Oscar laughed, and that was when their perfect system of avoiding the terrors in the corn maze broke down. Megs caught sight of the exit just as a zombie with flesh flapping off his arms and face burst out in front of them.
Megs yelped, but this time, Oscar yanked her next to him and made a sound reminiscent of a dying cat until the zombie disappeared back into the stalks. Megs laughed so hard, she clutched her stomach. When she stoodstraight, Oscar reached out and pushed her hair behind her ear.
Everything inside her stilled at his touch. What was he—?
Oscar slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her close, then leaned in. Megs jumped faster than she had the first time that cloaked figure had appeared in front of them in the maze.
“Oscar, no.” Megs stuffed her hands in her jacket.
He blinked. “Megs, I—”
“No.” Megs turned and ran for the exit. Tears sprung to her eyes as she exited the maze and darted across the clearing. She passed their fire pit, but only saw Melissa and Sean along with Oscar’s social media team.
She was grateful they didn’t notice her. By the time she got to her car, Megs was gasping for breath. She slumped down into the driver’s seat and dropped her head onto the steering wheel. Her thoughts skittered through her mind like a dropped bag of marbles.
She needed to go home.
It was the only idea that bounced to the surface, so Megs started the car and drove.
Twenty-One
The next morning,Megs sat in her plush roller chair in the back office of the medical center, her fingers flying across the keyboard. It had already been two hours. Each day she came into work, it was like pulling teeth to force herself to sit down at the computer and start working through the insurance claims. But once she got into it, her mind dropped into a flow that was almost dangerous. This wasn’t the first time she’d looked up to see that hours had passed when it had only felt like a few minutes.
But that was exactly what she needed. The events of the past week threatened to drown her, and this allowed her space to breathe. She loved that it was so quiet. The only sounds were the occasional printer or hushed conversation in the hall. Her office was small, but cozy. Her own little sanctuary.
"Hey, Megs!" Grace, one of her new coworkers, leaned through the door. "Lunch will be in the conference room today. We have a drug rep stopping by."
Megs smiled and nodded. She wouldn’t say no to that.
The day flew by, and though she’d only made a dent in the claims needing submission, she felt good about her progress. Since it was Wednesday, she left theoffice in time to drive up to Champlain for class, though today, that wasn’t where she was heading.
The quiet office had given her time to think. To process. To come up with a plan of action. When she’d woken up that morning, her night at the fall festival was still standing there in front of her face, waiting to be confronted. Gideon’s confession to Alli in the corn maze. Oscar’s attempt to kiss her.
Surprisingly, now she felt more centered than she had in weeks. Instead of breaking her down, once she’d been able to look from a distance, both of those events on the same night acted as a lens that brought everything she’d been wrestling with into perfect focus.
Megs got in her car and started the drive up to campus. She left a quick voice message with Haley to let her know she’d be at karaoke that weekend, then texted Frank at a red light to see if she could use his truck that night to take another load over to her new house.
It wasn’t until she parked in the lot at Champlain that her nerves kicked in. She turned off the car and gripped the wheel as she drew a deep breath and held it.This was the right thing to do.As she exhaled, Megs grabbed her bag and stepped out of the car, then headed up the walkway to the admin building.
Gideon stoodat the front of the room and worked his way through that afternoon’s lecture. Megs’ seat next to Erik was noticeably absent, and he felt selfish that he was relieved. After his reaction to her standing in front of him at the bonfire, he didn’t trust himself to be functional in her presence.
When he and Alli had come out of the corn maze the night before, he hadn’t seen her there. When he’d asked the others where she was, Sean said he’d seen her go to her car at some point. At least he knew she’d left, but now he started to worry.
Not that Megs owed him any explanation for missing class, it just wasn’t like her. Which meant it probably had something to do with what happened at the back of this classroom. Guilt opened a hole in his chest.
"Professor, what are the cons of over-compressing a track?" Erik asked.
"Over-compression can cause a loss of dynamics and make the overall sound lifeless . . .” Gideon continued his explanation, the words muscle memory at this point. His students couldn’t be enjoying this. Even he was annoyed with his own voice.
As the class dragged on, Gideon thought about stopping by Professor Stace’s room again. It wouldn’t accomplish anything, but not knowing who filed that complaint was driving him insane. He hadn’t done anything inappropriate with Jennifer despite her incessant flirting. But the knowledge of what had happened with Megs wouldn’t let him rest.
He needed to make it right.
Regardless of when that complaint was filed, he should’ve taken action the second Megs turned in her first assignments. Though, he couldn’t have anticipated feeling likethis.
He thought he had it under control, and he’d been wrong. He couldn’t be an unbiased judge of her work because he adored everything about her. She could record her thoughts on a busy street with terrible EQ and interference and he’d be obsessed with it.
Jennifer’s hand shot up, pulling him from his thoughts. Gideon cleared his throat and nodded for her to ask her question.
