Page 82 of Bachelor

And so Dead Week ticked by without a hitch.

I proctored the exams for the two classes I taught for Rhys. I graded the essays late into the night. I took my own tests and barely ate or slept for four entire days.

But I’d made it. It was Thursday evening, and the campus was buzzing with nervous activity as everyone crawled out of their final classes and tried to come back to reality for a week before the final stretch until graduation.

I should have been immensely relieved, but my chest was tight and my head pounded all day at the thought of Rhys coming clean and refusing to let me help him. To help plead our case if we needed to.

I’d barely seen him this week, but that was expected. Up until yesterday, the most we’d talked was brief, hurried conversations and a stolen kiss when I dropped off his papers and rushed to my next midterm or the short, concise texts we’d send before I fell asleep for a few hours between my exams and frantic study sessions.

I hadn’t heard from him at all today.

I walked briskly across campus with more graded papers to drop off to him tucked under my arm. The Thursday class I taught as his TA had been a breeze, midterm wise. Scantron style, I hadn’t had to do more than scan everything through a machine and deliver the final grades to his desk.

But when I reached Hollis Hall, I found the building swarmed with exhausted, giddy students all rushing out to eat and take a nap before the night’s parties began and everyone left campus for Spring Break tomorrow.

I turned the corner leading to his office, having to glide along the wall to stop myself from getting trampled in the frantic rush of students trying to exit the building. I could barely hear myself think over the lifted conversations bouncing off the walls, and I almost missed someone calling my name until I found myself face to face with Tyler.

“Hey!” he shouted, raising a hand over the fray. “How’d it go? I haven’t seen you all week.”

“I’m pretty sure I aced everything.” I beamed as he caged me in to stop us from being mowed down in the hallway. “I’m just dropping this off to Rhys. Are you still going out to dinner with me and Jess?”

“About that,” he said slyly, looking around as if he didn’t want to be overheard. “I finally got a date with that girl I’ve been crushing on.”

“Well, look at you!” I was excited for him, truly. He’d been trying to land a date with this girl—I believe her name was Emily—for weeks now.

“And,” he continued, but the smug smile faded from his lips. “I’m not going to New York City with you guys.”

“What?”

“I’m going up to Maine for the week to see my grandmother.” He pushed off the wall, shrugging. “She’s got a nice big beach house and wants to see her favorite grandson, and I’m trying to stay in the will.”

I rolled my eyes at his teasing tone. “Tyler—”

“She lets me sleep in as late as I want and has a media room. I have shows to catch up on, Whit. Cut me some slack.”

“You’re going to miss out.”

“On going to a show on Broadway?” He snorted with laughter. “You guys will have fun without me. I’ll be fine.”

“I guess I’ll see you in a week, then.” I turned away from him, meaning to cut across the hall to Rhys’s office, but he stopped me.

“Where are you going?”

“Uh, to Rhys’s office. I’m dropping off—”

“But he’s not here today.”

My heart dropped into my stomach. “What do you mean?”

“He wasn’t in class today. He had one of his grad students filling in as a proctor.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him all week. Have you not heard from him?”

“No. Not since yesterday evening.” My stomach twisted painfully as a sick, heavy feeling settled there.

“Are you okay?”

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