Page 56 of Fall Hard

I picked up my phone with a sigh and found several messages in the group chat from Jamie and Kat, asking how today had gone, and I dropped them a quick update before assuring them I was fine. Jamie, typically, summarized her feelings with a heartfeltfuck ‘emand Kat sent me a bunch of love hearts—I wasn’t sure how I’d ended up with such good friends, but I was grateful nonetheless.

At some point I couldn’t put my finger on, things had shifted for me. I would always love Jamie, but more as a sister than anything else. What I felt for Bryn was wholly different. New and fresh,ours—if only she could sit down and listen to me long enough to let me make her mine.

CHAPTERFIFTEEN

“To be clear,you’ve decided to formally withdraw?” Winters couldn’t have looked more surprised if she’d tried—mostly because she’d drawn on her eyebrows slightly too high—but I nodded anyway.

“I really appreciate Radclyffe and the course making room for me as a late starter, but it’s just not a good fit.”

“Well.” She coughed lightly. “If you’re sure, I’ll alert the student management team and they’ll email you the papers.”

“That’s great, thank you.” I smiled and she returned it, so at least there were no bridges burned. Who knew what the future held, after all.

I left Winters’ office feeling like a weight had been lifted. Even with things still up in the air between Bryn and me, I couldn’t help but feel like things were finally coming together. I’d fallen asleep long before Bryn had emerged from the hotel bathroom and she’d silenced any attempt at conversation on the drive home by blasting music.

It was still relatively early out, I wasn’t sure why the faculty insisted on holding these meetings in the morning—some of us liked to sleep in. I smiled as I started through the park, once those papers were finalized I could sleep in as much as I wanted.

Though, considering I’d heard back from May yesterday and she’d offered me the traineeship at the shelter, maybe I wouldn’t be getting as many chilled mornings as I otherwise would have. I bit my lip to hold back the smile that wanted to break out at the thought, not wanting to look weird as I strolled through the park on the way to my first proper shift.

I was nervous, but this felt like a good decision and I knew as soon as I got back in there with the animals I’d feel calmer.

May smiled from the doorway of the shelter as she waved a young couple outside, cat carrier in hand as they made their way to a small blue car. “Morning!”

“Hey.” I wiped my slightly-sweaty hands on my jeans and gave her a nervous smile in return. “New owners?”

May nodded as I walked in and let the door close behind me. “Yep, little Marshmallow found her forever home.”

I was both happy and sad to hear that, I’d only seen the cat once and I’d already become attached.

May passed me a new shirt with the shelter’s logo on the front and had me fill out a few forms before we headed to the back to check on the cats. She handed me the small gray kitten I’d seen on my first day here and I cradled her in my arms delicately while she purred.

“This little one has a little cold, so we’ve got some meds for her. It’s quite common for kittens to get upper respiratory infections.”

I nodded. “Yeah, I read that online,” I murmured as I held the kitten’s head still so May could give her the antibiotic paste. “Does she have a name yet?”

“Not yet, I was thinking I might wait for her people to name her—kittens tend to go quickly.”

Something about that bothered me and May noticed. It wasn’t quite jealousy, it was more…protectiveness.

“Surely it might be better though,” I said slowly, “if the person looking after her knew what they were doing? You know, like if they knew how to give her this medicine.”

“Hmm, yes I can see your point…” May struggled to hide her smile as I looked down at the ball of warm fluff in my arms and shifted a hand out from under her to stroke gently under her chin.

“I suppose she would need a lot of stuff though…” I frowned but the thought was quickly forgotten as the kitten purred louder the longer I stroked her. “...but maybe there’s room…”

“We do give a care package to our clients, I could show you if you like.” May raised an eyebrow as she watched the kitten stretch happily in my arms before settling down again. “Just as part of your training, of course.”

“Of course,” I murmured, only half-listening as I followed her. All my attention stayed on the sleepy sweetie in my arms who had begun softly snoring. “Oh wow,” I said as May pulled open a storage cupboard to show me the bags of food, toys, blankets and more that she had stocked inside. “You give all this away for free?”

“It’s included in the adoption fee.”

“Right.” I cleared my throat as the kitten stirred and licked my arm. “How much is that again?”

“Two-hundred for cats, three-hundred for dogs.”

I tickled the kitten’s tummy when she stretched again and it took me a good few minutes to look up and realize May was still standing there, watching me. “Um, sorry. Did you say something?”

“I said, let’s get you rung up.”

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