A Decent Proposal

Christine sat in the department lounge, worrying at a lock of her hair while she proofread her proposal. Everything seemed in order. Her case was compelling, the material was exciting, and she’d managed to reign in her expectations enough to keep the budget in check. It was, if she was being honest with herself, excellent.

“Alright, ready to take a look?” she asked her friend.

Mary was a fellow student. When Christine had first moved out here for the program she hadn’t known a single other person. She would have been alright with that - she hadn’t had many good friends back in college either and that hadn’t bothered her much - but Mary had had other plans. She brought Christine under her wing and the two had become fast friends. Their second year in the program they’d even gotten an apartment together.

“Yeah, scoot,” Mary answered. She walked over to the couch and plopped herself down beside Christine. The two traded laptops and Mary started reading with Christine pressed up beside her to watch over her shoulder. Mary was a small girl, and the two fit together easily.

Mary recommended a few small changes as she went- moving some sections around, rephrasing sentences - but saved the major criticisms until the end.

“So…” Christine prodded. “What do you think?”

Mary leaned back. “It’s definitely ambitious. Which is good. But it’s also expensive. Flying out to Iraq isn’t nothing.”

Christine frowned. “I got the cost down. And it’s not like we can do the research from here.”

“I know. But still.”

Christine shook her head. “Daniel,” their department head, “will understand. This is too big of a deal to just sit on.”

Mary laughed. “Not everyone is as in it for the love of the game as you. Daniel has to justify his expenses to the administration.”

“He’ll understand,” Christine repeated confidently.

“Maybe he will. Besides, a hot girl like you, how could he say no?” Mary gave her friend a smile and punched her playfully in the arm.

Christine had to admit it was nice having someone so close. Mary was always building her up. Christine did her best to return the favor, but it didn’t come as naturally to her. Not that Mary didn’t have things to complement. Christine’s roommate was smart, probably the second best student in the program after Christine. She worked hard. And, Christine knew, she was cute too. Mary had short brown hair she kept in a pixie cut, a heart shaped face with a button nose, and an athletic build she came by honestly through tennis.

Sometimes, in quiet moments, Christine would wonder what it would be like to date Mary. They had a lot in common, they had good chemistry, they were so comfortable together…but of course Christine was into guys. She knew that for a fact.

She’d had a few relationships over the years, and they’d mostly been good. She had even saw a future with a couple of them. The sticking point had always been sex. It wasn’t that Christine didn’t like it. She did. But once a month was plenty for her. It wasn’t for the guys.

She wondered how often Mary liked to have sex. It wasn’t exactly the sort of thing you could ask. Christine had managed to figure that much out. Maybe if she dated another girl the frequency wouldn’t be such a problem.

Too bad she was definitely straight.

“Thanks,” Christine said, feeling confident now that Mary had given the proposal her approval. It was definitely ambitious. She was hoping to get funding for herself and a small team - hopefully including Mary - to go and try to track down where that book she’d been studying for Adrian was from. It was an unbelievably well preserved relic, which meant that it had to have been stored under remarkably safe conditions. If she hadn’t personally overseen the tests she wouldn’t have even believed it was as old as it was. If she could find its origin then maybe there would be other, similarly well-preserved artifacts to discover. She could dream.

Christine had begged Adrian to let her hang on to it, to preserve it with the sort of meticulous care that such things deserved. He had been very resistant, however. Very cagey. Eventually, almost too late, Christine had realized she was pushing too hard and that Adrian was at risk of walking. So, reluctantly, she’d backed off.

But for god’s sake, he was keeping it in a bag!

At least he was finally willing to take the next step. She didn’t know what she would have done if he had insisted on holding it back forever. She might have had to steal it. In the name of the shared cultural inheritance of all humanity, of course. It wasn’t like she was going to pawn it.

“Whose notes are these?” Mary asked, mousing over some comments along the side of the document.

“Oh, those are Roger’s.” Roger was another member of their program. He’d been there two years longer than they had and was almost set to defend his thesis.

“You showed this to Roger?” The smaller girl looked incredulous.

Christine didn’t know what the big deal was. They all helped each other out. “Yeah. I couldn’t find you and wanted someone to look over an early draft.”

Mary shook her head. “He’s working on his own proposal, Christine.”

“What?”

“Yeah. He wants to go into the field at an indigenous dig site.”

Christine was confused. “But…he didn’t say anything about that.”

“He’s been working on it for weeks,” Mary confirmed. “He’s going to undercut you on this.”

Christine’s pulse quickened. “He wouldn’t do that.”

Mary laughed. “Yeah, he absolutely would. Roger’s a dick.”

“He wouldn’t dare,” Christine insisted, this time more hotly.

Mary saw the anger in Christine’s eyes and placed a placating hand on her friend’s knee. “It’s alright. At least you know now. Come on, I’ll help. We just need to make sure that your proposal is a better value for the money his is, even if costs more up front. I don’t know, maybe we can play up the prestige angle.”

Christine nodded. She was not going to miss this opportunity.

The two settled in. There was a lot of work to get done.