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He kissed my cheek, and I hugged him.
“Maybe Sophie’s trying to change?” Even to my ears it sounded delusional.
“There is no coming back from that with me. I’ll never forgive anyone for hurting you, so don’t ask,” he huffed in a curt tone.
Xander was as bad as Paul with grudges. But Sophie had never been a friend. I shouldn’t be automatically willing to accept her as being genuine. Still, out of politeness, I typed back “Thank you” to her and put my phone away.
We stretched out and watched more ofHarley Quinn.
“I wish I could be Ivy. She is so my speed,” Xander said. “She’s hot, but so is Batman.”
I placed my head on his shoulder. “I’d love to be Harley.”
“I can see that.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek. “You’re both super sweet.”
And I’m not pregnant!The last thing I needed was more stress or pressure. I didn’t need to waste time in a doctor’s office when I had little of it to spare.
I opened my phone and canceled my appointment with Doctor Foster.
Professor Elan called me to her office a week later. “We’ve had an incident. Wait here.” She left the room and returned, wheeling in a rack with a garment bag hanging on it. The stench of waste filled the air. “I’m sorry to say this, Nadia, but your dress was discovered on top of a trashcan in my studio….” My pulse sped up to a throb in my ears and I rose to my feet and unzipped the bag without prompting. My vision tunneled over the monstrosity that had been my dress. “What the fuck happened!”
There were coffee grounds, eggshells, and rotten meat smeared over the fabric.The dress is unsalvageable.My throat was dry.All the hours I poured into this dress.It’s … completely destroyed. I had nothing to show …I clenched my fist. “How is this possible?” I hissed and pushed my hands through my hair, wanting to scream curses, but remembered I had Professor Elan next to me.
I started to pace going over every interaction I had at school of late. People weren’t talking much to me, but we all were busy with finals.
She folded her arms. “I don’t know, and I’m baffled. It’s extremely rare for a student to destroy a design of another. It’s against our rules, and the person responsible is risking expulsion. Security has checked and has nothing. Do you have any enemies?”
The first person that came to mind was Kelsie. The signatures on the petition had peaked at seventy-two and stayed there for the last two days.Silly me thought it was over.I told Professor Elan.
“Show me.” She removed the dress then returned to her desk, motioning for me to pull my chair around. I looked into the boards, but the post was gone!
She glared at the screen and scoffed. “A petition doesn’t automatically mean it’s the same person. We allow protests, and I’ll question Kelsie. However, I highly doubt it’s her. Students complain, but they care more about their careers and reputation than you. Nothing happened to the other students’ clothes. Why you?”
I nodded in agreement.Yeah, why me?Most students wouldn’t care enough about me to try to damage my work.It seems more personal.
“Anyway,” Professor Elan interrupted my thoughts. “All the professors are mentioning the incident in class. You’ll need to leave a statement to the school security and academic dean.” She tapped her nails against the surface of her desk. “What do you want to do?”
My skin prickled, and I scratched over my arms. “I can’t use the dress.”
She cocked a brow. “That’s up to you, Nadia. Your dress is still a winner, but you’ll need to recreate it before the photo shoot, which is in….” She tapped on her iPad. “Twelve days. Give or take.”
I rubbed my pounding temples. “But I have all my other class work. I haven’t even prepared for the internship. My dad’s in recovery from his kidney transplant. I’ll…I’ll have to withdraw.” My tongue was thick as I struggled to say that I’d have to give up. It was like a punch in the gut.All my hard work.
She shook her head. “Wrong answer. As a designer, you always need to be ready for the unexpected. A model you wanted is taken by another and replaced with someone with a different body frame. Themes, scenes, locations, fabric, everything can change. Twelve days is a lifetime to remake a dress. It’s up to you to accept the challenge.”
Professor Elan always warned us about the unexpected, and she was right.Things happen beyond our control. It’s up to me.I could either give up and lose or work harder. What truly mattered was how invested I was in my design. It had been my dream for most of my life, and I wasn’t going to allow anyone to ruin it.
I squared my shoulders. “I’ll fix it, even if it takes night and day. It’s my win, and no one can take it from me.”
“Now, I’ll take that hug. Then you go to work. Make your classmates hate you more by winning.”
I hugged her, left her office with the garment bag, and immediately called Ben. “I need to go to a dry cleaner and Mood.”
He picked me up ten minutes later, and we went to the shops. The dry cleaner didn’t bat an eye, but it wasn’t cheap. That left getting fabric from Mood. Luckily, the person that helped me get the material the first time was around, and I spent the good part of an hour collecting all that I needed to restart. When I was back home, I went straight to work measuring, cutting, and sewing fabric. I didn’t stop until my phone rang.
“Hello, Nadia.”
A tingle went through me every time I heard Paul’s voice. “Hi.”
