Page 48 of The Progressions

“You don’t want to do that?”

“No,” he answered, and he sounded very sure. “I think you may get a bruise there.” He reached and touched what must have been a deep indentation on my face, because it did kind of hurt. “Why were you sleeping on the floor?”

“That’s my spot,” I explained. “I used it a lot when Iva was here.”

“But this time you were alone with the door unlocked, unaware.”

“You’re still thinking like you live in a big city,” I started to say, but he cut me off with just one word.

“Oren.”

Well, that was true. I didn’t want our maintenance man or anybody else coming in while I was unaware.

Tyler sat in the chair he’d brought in and leaned back. “I got so much shit today,” he mentioned. “The whole team is calling me ‘Royaux’ instead of my name.”

“Is that how you and Shay Galton met, too? Through that app?”

“No, we met because that movie I was in. You probably didn’t see it—”

“I did,” I told him. I would have nodded, but my neck still hurt. “I didn’t think it was as bad as everyone said.”

“Thanks, Kasia. I only did it because I was trying out options for what I’ll do when I retire. Turns out, acting isn’t for me,” he said, and I understood. He’d looked amazing on that big screen but I didn’t see him making a career of it. “They paid her to do some promotion so she was at the premiere.”

“So you didn’t get connected through the dating app that’s only available to the crème de la crème.”

He looked slightly ill. “Royaux is available to anyone who pays ten thousand to join.”

I gaped for a moment before answering. “That’s a lot of crème. Ten thousand dollars?”

“I’ve seen her spend that in one shopping trip. Grocery shopping.”

I tried to imagine what you could buy with all that money. If I had an extra ten thousand dollars, it certainly wouldn’t have gone to an app to be matched with a short old man who felt me up in public. But honestly? I wouldn’t have minded getting felt up. I looked at Tyler’s hands, thinking about that.

“I’m going to eat. Want to come?” he offered, and I did. His mom had started a big meal and while they finished the preparations, I went upstairs to organize some of Iva’s stuff so she’d feel comfortable here right away. There would be stacks of boxes that we wouldn’t bother to unpack because Tyler already had everything that she could need.

But stupid Dominic didn’t. I smiled as I thought of what would be left in his house after we’d cleaned it out, and I hoped that he would be shocked and disappointed with the dregs of possessions that remained for him. I hoped that he would realize what he’d lost when he’d abandoned his girlfriend and premature baby, and I really, really hoped that Iva wouldn’t go back to him when he made another apology that was full of fancy words and cheap gifts, but meant nothing.

When I came back downstairs, both Tyler and Miss Gail were frowning. “What’s going on?” I asked.

“Iva told my mom that you were thinking about dropping out of college,” he said. “Not just skipping law school, but leaving right now.”

Iva was supposed to have kept that to herself. “I know it seems like a bad decision. What a waste of time and money if I don’t finish, right?” I asked. “But this may be the right way to go.”

“Why?” his mom asked.

“I’ve been considering it since I backed into the light pole and I realized how long it was going to take me to pay for the repairs on my car. We still have medical debt,” I said. “We have all kinds of debt. It was always my dad’s plan for me to get some kind of big career going, but as I get older, it makes less and less sense. We need stuff right now, at this moment, not ten years down the line or whenever it is that I’m finally done. So I’m considering the idea, but don’t tell him,” I cautioned them. “He’ll be upset.”

“Because that’s stupid,” Tyler announced. “It’s a stupid idea to drop out.”

“It isn’t,” I answered icily. “It’s practical.”

“No, it’s a dumbass move.”

“Ty,” his mom cautioned.

“You’re thinking short-term,” he continued. “In the long run, it will be better for you to have the law degree that I know you want. You said so. You told me you wished that you had it already.”

“So I could help Iva!”

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