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After I guided her through the busy lobby, we stepped onto the morning streets of Pittsburgh. The sky was a white-gray, like it usually was every winter day, the sidewalks bustling with business people dressed in heavy coats and scarfs.
“I missed being able to care for someone,” she said, staring distantly down the street.
“What do you mean?”
“I used to give my little sister baths and make dinner for my family before they …” More tears filled her eyes, and her lip quivered. She bit down on it to stop it from trembling and shook her head, laughing sorrowfully. “Oversharing again.”
“Sierra,” I said, tucking some hair behind her ear, “what is it? What happened?”
A bus pulled up to a stop at the corner, and Sierra grasped the straps of her backpack.
“That’s my bus. I’ll see you on Monday, Professor Patton.” She hurried past me without another look. “Sorry again for overextending my stay.”
22
steven
“I’m Steven Patton,” I said to the security guard inside of Sierra’s building.
Dressed in the dullest gray uniform, he glanced up from watching a basketball game on his phone—full volume, mind you—and stared at me with an expression I could only describe as confused and disgusted.
“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” he asked, chomping on gum.
“Let me in.”
He kicked his feet up onto the desk and continued on his phone, chomping on his gum. “Listen, I ain’t telling you again. If you don’t have a student ID or have someone check you in, then you’re not getting in the building.”
“What do you want?” I asked, pulling out my wallet.
Without glancing up from his phone, he laughed lifelessly. “For you to leave.”
After balling my hands into tight fists, I shoved my wallet back into my pants pocket and stormed out of the building, heading straight for my car. I couldn’t fucking believe this. I had come here twice in the past two days in hopes that they’d let me in to find Sierra.
And nothing.
Fucking nothing.
Once I slid back into my car, I stepped on the accelerator and headed down Forbes, swung back around onto Fifth Avenue, and made a beeline for Radiant. I’d really hoped that it wouldn’t come to this, but I had no other choice.
It was Friday night. I hadn’t seen—or heard from—Sierra since Tuesday morning, when I’d completely fucked up. What the hell was wrong with me? I had made it a point all my life not to make anyone feel the way I had when growing up. But my damn emotions had had to get in the way.
Now, she must’ve felt like the most unwanted woman in existence.
I parked in my usual spot and walked past the woman at the coatroom, not even bothering to drop off my coat. I wouldn’t be here for long anyway. I would be in and out of Michelle’s office in no time.
She didn’t answer on the first knock, so I walked into her room and steered myself right for the filing cabinet. I yanked it open with my key and scanned the hundreds of folders for Sierra’s name. They were all in alphabetical order, but Sierra’s was missing.
Where the fuck did she—
“What are you doing?”
With a stack of papers in my hand, I twirled around, all disheveled. Michelle leaned back on her couch with one leg crossed over the other and a smirk on her face. She rocked her foot back and forth, the moonlight flooding through the window illuminating the red bottom.
“Nothing,” I said, hiding the files behind my back.
“Nothing?” She playfully rolled her eyes. “Damn, Steven. You have it bad.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
