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“Hey, Evie. It’s Paolo,” he said, and I groaned inwardly for not looking at the caller ID before answering. I had no mental capacity to deal with this.
“Paolo?” I asked, Tozi grumbling in the back of my mind. “What’s wrong? Why are you calling so early? Did something happen?”
“Oh, shit! I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I would be waking you up. I just got off my patrol shift, and I wanted to catch you before work,” he answered.
I sat up and sighed. “It’s okay. What can I do for you?”
“I decided to go back to school. I want to try to get a degree so I can stop working on cars,” he started.
“Oh, I thought you loved working on cars?” I asked.
“I do, but I thought maybe some other sort of degree would help me move a little up the ranks, you know. Do something useful with my life, but I was wondering, do you have a spare laptop you’re not using that I can borrow? I need to register and figure out what classes I need to take.”
“Oh, sure. I think I have one. Can I bring it over later?” I asked.
“I was hoping I could just come over and grab it from you now. I am going to be busy over the next week,” he responded.
“Uhh, sure. I’ll get it ready for you. Give me twenty minutes?”
“Yes. Thanks, Evie. You’re the best.”
I grumbled a goodbye and dragged myself out of bed. I had a bunch of old laptops that I used when I needed to run programs off the servers or test programs without the risk of wiping or burning my work computer. Now that I worked for Crescent Moon, I didn’t need them, so they had been sitting in my closet.
I grabbed the newest one of the bunch and did a quick data wipe and factory reset. I would usually do a more thorough job of it, but it would have to do. It was only Paolo, after all. I waited on the couch with the window open so I wouldn’t wake Zi up. I opened the door and stepped outside, still in my pajamas, when I saw Paolo walking up the steps.
“Morning,” I said and handed him the laptop in its protective case.
“Thanks, you’re the best,” he said, grinning, but it fell after a moment. “Are you okay? You look like shit.”
“I’m fine. I’m just tired,” I lied.
“I’m sorry I woke you up,” he said.
“It’s fine. I hope you’re able to figure out what you want to study. Don’t worry about returning it. Consider it a gift,” I said.
Paolo hugged me and kissed me on the forehead.
“Thanks, Evie. You’re awesome!” he said.
I nodded and did my best to smile. Paolo left after that, and I looked off toward the pack house. I wanted to mind-link Cory but remembered it was too early, and Cory was probably asleep right now. I was closing the door when I heard a wolf howling in the distance. It sounded so mournful that for a moment I wondered if someone had passed away. I went back under the covers and tried to go back to sleep, but wasn’t able to get a single minute of rest. Cory’s face and words were on repeat in my head until I finally got up and decided to go to work.
Jo and James showed up alone at the office. They had some food for us as usual, but somehow, I knew immediately that Cory hadn’t made it. I was so embarrassed over my outburst last night that I didn’t bother to leave my office. I didn’t know what to say to my friends. How could I explain what was going through my head and why I acted the way I did back then and now? I tried to make myself small behind my computer, but I knew it wasn’t going to do much. After a little while of pretending my work was the most fascinating thing on earth, I heard a knock on the door, and Jo walked in.
“Good morning,” he said.
“Morning.”
“I brought you breakfast, and here’s the Kalimba,” he said, pushing both toward me.
“I’m sorry about last night,” I said right off the bat.
“I’m sorry, too. James doesn’t know when to stop pushing sometimes,” he said. “He feels really bad about it.”
I shook my head. “It’s not his fault. I was already feeling like shit. He just caught me on a bad day.”
“Evie, I have to ask. What happened? What were they saying?” he asked. I sighed and shook my head again.
“It was nothing that I should have let get to me, but I was young, and I just felt like I wasn’t good enough for any of you. I couldn’t understand why any of you would care about me, and so when they whispered that the only reason you guys hung out with me was because of Dad, it played right into my insecurities,” I explained.
