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“Goodbye, dear. Have a good afternoon.”
The call ended, and I let out a scream.
“What was that all about?” Autumn asked as someone knocked on my front door.
“The first step to my new life,” I replied as I rushed to the door and opened it. Pulling Clare into the room, I grabbed her hands and started jumping around again. Clare laughed and joined right in.
“Did you and Finn get back together?”
Instantly, it felt as if the air had been sucked from the room. The pain that had settled into my chest for the last two weeks returned with a vengeance.
With a frown, I shook my head. “No. He hasn’t returned any of my calls or answered any of my texts. I’ve even tried to go and see if I can catch him leaving his place, but I never see him.”
Clare squeezed my hands. “Don’t give up. Keep texting. Keep calling. Just give it time.”
Autumn walked over with a wide grin. “Rory’s been offered a teaching position!”
Clare sucked in a breath. “What? That’s amazing.”
Laughing, I held up my hands. “Well, hold on. He only wants to talk to me about a teaching position. I haven’t been offered anything, and I’m not sure teaching a law class is what I had in mind when I said teaching.”
“Rory, that’s amazing, though. How crazy is that? What do they want you to teach?”
“Union law,” I replied.
“Right up your alley,” Autumn said with a thumbs-up.
“Professor Williams was my advisor, and he told me right before I graduated from law school that he wanted me to go and get some real-world experience, then come back and teach at Harvard. I laughed it off at the time, because I didn’t think it would ever happen. Well, I guess he heard my name on the news conference a few weeks back and decided to reach out. I’m not sure it’s what I want, but I’m definitely going to hear him out.”
“Good!” Clare said. “It gets your foot in the door at Harvard, if that’s the road you choose.”
I nodded. “Yeah. I really need to think about what I’m going to do, and soon. My rent is pretty expensive. I’ve got about eight months of rent saved, so that buys me some time.”
Clare and Autumn both stared at me with dumbfounded expressions.
“Holy shit,” Autumn gasped. “So that’s what grown-ups do with all the money they don’t use on going out and buying beer?”
I stared at her for a second before I busted out laughing. Clare rolled her eyes and added, “Here I thought my two months of rent was good enough. Rory, why must you be such an overachiever.”
Rolling my eyes, I motioned for Clare to stop talking. “Hey, we should go out and celebrate me moving on with this part of my life.”
Both Clare and Autumn grinned. “Hell yes. You need to get out and party. Enjoy life a little bit and stop worrying about your hot firefighter.”
My smile faded. “I’m not so sure he’s mine anymore.”
Clare held up her finger. “He’s not yours right now, but he will be.”
I wished I had the confidence they both had. As the days had gone by and I’d heard nothing from Finn, I’d grown more and more worried that he was moving on. I’d spent the last two weeks crying myself to sleep. For all I knew, Finn was out partying it up again like he used to do before we met. The thought made my stomach ache.
“Let’s find you something sexy to wear,” Autumn said as Clare clapped her hands and followed us into my bedroom.
—
The music was loud. My dress was so tight I could hardly breathe. Guys wouldn’t stop staring at my breasts. And I was not feeling like myself.
And I was having a good time.
It was the first time in two weeks I was letting go of the worry and heartache—mostly. My heart still ached and I couldn’t stop thinking about Finn, but I was having fun, for the sake of my friends and my own sanity.
