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Nash takes me by the neck the way he does, kisses me once, and says, “I’ll call you.”
“You better.”
“Threatening.”
“Promise?”
“I promise.”
Then he picks up his bag and goes.
I go to the library and stay there for basically two days. Second floor, by the windows, same table. I bring the good snacks on Thursday, and by Friday, I’m down to whatever’s in the vending machine. Kenzie comes for three hours Thursday afternoon and does maybe forty minutes of work. I rewrite my introduction for the sixth time. I cut two thats. At one point, I read the whole thing out loud in a stairwell like a crazy person, because Nash said that’s how you find the sentences that don’t work, and he’s annoyingly right.
Nash calls Thursday night from a hotel room, and we talk until somebody bangs on their door and tells them to get downstairs. He says, “I’ll call you tomorrow,” and hangs up.
Friday afternoon, I finally hit submit. I sit there for a second looking at the confirmation screen, and then I put my head down on the table, right on the wood. Kenzie texts me ????? from her building, because I sent her a screenshot with no words, and I go back to Corvin and lie face down on my bed for an hour.
Nash texts me at six.
Nash: Did you finish it?
Me: Yes!
Nash: Good.
Nash: Did you put this in my bag?
He sends a picture of a banana, and I laugh.
Me: I didn’t want you to forget about me.
Then I do something gutsy. I take a selfie in the mirror in only my thong, covering my nipples with my arm and arching my back, and I hit send with no hesitation. It’s the first nude of my entire life.
The three dots pop up immediately.
Nash: Like I could ever forget about you, Kylie.
Nash: Fuck me.
Nash: That’s mine.
I look at that text for a long time. Then he sends a bathroom selfie with his shirt off, hard through his gray boxers, and I grin and zoom in.
Me: And that’s mine!
Me: Come back already!!
Friday night, everybody ends up in my room, because my room has the best floor space. Kenzie’s on my bed. Bianca’s at my desk in my chair doing something to her nails. Tessa’s at her own desk with no headphones on, which I notice.
Paige comes in last, drops down on the floor, and says, “I need a mental break this weekend.”
“From what?” Kenzie says.
“Everything.”
Bianca doesn’t look up from her nails. “Does ‘everything’ have a first name?”
“No,” Paige says quickly, and changes the subject entirely. She’s not being a bitch about it. But Kenzie and I catch eyes across the room, because we both know something’s happening and she isn’t talking.
