She actually pouted. “I said I wanted us to have lunch, go out for a drink, have coffee, talk in the halls – like you do with other colleagues.”
I inhaled deeply, driving on once the light changed, my mind working to figure out how to handle this.
“Look, I’m a newlywed with a wife I adore. I’d rather not become too friendly. Sorry. We’re colleagues at work, and of course we’ll consult and be friendly—at work.”
We pulled up to her apartment block and I left the car in drive, not planning on spending one iota more time with her than absolutely necessary. I waited for her to get out of the car.
“I think lunch next week at Misha is on the agenda. I’ll see you tomorrow for coffee when you’re done. Message me when you’re finished at the foundation. I’ll come by your office.”
She opened her door, but I stopped her before she could leave.
“No, Lisa. I can’t. I’m not going to be taking you out for lunch to Misha next week and I’m busy all afternoon and don’t have time for coffee.”
“You will,” she said and got out bending down to look at me from the open door. “You’ll message me and I’m having coffee with you tomorrow and lunch next week. Maybe Tuesday since I’m busy Monday.”
“Or what?”
“Or I have lots of stories to tell. Lots of people who might be very interested in those stories.” Then she smiled and slammed the door, flouncing off up the stairs and into her building.
Did she really think I was going to take her out for lunch and coffee and drinks under duress?
She was unhinged.
I wrote an email to Fred Parker while I sat there, my car engine idling.
Fred, I have to see you asap. I’ll be withdrawing from the fellowship due to unforeseen circumstances. Can you get the paperwork going? Thanks and sorry for the trouble. Cheers, Drake.
I didn’t send it. Instead, I saved it to my email server and would wait until I spoke with Kate.
Then I drove off. Lisa was not going to win. The best offense is a defense and so I decided to go on defensive. I’d withdraw, take a leave of absence, and cut Lisa off at the pass. She wanted war? Sun Tzu wrote that the supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. I wasn’t going to fight at all. I wasn’t even going near the battlefield.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Kate
I never counted on the fatigue.
I thought I’d take the meds and would be back to normal, but the side effects made me feel so tired, I had a hard time going about my day. Despite the meds, I was still slightly nauseated in the early morning, and started throwing up my crackers and water, which I kept at my bedside so I could get something into my stomach. Sometimes, an empty stomach was worse than having some food in it.
I only threw up once in the day, so that was much better than before, but I felt like a zombie the rest of the day and it wasn’t until bedtime that I stopped feeling like I could sleep standing up. As a result, I didn’t get any real work done until late at night¸ and Drake became concerned. We went to see Dr. McAllister again and she gave me a different prescription for a new medication that worked better to stop nausea without any risk to the baby or mother. It was new, and I didn’t want to take it unless my morning sickness got intolerable again.
So while my nausea and morning sickness had diminished from the weeks before, and wasn’t as debilitating, I still didn’t get much work done on my thesis. It made me frustrated and sad, so the few hours I had late at night were the only time I could get any work done. I was behind and had to ask for yet another extension.
I’d called Dr. Brandt, one of my thesis advisors, and asked him if I could get more time.
“Kate, at some point, it might be better to take a leave of absence for the rest of the year rather than keep delaying. You can always come back and finish your thesis when you’re feeling better, after the baby’s born and you’ve adapted to life as a new mother. Believe me, the university will still be here, the program will still be here, and all of us will still be here.”
“You’re right,” I said, resigned to it. “I’ve been given a different medication but it’s pretty new and it’s making me so sleepy that I can’t focus. I’ll take the rest of the semester off and we’ll see how I feel once the baby is older.”
So, it was with real sadness that I withdrew from my MA program a semester earlier than I thought I would have to. In fact, I sat down after I hung up the phone and cried my eyes out.
When Drake got home later that night, we sat down on the sofa after having dinner, and I broke the news to him.
“I withdrew from the MA program for a year.”
He turned to me and frowned. “What? Why?”
I shook my head. “I had to ask for another extension because I just can’t get any work done and Dr. Brandt suggested I take a leave of absence and come back when I’ve had the baby and have adjusted.”