“Awesome. It was a really good one!” He cradled his hands behind his head.

“Thanks. Couldn’t have done it without you.”

“You would have come up with something,” he said with an easy shrug, as if he’d never doubted it. “So, did you get an A in the class then?”

“I don’t find out until Monday. I turned in one last paper this week. I haven’t even published it to the paper yet. If I do well on it, then I might put it out there,” she told him.

What she hadn’t told him was that the paper she had turned in for her final assignment had been the idea given to her by Brady Maxwell. While she hadn’t used it originally, she still thought it was a good suggestion, and had written and rewritten it too many times to count since she had published the article off of Hayden’s idea. After spending that much time on it, she had decided to turn it in for her final paper to Professor Mires. She was proud of the work and thought it was the right move.

“Nice. You’ll have to let me know how you do. Has the paper been good this summer? I know it was pretty dead, since no one is on campus, but did you think it was useful having your own column anyway?” he asked.

It felt like forever since she had talked about her work with anyone in person. It was a bit like opening the floodgates. She told him all about the paper: the people who were still there, the projects she had worked on, the story of what had happened with Justin. Hayden seemed legitimately interested in every detail. It didn’t seem to be just because he missed the paper, which was obvious, but that he was interested in her more generally. And he couldn’t know the most important thing that had happened to her that summer.

“Hey, you two,” Jamie said, peeking her head into the doorway. “Meredith just got home, James is on his way over, and the lasagna is almost done. I’m opening a bottle of wine, if you guys want to venture out to the living room.”

Liz looked down at her watch in surprise. Had they really been talking for more than an hour? Where had the time gone? It had been so long since Liz had seen Hayden. She was surprised how easy it was to talk to him.

Twenty minutes later, all five of them were seated around the dining room table. Jamie had lit half of the candles in the room and filled their glasses with red wine. The lasagna was to die for, and by the end of the meal, Liz felt a bit sloshy from the wine, but she also felt wonderfully comfortable with the entire group.

Jamie and James were pretty much the cutest couple in existence, and both more than welcoming to her. Meredith, Jamie’s other roommate, worked as a yoga and Pilates instructor nearby and had a total mellow feel to her. Hayden seemed totally in his element, and they spent half of the dinner laughing at one another’s comments. Liz didn’t know whether it was the alcohol fueling it or the general good company, but she hadn’t laughed this much in a long time.

They spent the next couple hours camped out in the living room discussing everything from American politics to French painters to the newest fad diet. The night flew by and soon James was convincing Jamie it was time to go to bed. The two of them and Meredith finally retreated to their respective rooms, leaving Liz and Hayden alone.

“We should probably get to bed if we’re going to get up and walk around the city in the morning,” Hayden said, standing. He reached his hand out to her and she took it, helping her to her feet. She was happy to find out that she wasn’t that wobbly.

“Something is different about you,” he said softly as they stood together.

Liz shrugged and smiled sweetly. “Same old me.”

Hayden shook his head. “No. I can’t put my finger on it, but it’s different.”

“Good different or bad different?” Liz asked.

“Just different. You were always pretty great.”

“Well…thanks,” she said, stepping around him. “I don’t know what it is.”

“Me either,” Hayden said, his eyes following her.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” she said, trying to avoid his intense gaze.

“Good night, Liz.”

Liz walked back to Hayden’s bedroom and closed the door. She leaned her head back against it and let out a long breath.

She knew what had happened to her. Brady fucking Maxwell had happened to her.

Chapter 25

CRACKED OPEN

Hayden and Liz spent the next day walking around D.C. She had never been there before and wanted to go to every museum and monument they could get into. They walked around the Capitol building and managed to get a tour of the White House. They had alternated pretending to hold hands with George Washington in his portrait in the East Wing and had corralled a total stranger into taking a really great shot of them together in front of the building.

Their afternoon was spent inside the National Mall looking at dinosaur bones and walking through endless exhibits at the Smithsonian. The night was filled with dinner and drinks at a laid-back tapas restaurant with Jamie and James. Hayden’s friends had to stay late at the office and didn’t know when they would be off, but had promised to meet them the next night.

That was all right with Liz. After spending all day walking in the summer heat, she was pretty tired. She would have to muster the energy to go out tomorrow. As it was she was ready to pass out from exhaustion.

Liz slept in pretty late the next morning, and then they went out to look at some of the monuments they had missed after spending all day at museums.

She was immediately regretting sleeping in when they got to the Lincoln Memorial and found it packed with people. Apparently families and summer camps made the Lincoln Memorial a regular afternoon stop. People were sitting by the Reflecting Pool eating lunch and covering the steps to the Memorial. They had to nudge past a couple massive groups to even make it all the way up the stairs.

“Guess we should have done this yesterday,” Liz said, looking around the shoulder of a parent volunteer. She could see the statue, but it wasn’t the most pleasant experience.

