Page 93 of The Odds of Happily Ever After
I closed mylaptop and put it next to me on the picnic mat. “My brain is officially fried. That’s all the thinking I can do for today.” Lying back, I closed my eyes and let out a sigh of relief.
“Same here,” Kai said. “That was a productive session.”
“Uh huh.” With his help, I felt more confident about my upcoming quiz. I hoped I was able do the same for him with his math assignment, though he didn’t seem to need as much input as I did.
“We should do this more often.”
“Definitely. We could be study buddies!”
“Uh. Right.” He spoke in a weird, choppy way, and my eyes popped open to check on him, but he had dropped his head to look at his phone.
That reminded me that it was time to check my messages. I had held out long enough. Sitting up, I reached for my phone inside my bag where I’d kept it to force myself to focus on studying.
“You wanna go grab a bite?”
“Hmm?” I had three messages from Gabe, and I eagerly opened them.
Gabe
Have a good study session.
I’m taking a break from writing to meet up with Max.
I meant Professor Thorpe. Everything okay?
The first two messages were sent three hours ago, and the last one came twenty minutes ago. He sounded concerned, and part of me was thrilled that he cared. But a smaller part wondered if he didn’t believe I could take care of myself.
He probably didn’t mean it that way. It was just him looking out for me, and my overreacting self was blowing things out of proportion.
“I guess that’s a no on dinner then.”
“What?” I refocused on Kai and cringed as I realized I had zoned him out again. “No, no—dinner sounds great! Let me buy.” It was the least I could do for being a sucky conversationalist.
“No way. I asked you, so I’ll pay.”
“You already got us snacks.”
He opened his mouth, and I spoke up before he could speak, anticipating his argument.
“How about we split the bill?”
His lips tightened, but he said, “Fine. But next time is on me.”
I nodded. “Let me reply to some texts real quick, then we can head out.”
Luna
Just finished—the study sesh went great! Sorry for the late rep, I hid my phone to focus on econ
Love that you and Dr Thorpe are close now! How’s your break?
Gabe’s response came a minute later.
Gabe
The break was good, but I’m back to work now. You know I could have helped you with econ.
Luna
