Page 14 of Tempt

I need to choose a project for this class, and I’m running out of time.

So I head up to the front. “Professor, I want to help with group.”

Her brows lift fractionally. “It’s a graduate student assignment.”

“Except you’re short staffed. I could make sure everything is setup. Chairs, coffee, cookies.”

“Cookies are hardly a fourth-year project.”

“Obviously.” My mind races. “I would also take notes. Summarize the comments and write a page—a paper,” I go on at her look, “on the group process and why it works.”

She cocks her head. “Group is a serious undertaking. Participants are experiencing periods of significant difficulty. We treat them with sensitivity. Compassion.”

“Compassion is my middle name,” I promise.

She hesitates.

“You said we have to confirm by Friday. In your lecture today, you pointed out that decision fatigue is a real thing. If you decide now, you don’t have to think about it later.”

“Don’t make me regret this.”

“I won’t,” I promise.

The breeze plays in my hair as I make my way across campus.

I was thrilled when I got into Russell—it was a fresh start after a dark year.

But the first semester at Fall Ball, I met Liv and Jules. We were instant friends and vowed to move in together at the first opportunity.

All good things come to an end.

Jules gave notice to the school, but I still have time to finalize my plans with the student housing office.

When I get back to my apartment, I pack a suitcase with clothes, textbooks, makeup, hair products and other toiletries.

That one fills up impossibly fast.

I look between my craft supplies and textbooks.

In the end, the textbooks get discarded on the bed.

“Sorry, guys. I’ll come back for you later.”

I zip the thing closed just as my phone buzzes.

I have fifteen minutes to get Andy from school.

Because apparently, I’m a nanny now.

How hard could looking after a cute eight-year-old be?

* * *

I arrive at the school pickup zone with my suitcase in tow at three twenty-eight.

“Hey. I’m here for Andy.”

The woman with a clipboard looks me over from my white Nike Air Force 1’s to my off-the-shoulder T-shirt. “Daniel said you’d be coming. Kitty, is it?”

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