Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,92

that, he turned around to grab his work clothes.

“Turkey or ham?” she called.

“Turkey.”

“You want cheese?”

“Sure.”

Clothes in hand, he came back down the hall and made it to the kitchen. “Did you get that stuff printed?”

“Should be. Check it though. Make sure it sounds decent.”

He went back to his room and pulled the papers off the printer, read over them at the speed of light, and nodded his approval. “Sounds good.”

“Okay, sit,” Taylor said when he got back to the kitchen. “You’ve got a good ten minutes. You can take a breath and chill for a second.” She set his sandwich on an actual plate in front of him. “Dr. Pepper?”

“Sure.”

She popped it open as she came back with the can and a glass of ice. “You know, you really should slow down on these. I read that one of these has as much sugar as six donuts.”

“So what I’m hearing is, donuts are better for you than this stuff?”

Reaching over, she whacked him. “That’s not funny.”

Greg ate his sandwich. “So, what’re you doing today?”

With a breath, she shrugged. “Probably going back to the dorms. They’ve got that meal thing at the student center.” She sat back and tapped her fingernails on the table. “Don’t really know that I want to brave that just yet.”

“Clara will be there.”

“Yeah.” Taylor shrugged again but said no more for a long minute. “I was thinking about going over to Alpha Chi tonight. They’ll be setting up for the scavenger hunt tomorrow. Might be good to get some face time in with the leadership.”

“Oh. Yeah. That would probably be a good idea.” He finished off the sandwich and the soda. “Do you want a ride back to the dorms? I could take you.”

“Nah,” she said. “It’s not horrible out there. I can walk.”

“You sure? That’s a long way. I hate that.”

“Yeah. You need to get there. I’ll be fine.”

It was strange how prepared Greg felt walking into the interview. He’d have never made it like this on his own.

“Mr. Everett?” the secretary said, calling him to the back, and he stood.

Here goes nothing.

The walk home was a lot longer than Taylor had expected, and upon finding her room hair-tie occupied, she gave up the idea that this was ever going to work and headed for Alpha Chi. Maybe someone there was looking for a roommate.

Taylor’s plan had been to get some studying done, but when Chelsea showed up with pizza and the others were just talking, it was hard to get in the spirit of getting anything else done. They talked about the scavenger hunt and possible ways to do it. She didn’t even think about life again until the day had evaporated.

“Hm,” Taylor said as the conversation finally slid into silence. Everyone had gone back to their phones, clearly tired of person-to-person interaction. “So, does anybody know somebody looking for a roommate? This roommate I’ve got is making me squirrely.”

“Nope.”

“Not me.”

“Haven’t heard.”

“Oh. Well, if you do hear of anybody, could you maybe put in a good word for me?”

There were several grunts in what she assumed were the affirmative, but clearly, she would have to search elsewhere for this new roommate idea.

“How’d it go?” Taylor asked Greg when she got him on the phone around 8:30 that evening. “Did you get it?”

“They haven’t made any decisions yet.” He sounded tired and discouraged. “There are two spots. Five candidates and me. I doubt I even have a shot.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Yeah, well, not planning on getting my hopes up about it, that’s for sure.”

That stymied Taylor for a few seconds. “So, when are we studying for the next one? Did you ever get that study guide in?”

“Oh, yeah,” he said, not sounding one iota more excited about any of it. “It’s here. Haven’t even opened it yet.”

“Okay, well, why don’t you bring it tomorrow? We can look at it,” Taylor said.

“I thought you had that thing.” Although it made no sense, something in his voice sounded vaguely like anger.

“That…?” Taylor stumbled. “Oh, the scavenger hunt? Yeah, but that’s not until later, like nine.”

“I don’t know,” he said like a deflated balloon. “I’ve got work.”

“Yeah, but before work. We can grab something to eat, go to the student center?” Strange how the thing that went through her felt a bit like the hope you have when you’re clinging to it, knowing it’s probably going to get dashed.

Greg sighed. “Probably not. I’ve got a paper due in English on Thursday. I’ve got to get working on that.”

“Oh.”