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“Good, because I’m not chauffeuring you around Chicago. I’m picking you up from work and taking you to one apartment.”

“I can take the train.”

“Not to that showing alone, you’re not.”

She narrows her eyes.

“Nonnegotiable.”

“You don’t get to make things nonnegotiable for me.”

“I wasn’t asking.” I cross my arms.

She mimics my stance. “Seriously.”

“You can hate me for it. But I know that area; you don’t, and I’m not going to sit here tonight wondering if you made it home okay when I could’ve driven you myself.”

Home.

Where did that come from?

For a second, she just looks at me, then sighs. “Fine.”

“Great.” I slap the cold marble. “Then that’s settled. So how are you getting to work?” I glance at the clock. “If you give me ten minutes to shower and throw on some clothes, I can drop you off on the way to the rink.”

“My car is loaded down with all my things. I really don’t want to try to maneuver through traffic with my back window blocked.”

“I don’t blame you. Plus, you don’t want to risk someone breaking into it.”

“Yeah, I’ll die if someone steals my books.”

I can’t help but laugh. Of course, she thinks of her books first. I was thinking passport or jewelry, but she was thinking about her signed, prized possessions.

“I’ll just take public transportation. The fellowship came with a pass. Technically, the internship does too. I just need to figure out whether the train or the bus makes more sense.”

“Look at you.”

“What?”

“Two days in Chicago and already a city girl.”

She points her cell phone at me. “I’m from Michigan, not the wilderness.”

“Debatable.”

“Jerk, you grew up there too.”

I grin; she’s not wrong. I might not have been born there, but I did a lot of growing up there. I spent the best part of my life in that coastal college town.

She glances down at Darcy brushing against her leg.

That reminds me. “What are you doing with him?”

She freezes.

Darcy looks up.

“What do you mean?”