Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,65

his unwavering presence through the whole thing. “I’m trying to figure some things out,” she said, and she lifted her gaze and smiled, “but I think it’s going to be way better than before.”

“I’m glad to hear it.”

Leaving the English building, Greg stopped on the front sidewalk. He wasn’t sure what came next. His car was one way. Her dorm was the other. Was he supposed to walk her to her dorm and then go back to his car? Did they go to his car so he could take her to his dorm? Or did he suggest she come home with him so they could hang out? He wasn’t at all sure, and the hesitation dropped awkward between them.

“So,” she said before he found a place to start, “have you started studying for that permanent certification thing yet?”

Still over a month away, Greg hadn’t so much as downloaded the application for it. “Oh, haven’t even thought about it.” He cleared his throat. “I’ve been a little busy.”

The look in her eyes changed from aimless to zeroing in on a target he couldn’t see. “Well, we need to get cracking on that, don’t you think?”

We? He stumbled hard on the word and put his hand on the back of his head to thwart it from his heart. “Oh. I… Uh…”

She leveled her gaze at him, and he knew she meant business. “Gregory Everett, am I going to have to hogtie you to that chair until you get this done? Because I will if you don’t get to it.”

He smiled. “Mrs. Bradley. Nice.”

“I’m starting to see why she said that.”

With a laugh, he folded his arms. “It wasn’t my fault that I hated writing all those pointless essays freshman year. Ugh, I hated that class.”

“Really? Huh. I would’ve never guessed.” She turned then and laced her arm through his, turning them toward his car effortlessly. “Do you have the study guide for it?”

“I haven’t even done the application.”

“Oh, my, whatever did you do before I showed up?”

As it turned out, Taylor wasn’t kidding about working on the certification. Although Greg tried to explain that it was all pointless now since applications for the job were closed and probably wouldn’t be open again for a long time, she wouldn’t hear it. Instead, she kept calling out questions to check on him as he sat in the living room at the coffee table filling out the application.

“Are you cooking?” Greg asked when he heard noise and realized she hadn’t come back from getting water.

“Well, you have to eat, right?” she called back. “Don’t mind me. Just get that done.”

Like he had a choice.

By six-thirty, the application was in, the payment had been made—though he thought that was probably a waste of a good $80—and they were sitting at the table eating chicken casserole she had cobbled together from the leftover ingredients from the night before.

“So is the study guide the same as the one before?” she asked as if her sitting there was the most normal thing in the world.

“Part of it, but there’s a second one too.” The weight of it all began to press down on him. “I don’t know. How am I going to do this and everything else?”

“We’re just going to have to get organized, that’s all,” she said, using that we word again that was starting to make him fidget inside. After all, this was all an illusion. Yes, they were friends, but it was nothing more than that, and spending time with her when she kept using that word only set him up for more heartache later.

With no warning, the door opened, and both of their gazes went over to it. After only one wild moment of sheer panic, Nelson appeared. Alone but for the backpack and mini-keyboard.

“Oh, hey,” he said, and he hid the surprise at finding them there together well. “Don’t mind me. I’m headed out again. We’ve got rehearsals in 30.”

“You want something?” Taylor asked. “We’ve got extra.”

“Uh…” Nelson glanced at Greg. “You sure?”

“Yeah, grab you a plate. You’ve got to eat, right?”

However, Nelson didn’t look at all sure about that. Leaving his things by the door, he gathered up a plate and a fork and came to sit down at the head of the table between them. “Man, I’m starving.” That much was clear when he started shoveling the food into his mouth, almost without chewing it.

“You want some water with that?” Taylor asked, her face slipping into amusement.

“Sure.”

She brought over water and set