Page 25 of Bachelor

Whitney

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“THEY FINALLY TOOK THEChristmas decorations down,” Tyler said as he placed three hot lattes on our table on the third floor.

“You’re the best!” I beamed up at him as I reached for mine and took a long, steady drink. The pages of text on my laptop had been starting to blur together.

“What’s your wordcount?” Jessica asked, then frowned and shook her head. “Never mind, I don’t even want to know. I’ve barely touched my thesis yet.”

“I have a few pages left, I think. Just wrapping things up now.” I went back to typing, my fingers flying over the keys.

Jessica, sitting across from me next to Tyler, furrowed her brow at her laptop and nudged Tyler’s shoulder. “Look at this!”

I looked at them over the top of my laptop. “What?”

Tyler and Jessica scanned something on her screen before he opened his own computer. “An email from Cassandra Martins,” he said absently.

“What about?” I clicked out of my Word document and into my email, scrolling to the very top. There was, in fact, an email there addressed to the fine arts and humanities graduate cohort, her jurisdiction.

“‘My dear students,’” Jessica read out loud. “‘You’ll never believe what I’ve been up the past two weeks! I recently found out that Gatlington used to host a trip for the graduating graduate students every spring semester. I’ve been working tirelessly on a little surprise for all you hard-working, dedicated scholars. And, surprise! Two weeks from now, you’ll be heading to Hunter Mountain to spend two entire days skiing while staying at a luxury lodge, free of charge, and presented by the university you’ve devoted your time and energy to. Please RSVP to this email so I know which of you are coming!’”

I read the email while Jessica read it out loud to us. I noticed every professor in those departments was also CC’d on the email.

“Are the professors going, too?”

“I’ve heard of this,” Tyler cut in, nodding at me. “They do go or have in years past. My dad went on one of these trips while he was in law school here.”

“Hunter Mountain is a rowdy party spot,” Jessica mused, leaning back in her chair. “I wonder if Cassandra knows what she’s getting into with this one.”

“Well, I’m definitely going,” Tyler announced. “What about you?”

“Me too, for sure.” Jessica nodded, and then they both turned to me.

“Mmm... Probably not.”

“What? Why?” Tyler looked shocked. “Didn’t you read the part that said this was free?”

I looked back down at the email, frowning. Check-in would be Thursday evening, and we’d leave Sunday afternoon. That meant three whole nights in a lodge with Rhys, if he chose to come.

Part of me believed he wouldn’t, but I also knew he was bored and feeling kind of stuck in a mundane cycle that had brought him running back to me earlier today when he’d sat in on the class I was covering for him.

“I’ll think about it,” I said to them, then pulled my Word document up and got back to work. I could also feel Jessica rolling her eyes.

A few minutes passed before Tyler got up, saying he was going downstairs to look for a book.

When he was gone, Jessica slowly closed my laptop with a finger, her eyes fixed on mine.

“Why aren’t you going?”

“You know why,” I grumbled, opening my laptop in a huff.

“Well, if he doesn’t go, then you’ll both end up here on campus alone while the rest of us have fun.”

I ground my teeth. “The last thing I want is to be stuck in close quarters with him, drunk off mulled wine and spiked hot chocolate and making a fool of myself.”

“That bad, huh?”

I knew what she meant. I wasn’t over him, and today had only made it worse.

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