“You can’t still be mad at me, Bette,” Alice said as she left yet another message on Bette’s voice mail.  “Who knew she’d get that attached to me?  Will you please just call me?”

            Helena gave Alice a sad, understanding grimace.  “Phyllis did seem extremely upset by the end of the party.  Couldn’t you have waited to beak her heart until after the guests had left?”

            “No,” Alice yelled.  “No, you do not get to lecture me.  I wouldn’t have even gone over there if I hadn’t of had to save your ass.”

            Not willing to be drawn into an argument with Alice, Helena merely replied, “Thank you for that, by the way.”

            Bette glanced at her phone.  Already Tina had called her twice and Alice had called three times, but Bette just wasn’t in the mood for talking to either one of them.  She stared at the massive stack of paperwork on the budget and other funding issues that Phyllis had dropped off for her.  Phyllis hadn’t said a single word to her all morning, and Bette didn’t know whether she should be grateful or extremely worried.

            “Good morning, Dean Porter!” Bette was more than a little surprised to see Tom enter her office unannounced.  “No one was at the desk so I just came in…I have a message for you.”

            “Oh?” Bette said, pretending to sound uninterested.

            “Yes, I’ve been sent to remind you that you agreed to consider adding a few new classes to the department.”  Tom held out a list classes that Jodi and some of the other faculty members had hoped to add to the curriculum.  “We thought that perhaps with the activities of last night you may have forgotten.”

            “No, I remember,” Bette assured him taking the list.  “Where is Silent Bob this morning? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you apart?”

            “Well, if you mean Jodi,” giving Bette a stern look, “She had a meeting with the department chair.”

            “And she didn’t need you?”

            “Evidently not, because she sent me here.  And she wanted me to copy some papers for her afternoon class.”

            Bette nodded, standing up to open the blinds and let some light into her office.  Turning back to Tom, “Is there anything else?”