Page 86 of Fostering Chemistry
Zoe gave a small nod, still looking down. “I just… I need this place to work. Not just for the grade, either, but to prove I can do something right. You know?”
“I know,” I whispered, even though I wasn’t sure I really did. My skin felt clammy. “You’re doing the best you can. And I’m sorry I made it sound like it wasn’t enough.”
She looked up at me, and for once, she seemed just like me. A tired, overworked student trying to hold it together.
“I should probably get back to work,” she said, wiping her cheeks.
“Yeah,” I mumbled. “Me too.”
I turned back toward the espresso machine, gripping the counter until my knuckles turned white. The dizziness was back, butworse than that was the feeling that I’d made someone who was already upset feel worse.
Maybe two people, if you counted Cody. This day really sucked.
24
MIA
The knockat my door did nothing to diminish the pounding in my head. “Come in,” I said automatically. At my last foster home, I hadn’t been allowed to ever lock my door, so I often forgot to.
Not that I felt I needed to here.
Diego poked his head into the room.
Crap. Maybe I was going to have to rethink my door-locking policy.
I pushed myself up and leaned against the headboard, pulling the covers up to my chest. It was so cold in here.
“Can I come in?” Diego asked. His voice was hesitant.
“It’s really not a good time,” I began.
“Cody called. He said you weren’t feeling well.”
Oh. My head hurt too much to focus on that. I gestured for Diego to enter. He did, carefully leaving the door wide open as he took a few steps forward, as if I might bite him or something.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Just tired. It’s a busy time of the semester.”
“You look pale.” His dark eyes studied me relentlessly. “And also somehow flushed at the same time.”
Great. Just what I wanted when I wasn’t feeling well—a critique of my looks by a guy who’d had a full-blown freakout when he’d realized I was the woman he kissed. “Look, Diego, I really don’t think—wait, Cody called you?”
“He was worried.”
I couldn’t quite wrap my aching head around that. “Cody talks to people on the phone?”
“He does now, apparently.” Finally, Diego looked away. “Do you need to go to the student health center?”
“No,” I said firmly. “I’m just tired.”
He jerked his head to the right. “In that closet by the bathroom, there are thermometers, painkillers, cold medicine, and, uh, pregnancy tests.”
My jaw dropped as both embarrassment and shock hit. I took to bed during the middle of the day one time, andthatwas where his mind went? “Pretty safe to say I can rule out that last one,” I said to the top of his head because he was carefully studying the floor. Not that it was any of his business, but I was feeling too crappy to choose my words carefully.
“Can I get you anything?” he asked, still looking away, like it was too much to look at me directly after mentioning pregnancy tests. And he was supposed to be the grown-up around here.He hadn’t shown many signs of it since we’d gotten little Liam bathed and in his crib the other night.
“I’m fine.”
