Page 21 of Mostly My Boss
Almost. Not over quite yet. Because she’s here with me.
I glanced at the clock. Plenty of time left. Only now I wish I hadn’t been late. It felt like we were going to need every minute of the hour I was promised.
“Give me a sense of your relationship back then from your perspective, Ethan,” Carol said. “Julia says it was you who decided to be friends. What was it about Julia that made you seek out her friendship?”
I thought back to the first day I saw her. Sitting in my seat. Almost hard to see her over the chip on her shoulder and through the foggy haze of her uncertainty and insecurity.
“She was in my usual seat and somehow I knew she’d picked it for the same reason I had. It was the way she’d studied the room and was thoughtful of her place in it. I thought that connected us. That I understood her, and she would understand me. And I hadn’t been connected to anyone in a long time. I was…craving it.”
“No high school relationships?”
I shook my head. “I was homeschooled by tutors. Any interaction I had with people my own age was arranged by my parents. Nothing that ever came normally or naturally. I thought college would be different, but after a few weeks, I knew it wasn’t going to be. Not really. Except for Jules. I might have…I might have clung to her too tightly as a result.”
Jules rolled her eyes. “How can you say that? You had friends. Daniel, Nicki, Dara. You hung around with crowds of people. I wasn’t your only friend.”
I linked my fingers together, leaning forward over my knees. “Daniel maybe. He tolerated me, at least. The others, no. There were people who wanted to hang around me because they either knew what I’d done or they were waiting to see what I might create next and how they could be a part of that. That’s not the same thing as friends. They were…fans.”
“And Julia was different?” Carol prompted.
I nodded. “She didn’t have any expectations about me. She didn’t even know who I was when she met me. She liked me for who I was even if she never wanted to admit it. Beyond that she protected me.”
“Protected you?”
I looked at Jules. “That’s what she does. She takes care of the people in her world. If you’re lucky enough to make it over the walls and through the barbed wire fences that surround her, then you’re in. Me, I just bulldozed right past all that bullshit. And once you’re in, she’ll make it her mission not to let anyone hurt you. I took advantage of that.”
“Why do you think that is, Julia?” Carol asked. “That you’re so protective of people?”
“I think he’s exaggerating,” she said stiffly.
“I’m not and you know it. Tell her. Tell her how it was.” When Jules stayed stubbornly silent, I said to Carol, “If I was in trouble, if I needed someone, Jules was always there.”
Jules lifted a shoulder. “That’s what a friend is for.”
* * *
Harvard
Julia
It was movie night at the Quad. By mid-October the temperature had dropped but that was the fun of watching outside. Everyone brought sleeping bags and comforters, spiked hot chocolate or hot whiskey toddies, and we all bundled as close together as we could to keep from freezing our asses off.
My thermos was not spiked but I could feel Ethan getting drunk as he sat next to me. His body kept leaning into mine anytime he turned to talk to me. I glanced around to see if Daniel was going to show up. He’d said he would meet us. Nicki, too, although I had no doubt she’d be here. Any chance to hang around Ethan, she took it.
And while Ethan was flirty with her, he’d never taken it any further. Which, now that I thought about it, was strange. If Ethan had a chance to hook up, he did it. He wasn’t shy about stuff like that.
Knowing Nicki, she was probably still trying to find the exact hairstyle that looked best with a wool cap pulled over it. We’d claimed some spots next to us with extra blankets, but I wasn’t sure how long we could hold out given how the place was filling up. It felt like everyone from the Cabot, Currier, and Pfoho residences that surrounded the Quad was here already.
“This is nice,” Ethan said as he took another swig from his thermos. He wrapped an arm around me and squeezed. A little too hard. “This is us cuddling.”
“You’re too bony to cuddle with. And this is you getting drunk and handsy.”
He laughed. “I am getting drunk. Come on, Jules. One sip. I promise you won’t get caught.”
I shook my head. “Something you can absolutely not promise.”
He set the thermos down next to him. “I probably shouldn’t be, either. Not supposed to mix.”
I turned to him. “What does that mean? What are you mixing?”
