Page 32 of Mostly My Boss
“You heard why. I can’t afford it and my family can’t afford it.”
He shook his head. “That’s a lie and we both know it. The money I’ve paid you over the semester for your notes would more than cover a plane ticket.”
“I have other expenses, Ethan.”
Another shake of his head. “No you don’t. You don’t spend money on anything other than the occasional transportation or hot dogs. I know you pretty well and my guess is you’ve saved hundreds of dollars.”
Eight hundred and thirty dollars, to be exact. However, five hundred of it was earmarked for the bank. I hadn’t been lying about that. If I could continue to make quarterly payments in addition to what my mother was doing, the bank would be less likely to pull the trigger on foreclosing. So yes, I’d saved money. And, yes, technically I had enough for a plane ticket. But none of that was going to change the fact that there were better things I could be doing with that money.
However, that wasn’t the reason I wasn’t going home. I’d looked into the bus and could probably make the trip in two days for less than a hundred and twenty dollars.
“Going home would mostly be about me trying to fix everyone’s shit in the two weeks I was there. An impossible task that would only frustrate me. If I don’t go home they might have to figure some things out on their own. Besides, I wasn’t really lying. I’m going to get started on my computer science coursework.”
Our schedules were already set. We had three classes together, but he was taking a business ethics class while I wanted to add some tech classes to my résumé.
“I still don’t get why you’re taking that. It’s going to be a bunch of wannabe coders.”
“Exactly. Which is only going to increase my stock. You know how rare it is for women to graduate with STEM degrees. An economics major with a computer science minor is going to put me on top for any of the major recruiters.”
“What are you talking about?” His forehead bunched in a way that almost made his eyebrows touch.
“Uh, the job that I’m going to need when I graduate so I can pay off my debt.”
“I’m going to give you that job. I’ll have my idea by then.”
He was irritated and, having known him for a couple of months, I knew there were two directions I could go: I could either
a) humor him
b) pull him back down to reality because sometimes I was the only one could.
“Well, in case you don’t have the big idea by then. This is just a backup.”
He stood up and paced the room. “You don’t believe in me yet. I get it. I haven’t really proven anything to you.”
“Ethan, you don’t have to prove anything to me. But you have to appreciate I can’t plan my life around some idea youmighthave. I won the lottery already. I got into Harvard. I’ve got to turn that degree into money sooner rather than later.”
His lips thinned out and I knew there was more he wanted to say but he had to know I was right.
“You should come home with me for Christmas,” he said instead. “Just a few days over the holiday to New York. It will be…well, my family and pretty horrible, but at least you’ll be able to say you have plans.”
“You don’t need to worry about me.”
He laughed. “This isn’t for you, Jules. Trust me. Having you there will give my mother something to focus on besides me and might make dealing with my father a little more…bearable.”
A chance to meet his family. To see what spawnedhim. Yeah, I was not going to pass that up. It would also make my mother feel less guilty if she knew I was going home with a friend.
“Okay.”
He nodded. Then he pulled out his phone and typed out a text. “I’m going to meet up with Nicki.”
I didn’t ask him if he was mad at me because he had no right to be. Not for making future career plans without him. Not for my class schedule. Not for thinking I might actually need to find a job he wasn’t going to provide for me.
So I didn’t ask if that was really why he was leaving. Because that would be ridiculous.
“Sure. Good. Have fun.”
He stared at me hard, but in the end I pulled out another tissue to distract myself and he left.
