Page 17 of Not In The Contract
“She asked me to move in with her.”
Paula choked on a breath and glared at me. “She did not.”
I pressed my lips together and shrugged. “She said it would benefit both of us,” I explained, hardly believing it myself. “If we lived together I’d have more access to her, more access to observe her. I agreed with her.”
“How very interesting,” Paula muttered, something tugging at the corner of her mouth.
“Why’s that?” I asked, but my phone buzzed loudly on the table and I scrambled to answer.
“Is it-?” Paula whispered, but I waved a hand at her.
“Hello?” I said, my heart lodged in my throat.
“Devon?” Alex said, her voice hardly different. “It’s Alex.”
“I’m so glad you called,” I confessed, unable to keep myself from saying it. “Sorry, I don’t want to waste your time.”
“Not to worry,” she said. “I’ll make this quick. I’ve made my decision. You’re welcome to stay at my house for the duration of your study.”
Relief, unrelenting and warm, washed over me and sent tremors rippling from my spine to my fingertips. “That’s great news,” I said, my voice thin with glee. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this!”
“There’s no need for that,” she said, and I wondered if I imagined the slight smile in her words. “I do, however, need you to sign a few contracts before we begin.”
“Of course,” I agreed.
Paula made wild gestures with her hands but I held a finger to my mouth, my eyes pleading.
“I’ll have one of my assistants email the documentation to you,” she went on. “There will be a non-disclosure agreement among a few others, strictly forbidding any use of personal information. You understand, yes?”
“Absolutely.”
“Excellent,” Alex said. “We’ll meet once everything has been finalized. Until then.”
“Bye-”
The line went dead before I could finish my farewell, but I was blind with excitement, my senses dulled by thick relief.
“Devon!” Paula hissed, tapping my hand incessantly. “Spit it out!”
“Um, sorry,” I said breathlessly. “She said yes.”
“Fantastic!” Paula cheered, clapping her hands in triumph. A handful of students sent seething hisses her way but she ignored each of them. “I told you she’d already made up her mind.”
And like little pebbles tossed into a pond, her words slowly sank in. As did my new reality.
Two months.
I had only two months to prove my research, to prove my studies were not only true, but the results could be successfully reproduced. And on this side of my latest hurdle, those two months stared at me, daunting and full of the unknown. Full of missed opportunities and mistakes.
“I can’t wait to read your dissertation, Devon,” Paula said, pulling me out of my dark musings. “It’s going to be one for the books, no doubt.”
“I’m definitely going to do my best to make sure it’s worth reading.” I half-chuckled.
“Don’t look down on all your work, Devon.” Paula tutted. “You have more than just your studies driving you.”
I knew that better than anyone.
My entire adult life had been dedicated to this one thing. All to improve a biting, uncaring system that churned out unempowered adults into an even worse reality.
