wait until you get a higher position but you don’t mind.
The sound of a sleepy meow brings you back to yourself. “Oh my sweet angel you must want to get out of there!” You say in a singsong voice. Chickpea, your dopey tuxedo cat meows at you again more awake now. He presses his paws on the door of his carrier gently giving a nice big stretch. You as always praise him for said stretch as you open his carrier. He pops his head out cautiously before looking up at you confused. It reminds you of the day you found him. His head had been stuck in a tin can of chickpeas, hence the name. When you took it off he looked absolutely flabbergasted.
“Welcome to your new home Chickpea.” You say sweetly. You reach down and pick him up, carrying him over to the bathroom where you had placed his litterbox a little while ago. “There ya go buddy.” You say setting him down in the box. He seems to get the idea after digging around and hops out.
He looks at you and gives a long “Meoooooow.” at you. His telltale sign of hunger. You oblige him since it is a little past his normal dinner time. You start walking away and he follows you as he does. You watch him look around the apartment as you go. “I know Chickpea. It’s very different from what we had before. But I promise there’s still a nice window for you to look out from and plot the demise of all birds.”
He looks at you skeptically but as you look out said window and see the town you can’t help but feel at peace. Yes this has been a very large change for you. But the prospects ahead look bright.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
You yawn stepping off the bus and notice a few others getting off with you. You give a quick glance at each of them and wager a guess that they also work here by the professional clothing. You think about greeting them but decide against it unsure of how important they are. The last thing you want is to piss off some higher up by not knowing who they are and jeopardize your chances of moving up.
You open your phone and go to the map sent to you by HR. You find the bus stop and start making your way - unfortunately - to the other side of campus to their office. Thankfully the Tutoring Center is in the central hub of the campus which means just a 5 minute walk from the bus stop.
You're happy you got on the earlier bus, peacefully taking in the scenery of the campus. It has been there since the 1870’s so there are well preserved older buildings mixed with more modern ones. Though there seems to have been an effort to give the modern buildings that touch of old to fit in a bit better. You let out a comfortable sigh as you remember though it looks like a private school with all the old buildings, this is a public college.
Your heart races as you remember back to May when the president of your old institution announced that the school would be closing at the end of term. A small liberal arts college that had lost a lot of donors over the years. A few scandals had occurred and then the board of trustees pushed out a very well loved female president and installed an election denying male president. That announcement came the day after “Giving Tuesday” which resulted in 100s of donors retracting their donations. You were also devastated because that was your alma mater. Eight years in total were spent there. First as an undergrad, next a graduate assistant, and finally for the last two years as an assistant professor of psychology.
You feel a well of emotion thinking about everything and remind yourself to text your former students and coworkers about receiving this new job. It’s been such a whirlwind since they offered this position to you, you've barely had time to tell anyone except your closest friends and family. You come back to yourself and set yourself straight just as you make it to the building that houses HR. You go through the sliding doors and up stairs to the third floor and wait to be called.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Thirty minutes later you're out the door with an ID, a set of three keys, and signed paperwork. Sharon the head of HR was very sweet which was so odd but you don't mind. It's a nice change to anyone else you've ever interacted with from an HR department.
You decide to look at the map and take a little walk. There’s twenty minutes before you’re supposed to report in and don’t want to be too early and seem too eager. You want to present as a normal, confident, non anxious person. You definitely don't have a deep seeded fear that this will not work out and then you'll have to move back home with your parents and end up back in clinical work where you never want to return.
You're so caught up in your thoughts, face buried in your phone that you don't notice the two figures in front of you until you crash right into them. The sound books thumping to the ground and the splash of liquid hit your ears before your eyes track to the mess. You see four books on the ground and an iced coffee with the lid popped off, contents sinking into the grass.
“Oh my god I am so sorry.” You say hurriedly as you drop to the ground to pick up the books. You scoop them all into your arms and stand. “I'll grab the cup in just a second I’m-” Your brain stops working as a mix of gay panic and absolute mortification kicks you in the ribs coming face to face with the hot woman from your second round interview. The psychology professor that grilled you so hard you thought there was no way in hell they were going to offer you the position.
She has a delighted smirk on her face. “Dr. Vidal I- um- hello-shit sorry.” You stammer out, quickly stooping down and managing to grab the cup without dropping the books. “I am so sorry, Dr. Vidal. I was looking around the campus before reporting to the Tutoring Center and got a little sucked into my thoughts.” Your eyes finally make their way to the other figure and your gay panic redoubles. She's the tiniest bit shorter than Dr. Vidal. You quickly glance down at the books and see classic literature titles and look back at the other woman. “I um… I think these are yours. Again I'm really sorry.”
