Free Tenure Track by Victoria Bradley

knowing look as she realized her error.
    “ Not that I would ever text somebody durin’ class. Nooo . . . that would be rude!” She blushed as they both giggled then reached for a better example. “But like, when I go out with the girls, this guy Gus usually goes with us. Anyway, so if some skanky guy starts hittin’ on one of us, we text Gus and he’ll come to the rescue. That way, even if we can’t see him or he’s in the bathroom or somethin’, he knows we need him.”
    Lewis was having a hard time envisioning this scenario. “What does he do to the guys, beat them up?”
    “ Well, usually he pretends he’s our date, gets all flirty ‘n’ stuff,” she explained. “And . . . well, let’s just say Gus can be kinda intimidatin’. Guys won’t mess with him.”
    The vision of a linebacker sprang forth in the professor’s mind. “’Must be nice to have your own bodyguard.”
    “ Well, he’s kinda like an extra housemate, only his girlfriend’s parents don’t know he lives with us,” she revealed innocently.
    Lewis gave her a sly grin, intrigued by the student’s other life. “Mhmm, secretly living in sin. I see. And you’re helping. You’re sneakier than you look. Is that the girlfriend I met?”
    “ No, Blanca’s my other housemate. Julie is Gus’s girlfriend.”
    “ So how many of you are there?” he asked, feigning bewilderment.
    “ Just us four. Gus calls us Three Chicks and a Dick—oh, I’m sorry.” Her cheeks turning red once again, he smiled and assured her that he was not offended by such language. Inwardly, he was rather amused by her embarrassment.
    Getting back to business, she explained a few more scenarios in which texting could be useful, then offered to give him some tips on sending photos. He confessed that he had taken few cell phone photos, all of which were poor in quality. “I’m pretty old fashioned, I’m afraid. I still prefer 35 millimeter,” he admitted.
    “ That’s nice for artsy stuff,” she assessed, “but the camera phone is better for convenience. Ya know, like when you just happen to see somethin’ really funny or cool, so you snap a pic you can send out to all your friends. Like, last year I snapped Denzel Washington when he was in town makin’ a movie. I still have it stored on here.”
    She held up the photo and there indeed was the famous actor’s image, clear but captured at a strange angle. Mandy examined the photos stored on Lewis’s phone, diagnosing his problem as moving too much when snapping a shot. “You hafta keep your hand steady. Just move your finger, not the phone,” she advised.
    She tried to show him the best way to take clear camera phone photos, but his hand still kept jerking at the last second. She finally took his right hand and carefully positioned it around the phone. The skin on her fingertips felt smooth and soft as it rubbed against the tiny hairs on the back of his hand. He was aiming the camera at some books, which seemed pretty boring. “Why don’t I practice by taking a picture of you?” he suggested.
    She sat across from him and smiled a goofy grin as he clicked. “Very good!” she judged of the results. “Here, let me take one of you. You can send it to your wife.” She grabbed the phone from his hand and told him to smile.
    He tried, but the stiff, unnatural pose looked like a driver’s license portrait. She grimaced at the clear but unflattering outcome. “Now do something fun,” the photographer ordered. At first he balked, then after much prodding, he scrunched up his face into a silly side grin. “That’s great! She’ll love it!” Mandy beamed.
    He thanked her for taking the time to help him and told her to be sure to note it on her timesheet. After she left, he looked at the photos she had taken of him and sent them both off to Laura. Before clicking the cover closed, he looked at the photo of Mandy. Just as his thumb was about to hit the “delete” button, he stopped himself and hit