6. She must have misread the text

Meg walked up to Dr. Nielsen’s office and opened the door without thinking. The man sitting across from Dr. Nielsen couldn’t have been an advisee. He was much older and Meg thought she recognized him from somewhere.

“Meg, what are you doing here?” Dr. Nielsen’s affect told Meg that she was treading in dangerous waters.

“I thought we had a meeting…” Meg trailed off not sure what else to say.

Dr. Nielsen’s voice was laden with meaning, “Our meeting is at 5:15. Not 4:15.”

“Oh god, I’m sorry.” Meg blushed with embarrassment. “I misread. I…”

“No, why don’t you stay.” The man spoke up. “I’d love to hear about Mila’s teaching style from one of her students.”

Meg looked at Dr. Nielsen for guidance. Everything in her face said ‘don’t fuck this up.’ Meg stepped inside the door and closed it behind her.

“Um… I mean she’s a great teacher.”

“How exactly is she a great teacher?” The man spun his chair to face Meg and leaned forward intently.

“She… she’ll do anything for her students. Like I’m not doing great and she’s really helping out.”

“Well that’s good to hear.” The man smiled. “We’d heard she was a bit cold with her students.”

“Oh no!” Meg shook her head, “definitely not cold.”

“Well good.” He turned back to Dr. Nielsen, “I’ll look forward to reading your end of semester survey results, but it’s nice to hear at least one of your students will give you a good review.” He stood and gathered his things to leave.

“Of course.” Dr. Nielsen smiled at the man. It looked a little ****. Meg could tell that this was a high stress meeting.

He bid goodbye to both women and stepped past Meg into the hallway. He shut the door behind him, leaving Meg with her math professor.

“That seemed… stressful.” Meg wasn’t quite sure how to make small talk in this situation. She knew she’d interrupted something important but didn’t quite understand the dynamics at play.

“Yes well,” Dr. Nielsen trailed off, “thank you for stepping up.”

“For sure.”

The silence hung in the air for a moment as both women looked at each other.