Claire stifles a giggle next to me, and I turn to her with a grin. “Something to share with the class, Ms. Beaumont?”
She covers her mouth with her hand. “No, Professor. Carry on.”
So now I’m stuck with an impossible choice. Behind door one, forced proximity to Claire, but working on a project I actually care about—tutoring students in their prerequisite skills. And behind door two, distance from Claire, but working side by side with Liam Patel on administrative crap that I couldn’t care less about.
Claire’s eyes are still on me as I cycle through the two possibilities, but there isn’t a choice to be made. I have to suck it up.
“All right,” I say to Janet. “I’ll do the tutoring center with Claire.”
Janet gives a polite smile. “Excellent. I’ll start working on the paperwork, and you two can get started on planning.”
I stand immediately, not wanting to be in this room for too much longer, and Claire catches my arm. “Where are you going?”
“I, uh, have to go meet students,” I say.
“Can we start working on this soon? Maybe Thursday?”
I inhale through my nose, let out the breath, and give her my best attempt at a smile. “Sure. I’ll see you then.”
Then I book it out of there as fast as I can.
“Hey, my sweet son.”My mom’s voice rings through the speakers of my car on my drive home.
“Hey, Mom. How’s Maui?”
“Beautiful as always.”
I can hear the waves crashing and imagine her sitting on the porch of her little house. She’s been on the island for the last thirteen years, ever since I was fifteen and moved out there with her after my parents’ divorce.
“You need to come visit again,” she continues. “It’s not the same without you here. Maybe this summer?”
“Maybe. Kai is trying to convince me to come, too.” Kai was the first friend I had in Maui, where the locals don’t take kindly to newcomers. For some reason, he took me under his wing and let me be his surfing buddy.
“Ah, that’s probably more tempting.” She sighs. “Why would you want to surf with your mom when you can surf with Kai instead, huh?”
I chuckle. “You know I love surfing with you, too.”
“I know, baby.”
My mom put me on a surfboard before I could even walk. She’d sit me on the edge and take me with her. Some of my earliest memories are out on the water with her.
“Tell me about work,” she says. “Are you getting your tenure figured out?”
“Yeah, I just got a solution today. I’m going to work on creating a tutoring center with Claire.”
“Oh, that’s perfect.” I can hear the smile in her voice, imagining her long, brown hair waving around her shoulders. “You’ll have fun working on something with her.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Mom knows about Claire. Well, she knows that Claire is my best friend. I haven’t explicitly told her about my romantic feelings for her. Maybe she knows, but I’m not about to tell her outright.
Maybe if my dad hadn’t cheated on my mom when I was a teenager, effectively ruining the family unit I depended on and upending her entire life, I would feel more confident in telling her how I feel about Claire. But I don’t want her to be disappointed in her son for falling in love with someone who’s already taken, just like my dad.
The only thing I want to have in common with him is my aptitude for math. Everything else about him pretty much sucked. Not that I know how he’s doing anymore, but the last I heard, he was doing statistics for politicians in Washington, D.C.
“I’m happy for you,” Mom continues. “You finally found a way to keep your job, and you’ll get to work on a project with your best friend.” She pauses. “How’s she doing?”
“Fine. She got engaged last weekend.” I say it lightly, hoping to hide the pain at the news.
