“Incredibly boring.”
“Including your presentation?”
“Naturally, mine was the only highlight.”
“I’m sure.” Eva chewed on the end of her straw and cast her eyes around the room. “It’s a fancy hotel they’ve put you up in.” The gold painted ceilings were high, and marble arches separated the bar from the main lobby. Large windows looked out onto the street beyond, where Chicago was beginning to come alive as the sun sank on the horizon.
“Yeah, it’s not too shabby. Only got one bed, though, so it looks like we’re sharing later.”
“As long as you don’t snore.”
“I don’t.”
“You do. You kept me up half the night when we shared a room at that biotechnology conference in London.”
“Lies.” Kate raised a hand to signal a server as she finished the last of her drink. “You want another?”
“Yes, please.” Eva hadn’t been out for so long—she was determined to enjoy the freedoms that came with a night on the town. “I’ll get this round.”
Kate waved her off as she ordered two refills. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got a fifty dollar a day allowance to put on my room tab, and I’ve yet to use any of it today.”
“God, I miss being a professor.” Eva tilted her head back in a groan, and Kate patted her hand.
“You could always come back. Gordon would love to have you. All he talks about is how good you were.”
“He does not.”
“Oh, he does. Whenever any of us do anything wrong, you can tell he’s thinking: Eva wouldn’t do this to me. I’m surprised he hasn’t called, begging for you to return. He’s retiring soon. There’ll be a department-head spot.”
“Like they’d give it to me after two years away. Teaching high schoolers the difference between mitosis and meiosis doesn’t exactly bulk out my resumé. You’d have more chance than me.”
Kate scoffed. “Please, they’d never choose me, I’m too disorganized. I wouldn’t want it anyway—too much extra work, and you know how I feel about that. Carter will get it, I think.”
“He’d do a good job.” Eva finished the last sip of her martini as another was set in front of her. “Not as old fashioned as Gordon.”
“Because Gordon’s pushing seventy, and Carter’s barely forty.”
“True. How are the others?”
Kate’s shoulders lifted. “I told you—not much has changed. Except everything is more boring without you.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“It is! Will you ever come back east?”
“I don’t know. Not any time soon. As much as she insists she doesn’t need me, I can’t leave my mother. And I can’t ask her to move just for me.” Greenfield had been her mother’s fresh start when Eva had gone to college, and Eva couldn’t bear to ask her to give it up, no matter how stuck she might feel sometimes.
“Even though you moved for her?”
“It’s different.” Eva stared at her drink, swirling it with her straw. “My dad walked out when I was five, and we…we struggled. My mother busted her ass to give me everything I needed. To put me through college and grad school. She worked overtime and double shifts so I could graduate without thousands of dollars of debt, and she never asked for anything in return. But she needs me, and I should be there for her. I want to be.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me.” Kate reached for Eva’s hand again. “I get it. I just… Are you happy here?”
“Who says I was happy at Georgetown?”
“How could you be sad with me around?” Kate said, batting her eyelashes, and Eva chuckled.
“I’m okay here,” Eva said. “But I do miss you.”
