He responded almost immediately.

Sure. What’s up?

She dialed his number and he answered on the first ring. She waved her phone at Victoria and then, on wobbly feet, took her wine into the living room.

“Hey,” she warbled.

“What’s up? You sound tipsy.”

“Just a bit.” She plopped down on the couch.

“Cool. What did you want to talk about?”

“Do you still need help with your blog?”

“Yeah. Why? You interested?” he asked.

“Um . . . yeah. What would you need me to do?” She had kind of called on a whim. All she knew was that Justin was running a company based around organizing YouTube videos and compiling them in a coherent categorical system.

“You’ll just run the blog and keep the masses entertained. I can send you over the information. Just write your opinion.”

“You know what? Sure. Let’s do it.”

“I knew you’d come around,” Justin said cheerfully. “When can you start?”

Liz couldn’t believe it was really that easy. “Now?”

“Awesome! I know you’ll be perfect for this.”

Liz laughed and then they got off the phone. She had just gotten herself a job! No strings attached. It felt good to know that her writing was still valued, even if it wasn’t on the same level or even in the same discipline as she had been trained. Professor Mires had said one door closed, and another one opened.

Liz was starting to believe her.

Chapter 15

PRIORITIES

Thursday rolled around quicker than expected. Liz still had to decide what she was going to do about Hayden. Now that she’d had time to cool down after her argument with Brady, she had realized just how stupid the whole thing had been.

She and Brady hadn’t talked about it since their argument Monday, but she knew him well enough to know that he was anxious about what she was going to do. And she didn’t like that. Their relationship wasn’t always going to be perfect. In fact, it had never really been perfect. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t work with him.

Liz crawled out of bed, took a quick shower, and then tidied up her room. Her parents would be in town tomorrow for graduation, so she had to get her house ready. She was afraid to look in the living room; with all the packing Victoria was doing, the place looked like a pigsty.

Liz was both excited and nervous for her parents to meet Brady. They weren’t thrilled that their daughter was in the newspapers for having an affair with a congressman. No matter how much she told them that it wasn’t like it was in the news, her father still had reservations.

Logging on to her computer, she opened her email to spend a few mindless minutes on the computer before her weekend was taken over by graduation. One email caught her eye. She opened it and just stared at the words.

“Accepted,” she whispered.

Her article had been accepted. She had submitted a few pieces anonymously online to editorial columns. Nowhere too big or fancy. She knew that most would require her name to publish, but she had found some strictly online sites that allowed her to write without tipping off the editor that she’d had a stint or two in the papers herself.

The email went on to ask for her contact information and to discuss freelance payment for the column in question. She nearly jumped out of her seat she was so excited. It wasn’t the New York Times or even Raleigh News, but her article on education policy reform had still been accepted and was going to be published in an online magazine. Her own ideas and words in print once more!

Liz grabbed her phone off of her nightstand to call Brady, and saw that she had a text message from Hayden.

Hey, when and where are we meeting today?

Oh yeah, she had never given him an answer. She bit her lip and jotted out a message back.

I don’t think we should.

After a short pause, her phone dinged again.

Please let me try to make it up to you. I hate how everything ended.

No. I’m sorry. I can’t.

She sighed, feeling bad, but she knew it was for the best. She had said Brady was her past, present, and future and she meant it.

A second later her phone started ringing. Hayden. This wasn’t going to be fun.

“Hey,” she mumbled.

“Hey. I thought we were going to get coffee,” Hayden said.

“I said maybe, and now I’m saying no.”

“Why?”

“It’s not a good idea,” Liz said. “You didn’t like me seeing him when we were together. You should understand.”

“Yeah, but you did it anyway, and I doubt you’re going to kiss me. Unless I’m missing something.”

Liz shook her head. “No, of course not.”

“Then what’s the big deal? I’m not asking for anything except coffee. I just want to make things right.”

“You keep saying that, but I don’t even know what that means,” she told him. She was gripping the phone tightly in her hand.

“It means that I’ve felt terrible about what happened and how we ended. I want to know that we can salvage what happened even if we can’t be together.” He sighed heavily. “You meant . . . mean so much to me. I don’t like the idea of us being on such bad terms, even if it is my fault.”

“I understand what you’re saying, Hayden, but it’s over between us.”

“I’m not trying to get back together with you!” Hayden said, exasperated.

“I believe you,” she said. Sort of. “I’m just saying if you want things to be right between us then, fine. Things are right. But this is the end of the road for me.”

“You really think everything can just be better like that? Just by saying they are?”

He sounded disbelieving, but she knew that she was making the right choice.

“I think the more you dwell on it, the more obsessed you’re going to get with the notion that you have to make this up to me. You can’t. You betrayed my trust,” Liz told him flatly. “But I’ve moved on. I’m happy. And it’s not worth potentially hurting him to make you feel better about the fact that you sold me out.”

“So . . . I’m wasting my time here?”

“I guess. If you want to make things right, then just let it all go. I’m in a good place in my life. I know we have some good memories in our past and I’m thankful for them. They’re just in the past, though. My new memories are going to be with Brady.”