Page 6 of Not In The Contract
“Can you give me a day to get my schedule worked out?” I asked. “There’s so much going on right now and I don’t want either of us to lose out.”
“Of course! Take all the time you need.”
“How long is she shadowing me?” I asked, working out how I could juggle meetings for the next two weeks or so.
“Two months-”
“Months?!” I sputtered. “Shit, Paula, this is more than just a favor.”
“I know, Alex, but I promise you this will be worth it,” she said. “I know your history and I know you’d want to be a part of this.”
She had me pegged there, but the timing was all wrong. “All right,” I conceded. “Send all the information to me, please. I’ll take a look and get back to you.”
“You’re amazing, Alex!”
I hung up, feelinglessthan amazing.
“What’s with the face?” Hayden asked as I sat back down. I frowned, or rather, my frown deepened and I looked at Taylor.
“You remember Paula Howard?”
Her brows pulled into a frown for a moment before recognition sparked in her eyes. “The professor?”
“The very same.” I nodded. “She just called me to ask if one of her PhD students can shadow me for two months.”
The sarcastic air quotes around “shadow” were probably unnecessary. Whatever. My schedule was already perfect. I had my daily life down to a fine art.
Exactly how I liked it.
Two months of a total stranger dogging my steps would almost certainly derail that comfort.
“Shadow you?” Taylor repeated incredulously. “Like an intern would?”
“I’m guessing.” I shrugged, the irritation crawling its way up my spine and hardening my shoulders. “This student is writing her dissertation on the success of foster kids, or something. So it’s something I can help with, but… The idea makes me want to pull my hair out.”
“So don’t do it,” Cam suggested.
I groaned. “She called in a favor,” I said. “I can’t just say no because it makes me uncomfortable.”
“Come on, surely it takes more than that to make you squirm,” Hayden said conspiratorially.
I glared at her, unease slipping into my gut like a rock in a pond. “I don’t want to hear it,” I warned. “I have to think about how I’m going to fit her into my schedule.”
“Right, this is totally about yourschedule.” She snorted.
I turned bodily in my chair to face her, waiting for an explanation. “Meaning?”
“Come off it, Alex,” Reid said seriously. “You say it’s because of your schedule but we all know you have walls as high as Cam did.”
“That’s such bullshit,” I scoffed.
“No, no,” Taylor said softly. “They have a point.”
“Et tu, Taylor?”
She shrugged.
“You keep that schedule watertight so you can use it as an excuse to keep people out,” Hayden said. “I bet you’d cave if you suddenly had to share your house with someone else.”
