Page 114 of Going All In

Chapter 23

It’d been fourdays since they’d confessed their love for each other, and those four days had been both blissful and stressful. It was the end of April, and Darcy had a month until she graduated, and only two weeks before her final presentation and literature review were due to the committee.

She was stressed. Jake kept offering study breaks and stress relievers, but she needed to focus, and all she wanted to focus on was him.

She was second-guessing everything. From Jake to her project and everything in between. She’d started spending more time in her office at the university to get her work done, and she missed her glorious office chair at Jake’s. What was it made of?

Do not Google it now.

Her brain tangents were going to be the death of her. She was supposed to be finishing up an assignment for her Epidemiologic Approaches to Implementation Science class, but she could not focus.

Her laptop dinged with an incoming message and she pulled it up.

Darcy,

I thought we had a meeting scheduled for 2:30 today. I’ve read through your latest draft and had some notes. I do hope everything is okay. Please let me know when we can reschedule. I’ll do my best to fit you in this week.

Dr. Anna Maguire

Darcy looked at the clock at the bottom of her laptop. 3:02 p.m. Son of a bitch. Her phone had dinged with a reminder a while ago, but she’d forgotten to look at it.

She’d never forgotten a meeting.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

She clicked on Dr. Maguire’s email.

Dr. Maguire,

I’m so sorry for missing our meeting. I got buried in grading and lost track of time.

And now she was lying to her mentor.

I’m still in my office. Can I swing by now or should we reschedule?

Again, I’m very sorry about this.

Darcy Collins

Then she stared at her computer, willing it to ding with another email.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

Finally, she got a response. Dr. Maguire was available for the next fifteen minutes. Darcy grabbed her stuff, quickly locked her office, and headed toward Dr. Maguire’s office, trying to keep her composure while berating herself.

Reaching her destination, she took in a steadying breath and knocked on the doorframe of Dr. Maguire’s office.

Her mentor looked up, giving her a nod to take a seat.

“I am so sorry about missing this meeting, Dr. Maguire. I won’t make excuses, but I’ve never missed an appointment,” she said, clutching a notepad to her chest as she abruptly sat down.

“Yes. This is a first. I understand that our time can get away from us. Especially as we get closer to the end of the term.”

“I am sorry about the mix-up. It won’t happen again, Dr. Maguire.”

“That’s good to hear. Darcy, can I be blunt?”

Darcy nodded. Shit. This was not how she’d envisioned this meeting.

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