Page 12 of Minor Trouble
“S’okay, I guess.”
Three words. Three more words than he’d ever spoken to me about how he was feeling. I exhaled loudly.
“Have you made any friends yet?”
Noah shook his head this time.
Ainsley leaned forward, her tone low. “I’ll let you in on a secret: it’s my first day here too, and I don’t have any friends yet either. I’m pretty sure it won’t take me too long, how about you?”
He shrugged, worrying his bottom lip with his teeth.
“I’m sure once you get started here, you’ll be fine.” She sat back in her chair and pulled out Noah’s file. “Now, let’s talk about your schedule and the classes you’ll be taking. What’s your favorite subject?”
Noah shrugged again. “Don’t really have one.”
I nudged him in the side. “You must like something better than the others.” To tell the truth, I was looking forward to finding out too.
Ainsley glared at me, as if silently judging me for not knowing what Noah liked. “Okay,” she said, directing the next question to Noah even though she held my gaze. I couldn’t help but notice the coolness in her green eyes. “What do you get the best grades in?”
“Sciences, I guess. I kind of like the experiments.”
She nodded, breaking our gaze to study his file. “That seems to mirror what’s in here from your last school. We’ll make sure to get you into a general or physical science course for high school credit.”
Noah definitely hadn’t inherited his knowledge of science subjects from me. While I too had enjoyed the experiments, blowing shit up and watching chemical reactions held much more interest than memorizing the periodic table. I certainly wouldn’t be able to help Noah with his homework there.
The rest of the meeting went much the same as the initial exchanges. Ainsley would ask Noah something which he didn’t respond to initially but would then draw out an answer she was happy with. I learned a lot more about him in that short meeting than I had in the entire time he’d been living with me.
Whatever I thought of her, I had a lot to be grateful to Ainsley Coren for at this moment.
Six
Ainsley
“How was your meeting with Seth Hudson?” Lyla asked as I stopped by the office at the end of the day. As I was carless, I had booked an Uber, which would be with me shortly.
“My meeting withNoahwent fine, thank you for asking.” I tried to deflect, not wanting to admit that spending such a long time in such a small space with such a hot guy had challenged every bit of my professionalism.
For my first day, despite being late, everything else had gone to plan. I’d met with Principal Collins to talk about my own schedule, then had the meeting with Seth and Noah, before taking some time to do a bit of reading up on the students that would likely take up the most of my time. There was one in particular I’d already managed to introduce myself to because I wanted to keep an eye on her, bearing in mind some of the issues she was facing.
“Good to hear.” Lyla winked. “When’s your car going to be ready?”
I shrugged. “Hopefully not too long. I need to get some things for my new apartment, and I can’t afford to keep taking Ubers.”
“Let me know if you need a ride into school in the morning. I can always come and pick you up,” offered Lyla.
“Really? That would be amazing. Thank you!” I grabbed my phone from my purse. “What’s your number? I’ll message you the address.”
Lyla took my cell and tapped in her details. “If you fancy getting a coffee one lunchtime, I’m here for that.”
She handed my cell back as the notification that my car was here pinged. “Thanks, Lyla, you’re a real lifesaver, I’d like that. I’ll see you in the morning.”
The journey to the apartment block took a little over fifteen minutes. The movers had left a message for me earlier to say they’d dropped everything off okay and the landlord had the keys. I went to the landlord’s door and knocked.
After a few seconds, the door opened, revealing the woman I’d spoken with on the phone who had done the virtual tour with me. Marlena Beech was in her early sixties, with a mane of brownish red hair and sincere brown eyes. Today, she wore a bright tie dye top over a pair of loose navy linen pants and sandals. It would seem her style verged on hippyish. I didn’t think I’d seen her in much else in all the video calls we’d had.
“Ainsley Coren! Where have you been all day?” She ushered me into her own apartment. “Can I get you a drink?”
“Sorry I wasn’t here when the movers arrived. It’s been a bit of a crazy day. The journey took longer than expected, I ran into traffic, then my car broke down, and I didn’t want to be late—”
