“Just taking this tour makes me realize how many wonderful universities there are that students don’t have a clue about. This seems like a place I would have really enjoyed.”
“I’m not going to lie, at seventeen I would have chosen an Ivy League again because I thought that was important to say on résumés and in interviews; but if I were my age now, inside of that seventeen-year-old body, I would definitely have attended somewhere like Cabot. Ultimately, it only matters that you get the degree and a decent education not where it’s from.”
“That’s easy for us to say though, huh?” I smile.
“True, but that’s what I honestly believe. That’s why I accepted this position. I hope to be a part of making Cabot a lot of students’ first choice school.”
I look at Jacob’s left hand and notice there’s a platinum wedding band on it. I consider how my life may have looked differently if I had ended up with a man like him, someone who understands my background and my mission because he grew up similarly and wants the same things. Maybe Roman and I are too different. Perhaps that will always be our problem.
Roman barely said a word when Juliette, Knox and I left in the morning for the train station. He had the driver put our bags in the car as he watched us silently from his chaise. He said his goodbyes to Knox the night before after watching an episode ofSesame Streetand playing with some food based finger-paints, but the two of us were barely speaking.
It took only a few moments of silence on our ride to the train station for my chest to tighten with sorrow and for Juliette to finally address it.
“It breaks my heart the way you two just parted from each other.”
Knox’s head tipped to the side and his eyes closed. Being in motion knocked him right out.
“He basically ordered me not to go as if he has any power over what I do or don’t do.”
“And you’re going, anyway?”
“Are you listening to yourself, Aunt Juliette? Yes, I’m going. This is business.”
“Roman isn’t the type of man to stop you from growing. He isn’t that petty.”
“Yet that’s exactly what he’s doing. I’m thinking—”
“What are you thinking, sweetie?”
I looked over at Knox and was afraid to say the words out loud. I didn’t want to put them in the air. I didn’t want the universe to think for even a second that, that’s what I wanted, but I said it anyway.
“That we are not a good match for each other anymore. That we made a mistake.”
“Nonsense.” She slapped the top of her thigh for emphasis.
“You saw him back there. Six months ago he would have never let me leave without holding me and saying he loves me.”
“And how about you? I didn’t see you say goodbye either.”
I said nothing in response because everything she said was accurate. I was being just as stubborn as Roman, but that’s because I’m right.
“Just don’t let too much time go by without rectifying this, Bitsy. You can never get back time lost. Trust me, I know.”
Once Jacob and I arrive back to the main administration building, we head to his office where there’s a small spread waiting for us that includes a variety of deli sandwiches and chips. There’s still a rather enormous elephant in the room that I decide I should squash now. I’m not sure exactly how much Jacob heard, but I know that I probably need to say something or this entire meeting is going to be excruciatingly long.
“So I wanted to explain what happened the other day.”
“Oh?” He pretends as if he hasn’t the faintest idea of what I’m referring to.
“When we lost connection.”
“Oh, yes. One minute you were there and the next you weren’t.”
“My fiancé accidentally pulled the power out of the wall, and then my son needed me.” I’m not sure if he knows that I’m lying through my teeth, but I hope it’s a plausible enough excuse for us to move on. “That’s why I didn’t get right back to you.”
“No worries, Elizabeth. I thought it was something like that.”
Our meeting gets back on track and I am showing Jacob a cost analysis of the app’s implementation on a budget spreadsheet I created when I feel my cell phone vibrate for the first time in about an hour. It better not be Patricia again, I think to myself, but it’s not.
