Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,24

getting some groceries.”

“Hm. I’ve got a test tomorrow afternoon and then work tomorrow night,” Greg said. “I’ll be AWOL until Sunday at least. They having services this weekend?”

“Far as I know.”

“K. Well, I’ll be there for that, but everything else is iffy at best.”

“Good to know.”

Taylor was as much of a disaster as the room was by nightfall. Hannah had left around nine with no indication of when she would be back. That wasn’t such a bad thing. It at least gave Taylor a chance to pitch the cups and debris on her side of the room without risking her new roommate’s wrath. Setting things up wasn’t too difficult once she got everything to the room. She hadn’t brought much, just essentials really.

The one thing that had slipped through the cracks in her treks up and down the stairs and hallways was the call to Mitchell. Admittedly, it had been the most important thing she was supposed to get done.

Sitting on her bed, exhausted and overwhelmed with it all, she realized she hadn’t even eaten since noon, and she hadn’t had time to buy anything to snack on either. Frustrated with herself but trying valiantly not to be, she eyed her phone and fought to decide. He had the test tomorrow, but then again, he had to eat, too, right? Unless he’d already eaten. Did the guys all eat together? Was he even home from work? She had no idea.

Finally, before she could talk herself out of it, she hit the two buttons, and it was ringing before she could talk herself out of it.

“Hey,” Greg said, and he sounded more than a bit stressed.

“Hey,” she said, looking around the room and fighting not to let her own troubles sound in her voice. “You home?”

“Uh, yeah. Just got here a while ago. You get set up in your room?”

“Yeah. You could say that.”

“How’s the roommate?”

“Well, let’s just say I think we said five words to each other in total so far. I don’t know. She left, so who knows?”

“Yikes.”

“Tell me about it.” Taylor almost bugged out on asking him. “Listen, I haven’t eaten yet, and I was kind of wondering if… you might…”

His hesitation told her the answer.

“Not that you have to or anything,” she said quickly. “I mean, I can hit a drive-thru. No biggie.”

“Okay,” he said, and she wasn’t sure what that meant. “I can meet you somewhere if you want, or I can come get you…”

“I hate to ask you to do that…”

“No. It’s cool. I can bring my books. We can cram a little.”

Relief washed over her. “Sounds like a plan.”

Although she looked much worse for the wear when she made it to his car, Greg chose not to comment about her disheveled appearance.

“Ugh, thank the Good Lord today is almost over,” she said when she had clicked her seatbelt and settled back in the seat. “Wow. What a day.”

“Move in is never fun.”

“You have no idea. I think my aches are going to have aches tomorrow.” She laid her head to the side to look at him. “Thanks for doing this.”

He smiled at her. “I told you, I’m always there for you.”

She grinned. “Seems like I remember that part.”

Chapter 5

Greg got a double burger. Taylor got a salad.

They really did study, and Greg really was glad of it. She didn’t go easy on him either, and it seemed at least as important to her that he pass as it did to him. It was even her idea to call it a night at ten because as she put it, he “needed shut-eye more than anything else right now.”

He dropped her off at the dorm, wishing her good luck with the roommate situation, and she said, “Thanks” in a way that he knew she really needed it. As he drove back home, he prayed for her. She was going to try to get in touch with Mitchell in the morning, and Greg knew how hard that was going to be to navigate no matter which way it went.

When he got home, he set a reminder for the next afternoon for after the test. He had a four-hour window from end of the test to beginning of his night shift, and he needed to remember to call her to find out if she’d heard anything. With that done, he went in, went straight to his room, and was asleep the second he crashed onto the bed.

The hallway outside her room didn’t get quiet until nearly midnight, and