Page 48 of Tempt

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In class, I try to focus on the professor’s lecture, but my brain keeps drifting to last night.

What the hell was real and what parts did I dream?

Getting blackout drunk to avoid my problems isn’t a great look. And more than that, I’m ashamed of what I did.

I need to grow up.

If I put even a sliver of the energy Daniel puts into his career, I could have a great job coming out of school.

At the end of the hour, other students get up from their seats, and I scramble to finish up my note-taking.

My professor takes her time packing up her things, and by the time I’m finished, we’re the only two there.

I head up the aisle, and set my bag on the first row of desks next to her lectern.

“Yes, Kat?”

“Grad school. I want to go.”

“Because you want the couch from Restoration Hardware.” She shoulders her bag.

“If I’m supposed to have some vision statement at twenty-two, I guess I missed that class. I don’t know what I want to do with my life, Professor. All I know is I want to dosomething. To make a difference. Maybe not to the entire world, but to someone.”

I take a breath, feeling exposed. But if I’ve dumped too much on her, my prof doesn’t let on.

“Applications will be due soon, depending on the school,” she says. “Where are you planning to attend?”

I list off a few names. “I don’t know if my grades are high enough.”

“Have you considered Russell?”

“Here,” I echo.

“The graduate school program will prepare you for work as a therapist. But you need a strong application. Not only grades, but reference letters. The entire package.”

Hope surges through me. “Would you be a reference?”

“Get your application together by the end of the week, and then we’ll talk.”

I wait until she’s halfway to the door before doing a fistpump.

14

DANIEL

There are things worth forgetting.

A shitty day.

The internet password at the house you no longer live in.

Your name, when you’re so wrapped up in someone you can’t think.

But KatforgotIkissedher.

It’s an ego blow.

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