I shift uneasily, conscious of my classmates behind me, some of whom are packing up their things, some of whom are lingering. Eavesdropping, maybe? Either way, the base of my neck starts to go red. “I just wanted to let you know I have to miss class next week. I’m going out of town.”
Dr. Ghorbani folds her arms disapprovingly. “Are you sure that’s a wise decision, given your recent struggles?”
No. I’m not at all sure of anything about this. But I said yes to Brayden, arranged for a cat sitter for Baby—a pet care service with flawless ratings. I give Dr. Ghorbani a tight smile. “It’s for my husband’s work.”
She purses her lips. “Is he aware of how prestigious this program is?”
He barely knew what bioinformatics was and he still paid my tuition.I nod.
“Look, Savannah, I think you have what it takes to be successful in this program,” she says, and my heart swells evenif I can sense abutcoming. “But sometimes our success in life doesn’t come from our capacity, but our ability to prioritize. And I sense your priorities are…elsewhere.”
My eyes prick with tears. I won’t cry. My father liked to say that the person who shows emotion in the negotiation is the one who loses the deal. Well, he’d lost anyway. I steady my chin. My head gives a horrible throb.Fuck, not now.“I was hoping I could have the opportunity to revise and resubmit this paper and a slight extension on our next assignment to allow for my travel schedule.”
Dr. Ghorbani considers me for a moment. “You can have the first. But not the second.”
I will not stomp my foot in frustration. I will not pitch aprincessfit about any of this. I will simply…take care of everything I need to take care of. “Understood.”
I turn around so she can’t see me scrunch my face in frustration. At least by now, the class has cleared out. All but Forrest, who’s sitting and tapping something on his computer. It’s possible he didn’t overhear any of that. He looks up and gives me a sympathetic look. It’s possible that he did. “Katia and I are gonna do a coding session in the library soon,” he says.
“I can’t, I—” I catch myself.Prioritize. I have a schedule done in neat bullet points in a notebook—myWhat would Victoria do?list from this morning as if putting everything in green sparkly pen would make it easier to accomplish. Lexi wants my opinion on a baby shower gift. Barb wants me to come tochurchwith her for an afternoon service. No doubt to let me know that gluttony—or what she perceives as gluttony—is a sin.What about adultery?
But fuck it. I wanted this. I’m gonna have to work for it, no matter what. And maybe this isn’t someone rescuing me, but someonehelpingme.
“You know what?” I say to Forrest. “Coding session sounds great. Do you need coffee? I’ll buy the first round.”
Thirty minutes later, I’m in a study room at the library with Forrest and Katia.Coding sessionmight have been overstating it, because mostly Katia is just drinking coffee and complaining about Dr. Ghorbani being an incurable hardass.
“It’s not just me?” I blurt.
Katia, who has a pink Hello Kitty laptop cover and a pink Hello Kitty pen and pink Hello Kitty hair and who mentioned having been inthe Air Forceat some point, laughs. “Nah, she’s like that to everyone except for Forrest.”
Forrest whistles innocently.
It occurs to me that I must have done the same thing to Victoria when we had all our classes together: passed easily and tried not to be a jerk about it. “Oh, thank god,” I say and Katia laughs.
“She shouldn’t be giving you a hard time about your husband or whatever,” Forrest interjects. “Not that I was listening.”
I laugh. “Uh-huh, sure you weren’t.”
“People need to work—especially in this economy.” Forrest takes a long sip of coffee. He’d ordered the largest size they had with two extra shots of espresso. I get the sense he’s struggling with the workload too, just differently. “What does your husband do?” he asks.
“He, uh—” I adjust my ring. Somehow the yellow diamond feels much larger than it did a second ago, especially with Forrest and Katia being so sympathetic. I get the faint urge to apologize. Whatever stress I’m under, theirs is clearly worse. “He plays for the Peaches.”
Forrest takes another gulp of coffee as if trying to bury his surprise. Katia takes a much shorter route. “Hewhat?”
“Yeah, uh, Brayden Forsyth. The right fielder.”
“Oh, just the right fielder.” Forrest is rubbing his face with his hand and laughing a little hysterically, while Katia has abandoned coding in favor of googling Brayden. “He’s handsome.”
For some reason, I’m flushing. “Yeah.” I try to say it in the tone of,Obviously, I think my husband is handsome.
“Who’s that?” Katia turns the screen.
“Asher. Adler, I mean. He’s the centerfielder.”When he’s not trying to steal me from Brayden.
“Well, he’s beautiful. Is he single? Can he be single?”
Forrest is looking too and there’s that whistle again—this one definitely less innocent. I have no right to be jealous. Asherissingle. Nothing can happen between us again, and yet… “I think he might be seeing someone actually,” I say. “Now, um, any chance either of you could help me with my coding? I feel like I’m completely lost.”
