She glanced at her smartwatch. “Oh, Will, sorry, it’s almost eleven.”
“It’s okay. I was finishing a book. What’s up?”
“I’m working on a paper due in fifty-nine minutes.”
“I remember those days.” Will had his master’s from Vanderbilt. “Can I help?”
“Um, no.” Her voice quivered a little. “Sorry, I’m just tired. I picked the fraud case to analyze for my pre-exercise paper, and I’m not sure it’s worth a thousand words. Anyway, only three hundred to go.”
“Have you added your personal reflection and learning? You paid attention to things we ignored. It’s why you’re a good leader, Beth. Maybe pad your intro with history on Dorsey. Give an example of another fraud case.”
Elizabeth came alive and scrambled for a pen.
“Then give your honest conclusion. Add in how the firm realized we had to jump on a new accounting system. Dan wrote the check for ProfitWise today. We start prepping on the first of September.”
“You’re going to love the system. I was part of an install team during my internship in Boston.”
“I won’t say ‘Wish you were here to help us.’”
Why not? Worse things were said to her. Like “marry me.” “How’s everyone?” she said softly.
“Everyone is good. So is Ryder, in case you want to know.”
“He’s part of everyone, isn’t he?”
“Granny asked him to lunch after church twice, and he turned her down. I think he misses you.”
“Will?” she began. “He asked me to marry him.”
He was silent for a few beats. “I see. When?”
“The day I left. Only, not to my face. He called and left a voice message.”
“What did you tell him?”
“Nothing. I got here and got busy, you know, setting up the apartment, starting pre-exercise courses.”
“No wonder he looks so miserable. Beth, you can’t leave him hanging. Call him.”
“I know, but I don’t know what to say.”
“Come on, Beth. You can’t hit grad school and your career goals with guns blazing while running like a scared kitten from your personal life. From love. It makes you a woman of ambition, but not a leader. A good man asked you to marry him. You owe him the respect and honor of an answer.”
“I know, I know. Argh, I feel so stupid for leaving him hanging.”
“Then call him.”
When she hung up, Elizabeth stared at the words on her laptop screen, wondering where the girl she used to know had gone. She’d not felt like herself since…that night Ryder walked into Ella’s.
“Focus,” she said, looking at her notes, then pounding out the rest of her paper, fueled by Will’s bold, unabashed truth.
Then she was going to call Ryder, leave him a voice message. She’d let the replay of his question live rent-free in her head far too long.
At 11:55, she hit send on her paper. Then called Ryder. She’d leave him a message and be done with it. But he answered.
“Elizabeth.”
She panicked. And did what every normal red-blooded American woman would do.