“Yeah, this is ridiculous,” Hayden said, standing on the step below her.

“Seriously,” Liz groaned. The woman standing in front of her had scooted over and blocked her view.

“Come on. Let’s come back later.” Hayden reached out for her elbow and tugged lightly.

“What? No, we don’t have to do that. I don’t mind,” she said, not wanting to be an inconvenience. Hayden had already been here before; they didn’t need to come back just for her if she could get a good enough look now.

“Nah, let’s go. It’s a better view at night anyway. You’d probably like it,” he said. He directed her away from the mass of people.

“All right, if you’re sure.”

“Definitely. If you want to see it,” he said over his shoulder, “then we’ll come back.”

They walked back down the crowded steps and along the path on one side of the Reflecting Pool. Liz was glad that she had on loose cotton clothing, because it was way too hot to be out in jeans, like some of the other tourists. Her hair was up in a tight ponytail, and she wished she had brought a hat with her to block out the sun beating down.

They passed the World War II Memorial and kept walking to the Washington Monument. The area around the Monument was as packed as the Lincoln Memorial, but luckily they didn’t have to get close to see the giant obelisk rising to the heavens.

Passing the Smithsonian Institution again, Hayden chose a restaurant near the National Mall for lunch. It was a small burger joint and the only seating was outside. Hayden paid for both of them, and they carried their food to the empty table. The burgers were pretty incredible, not that she was hard to please. She wasn’t sure if it was because of the heat or if they were really that good.

They finished their meal and were about to head back on the Metro, when Hayden stopped.

“Hey, I know one more place we need to go,” he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her in the opposite direction. “It’s right around the corner. Come on.”

He set out at a quick jog, and Liz followed, laughing. “Why are we running?”

“I can’t believe I forgot to show you,” he said. “I didn’t even think about it.”

They turned the corner and walked right up to a giant building. Hayden never released her hand the whole time. She was about to extract it from his grasp, when she looked up at the building and saw that it read Newseum on the side. Liz stared forward with awe. It was a building dedicated to newspapers.

“How could you forget this?” she murmured.

“I don’t know. But they have the front page of the main newspaper from every state displayed outside, as well as from several different countries,” Hayden told her.

They walked and stood before the newspapers all displayed in glass cases in alphabetical order by state. It was pretty incredible to witness. She recognized the majority of the papers, but seeing them all out on display made her happy. One day she wanted to be working at one of these papers.

They stopped in front of North Carolina, and when Hayden saw the front page he had to laugh, because he knew the reporter who had the main story. She felt him circle his thumb against her hand, and she tensed.

She wanted to say that she didn’t like it, and that she wished she weren’t standing there with Hayden holding her hand, but it would be a lie. The whole moment felt a bit too perfect, and yet so different at the same time.

Here she was completely out in the open in the middle of the day holding a guy’s hand. It didn’t have to be Hayden; it could be anyone, because it wasn’t Brady. She could never have this with Brady.

And at that moment, it wasn’t Brady versus Hayden…not by a long shot. It was Brady versus not Brady, and Hayden happened to be providing the one thing she wanted from the one person she couldn’t have it from.

She sighed, hating her heavy thoughts. She had come to D.C. to escape for a little while, and she didn’t want to think about all of the confusion that came with her secret life. Regardless, she removed her hand from Hayden’s and leaned forward against the glass to point at something. She didn’t want to make it too obvious and hoped he didn’t think anything of it…or try again.

“Did you want to go inside?” he asked, pointing at the museum. “We might still have time.”

Liz checked her watch and saw how late it was. “I do, but if we’re going to go out tonight, I don’t think it’s feasible.”

“We can go out a little later if you want to see it,” he suggested. “I don’t mind.”

Liz bit her lip and looked up at the building. She did want to go inside. It was such an unbelievable surprise…as if he knew just the right thing to make up for the Lincoln Memorial.

“All right. You convinced me.”

Hayden’s face lit up. He grabbed her hand again, and she let him direct her into the Newseum, where they spent much longer than they should have perusing every aspect of the museum dedicated to journalism.

Hayden and Liz met Phillip and Topher out at a bar near George Washington University. The guys went to school there and had a bunch of friends who lived in the area.

The bar was located off of Pennsylvania Avenue with a giant sign over the top of the entrance. When they entered, the room was already pretty packed full of college students and young professionals working on the Hill. The room was all hardwood floors, dark wooden bars stocked with liquor, and a large staircase leading to a second floor. Girls in low-cut tank tops and miniskirts served drinks. Grinding hip-hop beats blasted from the speakers, and people dancing in the center of the room took up the majority of the space.

Liz had dressed up for the occasion in a short mint summer dress. It had thin spaghetti straps that ended in a scoop neck with a wrap look from the waist down. She had paired it with nude high heels and a long, thin silver necklace with an owl pendant at the end. Her hair was down despite the temperature, and she was already wondering if that was a bad idea.