Page 21 of Divine Obsession

She had no problem callingmeevery insult in the dictionary.

We were on the last challenge of the class and it was my turn to solve it. Rolling my shoulders, I reached for the keyboard and began coding. Natalia might’ve been the youngest in the class, but I was still the highest scorer.

Five minutes before the end of the class, I finished it. I got to the end, but… It didn’t go through. Frowning, I went over it again. I hadn’t missed anything.

I glanced at the clock – thirty seconds before the end. I’d never not finished a task before. What the hell…

I didn’t notice when Natalia reached for the keyboard until she began typing.

A mere second later…It. Went. Through.

I turned to look at her – head tilted, eyebrows knotted, stare blank – shock written all over my face.

Natalia didn’t bother noticing me. She was too busy putting her stuff away and standing, her pink designer bag hanging off her arm. Flipping her caramel hair over her shoulder, she finally looked at me.

“What?”

“You solved it.”

“Yeah.”

“Before me.” It didn’t make any sense.

“So?”

“That’s impossible. I scored higher than you.”

Her smile was sweet. “Tests don’t determine intelligence.” Walking away, she threw me one last look over her shoulder, leaving me speechless. “See you around,playboy.”

My eyes followed her until she was out of sight.

Damn. She was good.

Getting into my black Ferrari, I pulled out of the college parking lot and called Kali’s phone. The sun was setting as I sped through the streets of the Upper West Side, illuminated by the city lights, and the obnoxious ringing pissed me off the longer it took her to pick up.

“What?”

I ran my tongue over my teeth. “What is Natalia doing at Columbia?”

“Oh,” My sister’s voice carried trouble. “Did I forget to tell you about that?”

My jaw tensed. “You did.”

“She goes there now.”

Beep.

She hung up.

Chapter 5

Present

“SORRY,” KALI SIGHED, SITTING BACK down at our table. We were at our favorite matcha spot in the city, all the way in Soho – our newfound tradition for celebrating milestones and more recently, catching up since we stopped being roommates at NYU.

She’d just taken a phone call a couple feet away. Whoever called must have been for something urgent because she didn’t pick up the first two times.

“Who was it?”

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