The Roads Left Behind by Kat Jackson

Author:Kat Jackson [Jackson, Kat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bella Books
Published: 2022-03-17T21:52:31+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

Wednesday ended up being an all-around bad day. The uncomfortable lunch situation had happened, followed by that unsettling conversation with Kate. And then, because the day simply had to get as awful as possible, she’d had the most frustrating encounter to date with Maddie, who apparently had never learned the meaning of boundaries.

On Friday, Callie was still carrying large parts of Wednesday on her shoulders, and when Courtney pulled her into her office after their eight a.m. class, she didn’t take “nothing” for an answer when pressing Callie about what her problem was.

“You’re being dodgy, and that’s not like you,” Courtney said as she shut the door behind Callie. “Spill it, kid.”

With a huff, Callie dropped into the chair by the window. “It’s this ridiculous student issue. It’s driving me crazy. The girl just does not take hints.”

“I thought that had gone away, since you haven’t brought it up for a while. Did something else happen?”

Callie briefly covered her face with both hands, then launched into the unfortunate tale of Wednesday evening. Renee had handed over her class to Callie, citing some tele-meeting she had to attend. Fortunately, the class was working on something that demanded little of Callie other than her presence and answers to questions about various literary theories. She purposely kept her distance from Maddie and the young woman she was working with, hoping that if any questions arose from that duo, they would come from Maddie’s partner.

Alas, no luck there: Maddie had called Callie over, loudly, with, “Callie, I need you over here,” and while Callie fumed internally, she put on a placid expression when she approached them. The interaction was over within seconds, and Maddie stayed quiet for the rest of the class.

Callie let them out precisely at nine p.m. and hightailed it back to the relative safety of her office. She found she was alone—surprisingly, Kate’s office was closed up and dark—and she relished the peace even as she idly wondered where Kate was, since she often worked late on Wednesday nights.

“When I heard the main door open, I assumed it was Kate.”

“What, do you two have some secret special Wednesday night meetings?” Courtney joked. When she saw Callie’s pained expression, she raised a hand. “Sore subject, apparently. We’ll come back to that.”

“We will not.”

“Oh, but we will. Go on.”

It truly did not occur to Callie that it would be anyone other than Kate coming into the office at that time. Not until Maddie was standing in her office, arms tight across her chest, eyes wide and watery.

“What are you doing here?” Callie had asked, standing immediately.

“I just—I really need to talk to you.” She stepped closer, no hesitation in her movement. “I don’t understand why you ignore me all the time.”

“Maddie. I don’t ignore you.” Callie pressed her knuckles into her hips. “You asked for help in class and I responded right away.”

“No, not that.” She shook her head, hair bouncing over her shoulders. “My emails. Why don’t you ever reply?”

Because you’ve sent me hundreds and not a single one has needed a response.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.