Page 76 of Bad Boy Bachelor Christmas
“Just like that.” I smiled.
“That’s wonderful news!” She clapped her hands together excitedly. “I’ll send you an email with a registration link. It’s fairly straightforward. You have until January fourth to select your classes. As you go through your options, please keep in mind how crucial business courses are to your success out in the real world. You have all the creativity in the world for design, and I think giving yourself a business edge will make you even more of a competitor.”
“Got it,” I said.
“If you have any questions at all you know how to reach me. I’ll be away from my phone and emails as of tomorrow through to December twenty-eighth, so any time after that.”
“I won’t bother you. I hope you have an amazing Christmas and you get some downtime. You deserve it, Dr. Kent.”
“So do you, Winter. So do you.”
We said goodbye and I closed my laptop with a sigh, leaning immediately to the side table to retrieve my tea and sip it between bites of shortbread. It melted on my tongue.
At least I was no longer staring down the barrel of a year off. After everything that had happened, I felt in my gut that taking the program was the right choice. At the very least, it would help me forget I’d ever met North.
My phone chimed.
I picked it up and saw Cami’s name flash across the screen. She sent me three texts in rapid succession before apparently deciding that was too much effort and calling me.
I held the phone to my ear. “Someone’s impatient.”
“Hey! Is now a good time?”
“Sure. What’s up?”
“I just saw North this morning.”
I groaned and let my head fall against the back of the sofa. “Never mind. Not a good time. Unless you want to talk about literally anything else.”
“Hear me out.”
“Cami…”
“Please?”
Sighing dramatically, I managed a, “Fine.”
“He and Justin came into the diner this morning for breakfast. Just so you know, I gave him a piece of my mind.” She paused for recognition. When I didn’t applaud her, she kept going. “After berating him for a good ten or so minutes, he went on a bit of a tangent to shut me up, and three little words slipped out, I think before he knew what he was saying.”
Three little words?
“Can you guess what they were?” Cami pressed.
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because he’s in love with you!Becausehe’s a total dingbat who is head over heels for you, who thought he was doing the right thing by sending you home with a chip on your shoulder. He said he thought it would be easier for you to move on if you hated him. Look, I know the guy hurt you, badly, and I’m not trying to justify how he handled things, but as you know, he’s kind of an enigma.”
“You could say that again,” I muttered.
“He’s kind of an enigma.”
“Ha. Ha.”
Cami laughed. “His moral compass has always pointed due north, no pun intended, and he will always do the right thing, even if the right thing means hurting someone. He has his head up his own ass. Either way, he’s in love with you, girl, and I thought you needed to know. And if this makes things even harder on you, well, shit, then I’m sorry, but I didn’t know what to do with the information.”
I stared up at my parents’ popcorn ceiling. As a kid, I used to lie on my back with my head hanging off the edge of the sofa, picturing animals within the texture. I spotted the part of the ceiling that used to look like a Poodle to me. My imagination couldn’t quite conjure it the same way it did when I was eight, but the remnants were there.
“What am I supposed to do about this, Cami? What do you want me to do?”
