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SEVEN
MEADOW
If it wasn’t for the kittens, I wouldn’t be going home right now. I’d do anything to keep myself busy so I wasn’t thinking about Heath and all the things he might be doing with her.
I’m so stupid. How did I let myself fall back into the same hole? He was being nice today, and I swear we had a few moments of something sweet. I’d make today more in my head than it was. Clearly the dinner invite had to be a friend thing. Heath isn’t the type of guy to cheat, but what the hell was that kiss then?
I’m sure he would rather there not be tension between the two families, and our bickering has gone on for far too long. I don’t know how to break it, but maybe he’s trying to fix it. God, now I’m more confused than ever.
I pop into the small coffee shop around the corner from our apartment and order a hot chocolate and a slice of banana nut bread. Now when Briar asks if I had dinner, I can tell her I did because cake definitely counts. Especially after today.
Unable to control myself, I pull out my phone and see if maybe Heath sent me a message. My breath catches when I see one from him.
Heath: Sorry
“Whatever,” I huff under my breath. One word? He’s too busy with her to say more, I suppose.
“Meadow.” Someone calls my name, and I think it’s my order, but then I spot Professor Rookwood headed toward me. I smile because he was one of my favorites. Most of the teaching staff at the university was female, but Professor Rookwood is way ahead of the curve when it comes to things like crypto currency.
“Hey, Professor.”
“Call me Alex. I’m not your teacher anymore.”
“All right, Alex,” I say. “Feels weird.”
“Old habits die hard,” he jokes, and I can’t help but think how true that is. “How are things? I heard about you getting a job at Gondal Assist.”
“Really?”
“Phillips might have called me.” He smirks, and that makes sense.
“Before or after I got the job?”
“Both.”
“Thank you. You must have said good things about me.”
“I only told him the truth.” He shrugs.
“Still, that means a lot. How's the book going?” I ask, and he lets out a long breath. “Sorry I asked.”
“It’s fine. I’m going in circles with it.” Alex helped the government unmask the TWC scandal. The telecommunications company made 4.2 billion fraudulent entries to inflate revenue through fake unallocated revenue accounts—all in a scheme to make the company appear to be doing better than it truly was.
“You’ll get it. I’m sure it’s hard to sit down and write it all out. It was a crazy story.” We’re used to going through crap, not creating it. People like us essentially pull things apart and break them down. “When it doesn’t add up…” I tease.
“You go back to the start.” He finishes the line he often said in class when we’d hit a wall on something.
“Meadow,” the barista calls.
“I’m up.” I point toward the counter.
“Maybe I could get your number and bounce some things off you.”
“I know nothing about writing. I might make it worse.”
“To be honest, I’m trying to get your number, Meadow.”
“Oh,” I say, shocked. “But…”
