had caught her at the beginning of the week before everyone in the world had preyed upon her newness, she probably would’ve given him another chance. Would’ve heard him out, at least. She promised herself that if he contacted her again, she’d invite him to come discuss things further.
It may not change the situation, but at the very least, she didn’t have to be such a bitch. It wasn’t this student’s fault her life had fallen apart, and she had to start again with a job she didn’t really want. Two jobs she didn’t want, if you included waiting tables, but necessary to pay the bills.
When the next email turned out to be another tale of woe, she shut the computer down. If she couldn’t handle students objectively, she was better off not handling them at all.
By Friday, Quinn had regrouped. She had approached her classes, the students, and the requests for favors systematically and, well, academically.
She was starting to feel like she was getting the hang of it all. She was making a place and a system for herself. It had meant coming in every single day this week whether or not she’d had a class to teach. She’d been in her office preparing for the next class, or answering questions from online students, or...anything to make herself feel like she had an actual career.
She definitely didn’t need to be spending as much time here in her TSC office as she was, especially not late on a Friday afternoon when she didn’t have any classes.
Yet here she was.
She didn’t have a degree in human psychology, but she didn’t need one to know what was happening.
The office she shared with three other adjuncts was a safe place for her. Familiar. At least more so than waiting tables while living in a small Wyoming town. She stared at her laptop, even though there was nothing on the screen.
Today was a day for reflection, right? A day for looking back at what the past year had brought her and look forward to what the next one would bring.
Her birthday. Her thirty-ninth birthday.
Her gaze shifted over to the Fancy Pants Bakery box. The treat she had bought herself as a middle finger to her ex-husband, Peter.
And then, as a big middle finger back from him, she hadn’t been able to bring herself to actually eat it.
She and Peter had never been big on celebrating birthdays. According to him, they were just another day. No more important than any other day.
But somehow, this day that had shifted her into the last year of her thirties seemed different. Made her feel older. More isolated. More unsettled.
Thirty-nine wasn’t one of those birthdays someone thought about often. If she had thought about where she’d be on her thirty-ninth birthday, it would not have been alone in a shared state college office in Wyoming.
She slid her hand toward the box, but stopped, cursing herself when she couldn’t open it and demolish the treat inside.
On her thirty-eighth birthday, she and Peter were already divorced, so she’d celebrated with her colleagues over a shared glass of wine. It had lasted an hour before they’d all gone on their way.
But she didn’t have even that much this year.
Blinking back tears, she stood and slipped on her jacket. Damn it, she wasn’t going to stay in this office alone, focusing in on how sad her life was. It was Friday night, she would take herself out to eat, then maybe go to the great Eagle’s Nest and have a glass of wine.
It would be nice to have someone to celebrate with, but she hadn’t really made friends yet. She could call Riley, but she wasn’t ready to explain all the details of her failed life.
There was Lexi, but she hadn’t given any indication that she’d like to be anything more than Quinn’s boss.
Baby was the only other person she’d talked to, but she hadn’t seen him since that first day. She thought maybe she would after he’d been so vehement about wanting to know her name.
Should she really be surprised that she’d read his interest wrong? She had no business running around with a guy half her age, or somewhere around there, anyway.
She glanced at the bakery box again. Thirty-nine. Damn it. This was going to be the year she got it all together. She decreed it so.
She would treat herself to dinner, then to a glass of wine. She didn’t need to surround herself with strangers in order to celebrate. She