After Happily Ever After Once Again by Astrid Ohletz

Author:Astrid Ohletz [Ohletz, Astrid]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: lesbian fiction
Publisher: Ylva Publishing
Published: 2023-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

Pop-Tarts and Rice

by Quinn Ivins

Bella’s phone alarm rang at 10:00 a.m. exactly—not that she needed it. When the melodic chimes filled the small home office, she was poised in the computer chair with her finger on the mouse and her gaze glued to the screen. She clicked the refresh icon with far more force than necessary, only moving to silence the phone alarm when the web portal animation said loading…

Nothing changed. “What the hell?”

Final grades were supposed to post at ten exactly. Surely the District of Columbia’s community college operated on Eastern Standard Time? Bouncing in the chair, she refreshed again.

This time, a link to her fall term grades materialized. She blew out a breath. There. The results of her first semester at UDC.

Bella’s heart thumped as she dragged the cursor over the link. Instead of clicking, she pulled her hand back, suddenly losing her nerve.

My grades don’t determine my self-worth. Her psychiatrist had emphasized this point often enough, but Bella couldn’t help her anxiety. After all, she could blame her disastrous first try at college on the undiagnosed ADHD that had caused a spiral of shame and avoidance. This time, however, she was thirty-one years old with a prescription for Adderall, a drug that calmed her mind and helped her to concentrate. If she couldn’t succeed now, there was little point in a third attempt.

Bella took a deep breath and clicked the link. A neat list of courses and grades appeared on the screen. A… A… B… A.

“Holy crap!” A giddy smile spread across Bella’s face as relief flooded her chest. The endless hours of revising term papers and practicing math problems had paid off.

Bella jumped up and stepped into the hallway in search of Nadine. She couldn’t wait another second to tell her girlfriend the news. She’ll be so proud of me.

Peeking into the bedroom, Bella heard the shower. Her pulse accelerated at the thought of Nadine lathering her muscular body with soap suds. Maybe I can join her. She imagined stepping into the shower and wrapping her arms around Nadine’s naked body, beaming with her good news.

As she walked toward the bathroom, her gaze snagged on an expanse of royal blue. A graduation gown lay on the bed, along with a doctoral hood and a velvet cap with a gold tassel.

Oh right. Nadine has that thing. She’d been invited to Georgetown University’s commencement ceremony. They’d discussed it at breakfast, but Bella had already forgotten.

She took another step toward the shower, then shook her head and turned around. Nadine might not want to be interrupted while she got ready for something important.

Instead, Bella returned to the office and plopped into the desk chair. She stared at her grades until a pop-up window warned that her session would time out in three minutes. Unwilling to part with the evidence of her achievement, she typed Command+P and sat back as the laser printer churned.

When she plucked the page from the tray, it was still warm. She ran her fingers over the small table of printed grades, wishing the presentation were more dramatic.

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