Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,29

Chris’s lawyers so they can chew on it a little bit. I was hoping it might start the ball rolling, but apparently that hasn’t happened yet. But I will call the court of record on Monday to see where to file the paperwork for sure.”

The center of her went cold. “I… thought we weren’t going to do that. I thought…”

“I’m not saying we are, but we have to make it look like we are, so they know it’s a real possibility.”

“Hm. Okay. So when do you think you’ll know something?”

“I’m hoping Monday, but I’ll let you know if I hear anything before then. But Taylor?”

“Yeah?”

“Keep the faith, okay? Sometimes it just takes the right amount of pressure to crack these things wide open.”

She nodded although it was hard not to go numb. “Okay. I’ll try.”

“Good. I’ll be in touch.”

“Okay. Thanks.” When she hung up, she relayed all of that to Greg who presumably had caught at least half of it.

He tipped his head. “Not great, but not horrible. I think Mitchell is right. We’ve got to keep the faith that the right thing is going to happen.”

A breath and she grinned at him. “Just like your test, huh?”

Fighting the smile didn’t really work. “I plead the fifth.”

“Well, look who it is,” Preston McGee said when he found Greg in the breakroom chugging his third cup of coffee. It was only ten o’clock. How was he ever going to make it to six in the morning? “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Uh, yeah,” Greg said as he pitched his cup.

“Thought you would’ve sworn off the night shift after last time,” Preston said. He was a jovial African-American man and quite a bit older than the rest of them. He always and only worked the night shift, so Greg didn’t see him very often.

“I did,” Greg said, “but some things just can’t be helped.”

“Oh? Do tell?”

“Eh. I had a test today. Temporary certification for the tech job.”

That lifted Preston’s eyebrows. “Really?”

“Yeah, well, don’t get too excited. I probably bombed it,” Greg said, leaning on the cabinet. His patient was in the X-ray room, but he couldn’t let himself slow down too much. Tired would catch hold of him if he did. “Have you heard? Have they filled the jobs yet?”

“Not yet, last I heard. Viv was talking about it last night. She said they need to hurry or we’re going to crack under the strain.”

“Huh.” Greg crossed his arms. “Hope they don’t hurry too fast. If, by some miracle, I did pass it, I’d hate for the jobs to be filled before I can even apply.”

“Welp,” Preston said, “the way I see it is you’ve got to keep walking through to find out how it all goes.”

“True.” Greg heard the X-ray door open, and he straightened. “Back to work.”

“Good luck.”

“Thanks. I’m going to need it.”

By the time Greg fell into bed the next morning at 6:30, he was barely able to stay conscious long enough to take his shoes off. And with that, he was out.

In all honesty, when Taylor awoke the next morning, having suffered through another four a.m. wake up call from Hannah the Human Disaster Area, she seriously thought about just giving up and going back home. This was not working, and it was not going to work if Hannah kept this up.

Dragging herself out of bed and into the shower, she ticked through her sparse options for the day. Staying in her room was out. She could go out somewhere again, but the cafeteria in the dorms had opened and spending money on food when she didn’t have to was less-than-smart. So, when she was dressed and had stowed her things in the closet, she went down to see how bad eating in the cafeteria would be.

Of course, it was her and about five other people in the whole place. She opted for cereal and toast. No need to go the pancakes and bacon route. That hadn’t done her any favors the first time around. When she sat down by one of the windows, she closed her eyes and wished she could go back to sleep. The broken pieces of sleep from night to morning were not doing her any good.

As she ate slowly, she checked her phone for messages and found none. That was so weird because there was a time she might have had 20 or more to catch up on in the mornings. She wondered about Alpha Chi. Sophie and Heather. Trina and the others. Maybe she