Page 41 of Girl in the Water
PART II
Chapter Seven
Four years later.
Daniela
“What are you doing later, Dani?” Bobby Olson asked Daniela as they walked across the George Washington University campus that buzzed with life, a jungle in its own way. “How about lunch?”
He’d been a graduate assistant in one of her classes—international human rights law. Since then, every time they ran into each other, he asked her out.
“Got lunch plans already.”
Crystal, on her other side, snorted, “Get real, Bobby boy. She’s got Ian Slaney to go home to.”
Bobby bristled like a capuchin monkey whose papaya had been stolen. “Okay, I’m going to say it. It’s weird that you’re living with a middle-aged man.”
Bobby was a full foot taller than Daniela, blond and fair, with the lean body of a college athlete—he’d been on the tennis team. Boy-band material. Except that he was also seriously smart. He’d finished law school since they’d first met and was now working at a law firm, but still showed up on campus periodically. He liked GWU’s law library.
“Ian is not middle-aged,” Daniela grumbled, while Crystal said dreamily, “I’d live with him.”
Bobby kicked the gravel walkway, sending a spray of small stones flying in front of them. “You’re not related to him, and you’re not going out with him.” He shot her a look he’d perfected for making people on the witness stand squirm. For when he got that far in his career. “Are you?”
“No way,” Crystal cut in. “Ian Slaney is saving himself for me. I’m going to have his babies.”
Daniela rolled her eyes. All her girlfriends were in lust with Ian. He’d come on campus to drop her off or pick her up often enough that they all knew him. During the academic year, she’d lived on campus, but she spent pretty much every weekend, summer, and holiday at his apartment. Now that she had graduated, she was going to live there permanently. And, hopefully, be paying half the rent soon.
“Hey, you know how the copper wire was invented?” Bobby angled for a change of subject, trying to cut Crystal off at the pass before she could launch into an ode to Ian’s manliciousness.
Daniela shook her head.
“Two lawyers fighting over a penny.” He grinned. Then asked again, “So lunch?” all charm and lighthearted fun. “Come on, Dani.”
“Can’t. I just popped in for my transcripts. I’m applying for a job.”
“Why don’t you take the summer off? Hey, a friend of mine is renting a house on Virginia Beach. Want to come?”
“Thanks. But I really need to find work.”
She had a driving need to learn, to do, to help. Sometimes, in the middle of the night when she couldn’t sleep, memories from Senhora Rosa’s house pushed into her brain. How many of the other girls were still alive? Half? Less than half?
But Danielawas. And she was filled with gratitude for that, and a burning need to make her life count. As corny as it sounded, she wanted to make a difference. She volunteered with homeless kids, but handing out food and clothes and playing games wasn’t enough. She wanted to do more.
“Good luck.” Bobby immediately switched back to full support mode, a good friend. “I’m sure whatever you apply for, you’ll get it. I’ll take you out to celebrate. And if they’re idiots and don’t want you, I’ll take you out to drown your sorrows. Dani, you’ll get in if they have any brains.”
Crystal linked her arm with Daniela’s. “We’ll all take you out.”
Girlfriend to the rescue. For which Daniela was grateful, until Crystal added, “But you’ll be paying. Because if you get a real job, you’ll be able to afford it.”
“I hope.” She was making next to nothing at the campus bookstore, and that job would end in a week. The university liked to hire current students, and she was done here.
Summer classes were already in session, students everywhere, chatting lazily on the lawn or hurrying to and from classes on the walkways. They were of every size and shape, every color.
Bobby was Minnesota Viking. Crystal, her roommate for the past two years, was black, from Tennessee, her right leg a titanium prosthetic. She’d been injured in the army. She never tried to hide it. She wore a ridiculously hot, short orange-and-peach dress that molded to her curves.
Daniela liked jeans and T-shirts, the latter sometimes borrowed from Ian. Because she looked young for her age, she kept her hair in a sleek bun at her nape, for a touch of grown-up sophistication. She was about average height, average weight, darkly tanned compared to Bobby, pale compared to Crystal. The GWU campus was pretty diverse. She fit in.
That fitting in, the acceptance, the fact that nobody thought her strange, not even when, at first, she’d spoken with a heavy accent, was one of the things she loved about living in this country. People were all different, and it was okay.
