After a one night stand on New Year's Eve, Lia and Derrick don't expect to see one another again. After all, she's a Harvard PhD student and he's a professional hockey player for the Boston Knights - there's no way their paths should cross again.
E...
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When I woke up the next morning with a headache pounding behind my temples, I definitely didn't feel any better. In a span of twenty-four hours, I'd managed to ride a truly horrific emotional rollercoaster. From elation and pride, to betrayal and heartbreak. There was a high possibility of the day being written off as the worst I'd experienced thus far, and the fact that I was meant to continue on as though I wasn't a jumbled mess of a human seemed completely implausible.
I tried though.
Rolling out of bed, I sluggishly got ready for the day, ignoring any and all texts that came in, not wanting to take the chance of seeing Miles' or Derrick's names pop up on the screen. Because if I had to relive yesterday's events before I even gulped down my morning coffee, there was a good chance I wouldn't make it out of the house.
Instead, I drowned everything out. Putting my headphones in, I scrolled through the playlists saved to my phone until I found the one filled with throwback jams and turned the volume up. There was no room for unwanted thoughts while classic lyrics invaded my mind.
When I pulled into my usual parking spot at the university an hour later, however, I couldn't bury my head in the sand any longer. I needed to at least work to settle one of the storms in my life and deal with Miles. After all, there was no avoiding him. We shared an office. However, being that it was Thursday, I had one final class to teach before finals started, which meant I had a few hours to psych myself up and plan how to go about the confrontation before it happened.
Though with the amount of questions my students had, I didn't really get a chance to do either.
Riding the elevator up on the way up to the office, I couldn't help but fidget. My foot was tapping impatiently, and I fiddled with the zipper on my bag, taking a deep breath as the doors opened and I stepped out. Heading down the hall, I felt like a young kid walking toward their parents, knowing they were in trouble, when I should've been feeding the rage inside of me.
But I wasn't a confrontational person, and a situation like this was honestly one of my worst nightmares.
Biting my lip, I silently chanted "You can do this. You can do this."
Only to open the door and see an empty office.
Truly empty—at least on Miles' side.
My side remained untouched, but on his side, only the desk, chair, and computer monitor remained. There were no papers sprawled across the desk, no sticky notes lining the side of the monitor, and no books piled off to the side.
Setting my bag on top of my own desk, my forehead crinkled with confusion as I took a seat, looking around for a clue as to what had happened. Before I could jump to any conclusions, however, footsteps sounded in the hallway, and moments later, Professor Klein knocked on the door.
I straightened in my seat. "Good morning, Professor."
"Morning," she replied, and it wasn't hard to miss the tightness in her jaw. Or how her response failed to confirm the morning was indeed good.
