The rest of the weekend passed more quietly than I expected.
I spent most of Sunday with my family, which mostly meant eating whatever my mom put in front of me, watching the game with my dad, and listening to Chloe complain about something at least once every few hours.
Nicole and I still texted throughout the day.
Nothing particularly important. She asked what I was doing. I asked what she was doing. She sent me a picture of whatever she was eating at one point, and I sent back a picture of the plate my mom had practically forced me to finish.
She responded with a laughing emoji and then told me my mom clearly fed me better than I deserved.
I disagreed, she disagreed with my disagreement, and somehow, that turned into another twenty-minute conversation.
Around six in the evening, my phone rang.
Jackson.
I answered immediately.
"What’s up?"
"Do you remember where I kept my spare car key?"
I sighed. "I’m not even going to ask how you managed to misplace your car keys."
"It’s Evelyn’s fault. She wanted me to clean out my car, so I moved a bunch of stuff around and now I can’t remember where I put them."
"That sounds like a you problem."
"Just tell me where they are."
"The little drawer beside the TV."
A pause.
"Oh."
"Yeah. Oh."
Another pause. I could practically picture the grin on Jackson’s face. "I love you, bro."
"Don’t make it weird."
"Too late."
"Chicken or beef?" My mom called before appearing in the doorway. Then she spotted the phone in my hand. "Is that Nicole?"
I turned toward the kitchen, then back at my phone, already knowing exactly what was coming next.
"No. Jackson."
She nodded, looking far too interested. "Put it on speaker."
I gave her a look. "Mom."
"Just put it on speaker."
I sighed and tapped the button. "My mom wants to talk to you."
There was a brief pause on the other end before Jackson finally spoke.
"Good evening, Aunt Diane."
"Good evening, Jackson." My mom smiled, settling into the conversation almost immediately. "How are you?"
"I’m good. How are you?"
"I’m fine. Just making dinner." She glanced at me for a moment before continuing. "So, how’s Evelyn?"
"She’s fine, Aunt Diane."
"And Nicole?"
There it was.
There was a pause. A little longer than it needed to be.
"Nicole who?" Jackson finally said. "I’ve never heard that name before. Is Nicole even a name?"
I closed my eyes, already regretting putting the phone on speaker. I opened them a moment later and found my mom already staring at me with a small, suspiciously satisfied smile on her face.
"Thank you for that information, Jackson."
"Sure thing, Aunt Diane."
She nodded once, like some invisible piece of a puzzle had just clicked into place.
"Chicken it is," she said, sounding entirely too pleased with herself, before turning and heading back toward the kitchen.
I watched her go for a second, then reached over and turned off speaker.
"Nice save," I said. "I sincerely don’t know what I would’ve done without you."
"Anytime, bro."
We hung up a moment later, and I sat there for a second, phone still in my hand, already fairly certain that Jackson had somehow managed to give my mom even more reasons to suspect there was something going on.
Which, in fairness, wasn’t exactly helping my case.
Monday morning arrived far too quickly.
I left home earlier than usual, mostly because I had no intention of being late on the first day back.
That plan lasted about as long as it took me to hit traffic.
Twenty minutes in, I was already checking the time every few minutes. Thirty minutes later, I was starting to regret every life decision that had led me to this road.
By the time I finally made it onto campus, I was already thirty minutes late.
I grabbed my bag and practically jogged toward the building, checking the time one last time as I reached the hallway before remembering which class I was supposed to be in.
Thermodynamics.
Of course.
I slowed down as I approached the classroom, and I could already hear Nicole’s voice through the door.
I stopped in front of it for a moment, staring at the door while I tried to figure out how exactly I was supposed to walk in there thirty minutes late with Nicole on the other side.
I took a breath, adjusted my bag, and knocked on the door.
A few seconds later, I heard footsteps approaching from the other side.
The sound of her heels getting closer made me realize that my heart was beating a little faster than usual, and it had nothing to do with being thirty minutes late anymore.
It was Nicole. And after everything that had happened between us, I honestly had no idea what kind of reaction I was going to get when she saw me standing outside her classroom.
The footsteps stopped, and a moment later, the door opened partway.
Our eyes met.
I couldn’t read her expression.
She stared into my eyes for a few seconds without saying anything, and for some reason, I found it harder to hold her gaze than I expected.
Then she finally spoke.
"You’re late."
"I... uh..." I cleared my throat. "Yeah. I know."
My eyes moved past her and through the small opening in the door. A few students had already noticed me standing there and were looking in our direction, while most of the class seemed more interested in whatever they were talking about with the people sitting beside them.
I looked back at Nicole. She was still looking at me.
"Agree to have lunch with me," she finally said. "And I’ll let you in."
I blinked, completely thrown off by that for a moment, but then again, this was Nicole we were talking about.
She seemed to notice that I’d figured out what she was doing, because her eyes shifted slightly, the unreadable look finally giving way to something that looked almost like a teasing smile.
I let out a quiet breath.
"Deal."
She smiled, then opened the door wider and stepped aside so I could walk in.
I gave her a small nod before making my way to my seat. A few students glanced at me as I passed, but most of them had already gone back to whatever they were doing.
Nicole closed the door behind me and walked back to the lectern.
She picked up the marker and continued the lecture from where she had left off, as if the last few seconds hadn’t happened at all.
I watched her for a moment before huffing out a small smile.
"What?" Jackson asked beside me.
I just shook my head, opened my notebook, and started writing.