With far too much grace, he flops back down on the bed, lying on his side with his head propped up in his hand. “Class before ten in the morning is a rookie first-year move, my darling girl.”
“Can wenotwith the pet names?” I pull on an oversize Stella McCartney cardigan that I copped from my mom. The thing about money is that it can’t buy you fancy clothes when you’re a plus size. You just sort of buy the best stuff you can find and occasionally stumble upon something like this cardigan that is meant to hang off waiflike models.
“No, I think wewillwith the pet names.”
Hurriedly, I step into my untied combat boots before throwing my toothpaste and toothbrush in my bag. “You are insufferable. I’m adding pet names to the list when I get home.”
“Have a good first day, my sweetheart! You are the sun and themoon!” he calls after me loud enough to elicit anawwwwfrom Daisy, who is curling her hair across the hall with the door open.
“You two are so lucky to have each other,” she croons.
I hit the down button on the elevator at least seven times and stride forward without looking up when the door opens on a ding.
“Excuse me!” says the human-shaped wall I’ve just walked into.
“I’m so sorry,” I tell them as I stick my foot out to hold the door for them to exit.
“Clover? Clover Walsh?”
I look up, eyes still bleary with sleep, and I’m face-to-face with Madeline Linch, the assistant director of housing and the woman who first called to inform me I had lost my housing scholarship.
“Um, yeah. Hi, Miss Linch.”
Madeline is a young but stern woman who is even more intimidating in person than she is in her no-nonsense headshot on the university website. When Bennett sent in his last-minute married housing application with me listed as his spouse, she called to congratulate me in the most non-congratulatory tone of all time and then proceeded to sayIt seems that love has very fortuitous timing for you, doesn’t it?I was then given an earful about how she’s happy that the university is offering these options for married students this semester, despite the concerns that the accommodations might be taken advantage of.
When I hung up the phone, I was visibly sweaty.
“I was actually just coming to check in on a few of our nontraditional students to pass along some information and see if their accommodations are sufficient.”
“Oh!” The elevator door begins to ding, angry with me for holding it open for so long. “Yeah, of course. It’s great. Quite the love nest.” Why thefuckdid I say that?
“Charming.” Her voice is not charmed at all as she steps off the elevator. “I did want to mention that the student life center in partnership with the housing department has organized date night mixers for married couples living on campus.” She hands me one of the papers she carries. “I’d like to meet your husband if I could—”
“He’s sleeping!” I practically shout. I can’t count on Bennett not to give us away. “He pulled an all-nighter.”
“In preparation for his first day of classes?” she asks.
“My hubby is a real overachiever,” I tell her, the smile brittle on my lips.
“Lucky you,” she says, but her voice is flat. “Have a good first day,Mrs.Walsh. Or is it Mrs. Graves?”
“Still Walsh for now.” I hold my painfully wide smile until the moment the doors close on my floor and I spend my entire walk to class muttering a chorus offucks.
CHAPTER 5
Clover
I make it to Mariner Hall for my Intro to World Lit class with two minutes to spare, which means the only seats left are in the front row. After Mom lost her job and I switched over to public school, I had no interest in building social circles. The only thing I spent my time building was my college application, taking as many honors and dual credit courses as possible, so I’m able to jump right over first-year English classes.
Even though it’s only a year’s difference, I feel like the youngest, most inexperienced person in this lecture hall. Because I am. Of course, sitting in the front row by myself like an eager little teacher’s pet who is awestruck by her surroundings isn’t helping anything.
But I’ve wanted to be here at Wexley for so long, and now it’s finally a reality.
Haystack Hall may be the oldest dorm on campus, but Mariner is the oldest academic building, and according to the campus tour I took in the spring, the ceiling beams are rumored to be from ashipwreck found just below the bluff. It’s the sort of place that makes you feel like you’re in another time and another world, and it is one of the reasons I fell in love with Wexley.
The building has a large courtyard in the middle and the first time I visited here with Bennett and his mom, Sydney, during an alumni weekend, she told us a ghost story about the basement. Supposedly it’s haunted by Beatrix Hallowell, one of Wexley’s founders. The story goes that one day she walked into Mariner Hall and was never seen again. It was love at first ghost story for me.
After world lit, I have a break until pottery, which I am dreading. Growing up, I was around money. I had expensive things. We lived in a stunning guesthouse just behind the Graves family home. Mom drove nice cars thanks to her job as the live-in personal assistant to Sydney Graves. I went to a prestigious school. All those things cost money. Money that was never really ours.
