“Where’s Logan?” she asked. “Don’t you guys go together on Mondays?” She didn’t stop what she was doing, her head down making her coffee.
This was not going to be the last question I’d have to field if he was going to be changing how we acted toward one another.
“I think he had something to do early on campus, maybe for rugby. That might change things with him giving me rides.”
What I should have done was given myself enough time this morning if I needed to grab the bus. But that wasn’t an option at this point. If Macie couldn’t drive me, I wasn’t making it to class.
“Let me put my coffee in my other mug, and I can drive you,” she said.
The sunshine blinded us when we walked toward her car. It was kind of nice having the warmth of it hit my face. When spring actually decided to show up, those winter doldrums were easy to toss away.
But I still had a pit in my stomach.
I knew this day would be a challenge. All day long.
“You’ll probably make it right on time since I can drop you right at your building,” Macie said, then smiled.
Everyone was still walking on eggshells with me. There was no mention of Saturday night, no mention of what happened, no mention of anything of substance. I was surprised she didn’t say something about the weather.
“Thank god the sun is out and it’s warming up, right?” She put the window down and increased the volume of the radio, sufficiently cutting off all further communication. Just as well, I was in no mood to talk either.
She pulled up to my building and literally waved goodbye to me as I got out, like a mom dropping their kid off at grade school.
I couldn’t be pokey like I wanted to. I worked at getting here and shouldn’t be late. But my feet felt laden with cement as I trudged along the path, the entrance looming ahead.
Because a mere hundred yards away, I’d be facing him. And I had no idea what to expect.
As I pulled open the door to the lecture hall, I heard the professor just starting. I hurried down the stairs to my accustomed row.
And, alas, there was no Logan.
After sitting, I searched the room, looking for that big blonde head. But it was a large class, and the lights were already dim for the professor’s slides, so I couldn’t find him. Needless to say, my attention span was shit. I’d have to review the entire lesson again online.
Finally, it ended. I started packing my laptop into my bag.
“Ava Kennedy,” the professor said over his mic. “Please see me.”
What the fuck? I wasn’t late. I hurried down to his podium and joined a short line of students waiting to talk to him. When it was my turn, he turned toward his computer.
“Hi, Ava.”
“Hi, Professor Lynch.”
“OK, I’ve been made aware that your group for the class isn’t working out, which is a shame. You two did a great job on the first project. But it turns out there’s another group looking to switch, so it worked.” He pulled out a piece of paper and a pen. “Here’s her name and email. You two get in touch.”
Speechless was an understatement.
My first instinct was to rush home, barrel into his room, and annihilate him with my words.
What the hell was he thinking?
Then I realized he was thinking about himself. And that was why I did what I did last night. I knew this was going to hurt.
I wasn’t prepared for how much.
CHAPTER 29
Logan