You notice now that she has these piercing blue eyes and a devious smirk on her lips. You watch her eyes flick down to the books. “How do you know those are mine?” She asks smoothly, her smirk growing just a bit.
“Well I uh- I know Dr. Vidal is a psychology professor so I thought -” You try to explain.
“Take a breath newbie. I'm kidding.” The blue eyed woman sticks out her hand. “Agatha Harkness, professor of English.”
Dr. Vidal relieves you of the empty cup in your hand, now able to shake Professor Harkness's. “She specializes in Shakespeare and Witchcraft Literature. She's also Dr. Harkness to the students… and newbies if she doesn’t like them.” Dr. Vidal said, letting her eyes sweep over you. Her smirk grows.
“Dr. Harkness, it's nice to meet you. I'm really sorry about the books and the coffee. Whoever's coffee that was, I owe you one.” You say releasing Dr. Harness’s hand. It tingles a bit but you know it's just your useless lesbian genes kicking in.
“Well if you have time you can take me there now, newbie.” Dr. Vidal says, wiggling her eyebrows. Your attention shoots to her nervously trying to find words to say. You’re so distracted that you barely notice the books leaving your hands. Glancing over to Dr. Harkness, she gives you a wink, tucking the books under her arm.
You feel blush start creeping into your cheeks with all this attention from two absurdly hot women. You look down at your phone and realize it's almost ten minutes to nine and look back up nervously. “I… I wanted to report to my boss a little bit early for my first day. Could I uh… bring you one tomorrow or maybe later today?” Your voice is tentative and you can't stop fidgeting with your phone.
The women exchange a glance before looking back at you. You can't explain it but you feel like a piece of meat under their gaze. Dr. Vidal speaks. “Sure that's fine. But you have to bring her one too. We're in my office every morning from seven-thirty to eight-thirty.” She takes a step closer to you and from her hair comes a pen. She grabs your phoneless hand and puts the pen to your skin. You somehow manage to suppress the gasp coming from your lips. But the hair on the back of your neck pricks. Her grip is firm but her hands are so soft and you smell some kind of earthy floral perfume coming from her. She writes M 401.
“This is my office number.” She says, still looking at your hand. But then her gaze comes upwards. You can tell she sees you're flustered. Her smirk turns to a shit eating grin. “The M stands for the Maximoff building. I like iced coffee with cream and sugar. She likes a Scottish breakfast tea black. Drop by tomorrow morning… And feel free to drop by whenever. I'd love to pick your brain about that thesis of yours from the interview.” Her tone was casual for the most part but her last sentence almost sounded flirtatious.
Dr. Harkness’s voice rings in your ears. “Honestly Rio you're incorrigible. Look, you've flustered the newbie. Stop hazing them so they can go to work.” Her tone is a gentle scold but when you look over to her she looks rather amused.
Somehow you manage to form words. “Well uh thank you for the room number. And again super sorry about the books and the coffee. I’ll um pop over tomorrow around eight tomorrow with the tea and coffee.” Your voice is ever so slightly shaky as you step back a little bit.
They both nod in agreement at you and give each other one more quick glance. “Sounds good newbie. We'll see you then.” Dr. Harkness says with a still amused smile. She turns Dr. Vidal forty five degrees linking her arms with the other woman and starts to walk away.
“Enjoy your first day newbie.” Dr. Vidal calls out. She turns her head in your direction flashing a teasing smile as well as a peace sign.
All you manage to do is return the peace sign weakly before turning on your heels in the direction of the Tutoring Center and speed walk away. “What in the actual fuck was that you useless lesbian?” You mutter to yourself. You glance down at your palm and feel blush rush into your cheeks. Jesus this was going to be bad. Tomorrow is going to be rough but you have to be a normal person. Just take them their drinks. Have a little small talk and leave. Then avoid them on campus at all costs until you adjust to their hotness and can be a normal person.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
You make it to your new work home at 8:51 and are greeted by a statuesque woman with warm brown skin and a faded buzzcut.
“Y/N, I’m so glad to finally see you in person.” She exclaims brightly.
“Same goes for me, Jennifer.” You reply back respectfully as you stick out your hand to shake hers.
“You can call me Jen. Welcome to Westview. Did the move go okay?” She asks, letting the handshake end as she gestures for you to follow.
“Yeah I got here on Thursday. Spent most of the time setting up and settling in.” You say just as you reach your new home away from home. A giant round table with a sign in the middle that says Psychology Tutor All Undergrad Course Levels. A few feet away you spot a small desk with a little basket and what looks to be a card that says ‘Welcome!’ You smile to yourself feeling more comfortable than you could have ever imagined.