It had been a stressful morning, and my day didn’t get much better as it progressed. A few girls made snide comments about my boyfriend being pictured in the paper with his ex-girlfriend, and it made my stomach dip every time.
Sawyer was quick to defend Wes when I saw him at breakfast and wasted no time reassuring me nothing was going on between Sarah and his brother. Anna kept saying she should never have shown me the photo in the first place and that it was no big deal, and Cress also started to dismiss it as nothing to worry about.
I kind of just wanted to forget about it now. I felt silly for reacting the way I did, and I knew Wes was being honest with me about Sarah. Every time someone mentioned it though, the image of him with his arm wrapped around her as they smiled at the camera flashed in my mind. They looked so beautiful together and so comfortable at the extravagant gala under the flashing lights of photographers. I felt like I couldn’t compete.
If things couldn’t get any worse, I had to face my business management class with Noah after lunch. He was still choosing to sit on the far side of the room, but even that didn’t feel far enough away. It was almost like I could sense the way he refused to look at me or even acknowledge my presence. Maybe I was being ridiculous, but it made my skin prickle with irritation.
I had to wonder how someone so set on ignoring you could be so distracting. And even though my focus was on the teacher, I barely heard a word he said. I only started paying attention when he began to hand out sheets of paper.
“The assignment will be done in pairs,” the teacher said as he walked down the aisles passing out the assignment. I’d completely missed the start of his explanation, but the thought of working with a partner made me want to groan. I was skeptical of group work. There was always the risk someone wouldn’t pull their weight, and in pairs, you were totally reliant on the other person doing their bit.
I felt a little better when I turned to my side and Lily was looking at me hopefully.
“Partners?” she whispered.
“Heck yes.” I nodded with obvious enthusiasm. Lily took her schoolwork very seriously because she was at Weybridge on a scholarship and had to make sure her grades were consistently strong. There was no way she’d slack off and leave me with all the work.
She grinned, apparently as happy with the suggestion as I was. She knew I took my grades seriously too. It seemed we weren’t the only ones with the same idea because the class was filled with whispers as other students tried to pair themselves up.
“Not so fast,” Mr. Brenner said, silencing the class. “I will be organizing the partners.”
Everyone started to grumble in complaint.
“We’ll be pairing up according to surnames.” He didn’t hesitate before he started listing off names. “Abbott, Alcott you’ll be together. Booth and Cooper…”
Nerves fluttered through me as I glanced around the room, trying to recall my classmate’s surnames and predict who I might be paired with. I couldn’t be sure, but there was one thing I did know that had me seriously concerned. Noah’s surname was dangerously close in the alphabet to my own. I could think of nothing worse than being paired with him. How could we work together when he so clearly hated me?
“Grace,” Brenner called out. “And Hastings.”
My stomach dropped through the floor, down three flights, and into the basement of the building. This was my nightmare. I would have preferred a partner who did no work at all over Noah. I couldn’t bring myself to look his way to see his reaction. I knew it wouldn’t be good.
As it turned out, I didn’t need to look at him to know exactly how he felt because he spoke up in front of the whole class.
“That doesn’t work for me,” Noah said.
“Excuse me,” Brenner replied.
“That pairing doesn’t work for me,” Noah repeated. “I think I’d be better off with a different partner.”
The room murmured with gasps and whispers. I could feel every eye in the class fall on me, and my cheeks flushed hot with embarrassment. I knew Noah didn’t want to work with me. I didn’t want to work with him either. But did he really have to call me out in front of the entire class?
“But, sir, I don’t think you fully understand—’
“Mr. Hastings. This is a business management class,” Mr. Brenner cut him off. “In the real world, you won’t always get to choose who you partner with in a professional capacity. If there’s a communication issue, you find a way to make it work.”
Everyone in the class turned to Noah, seemingly holding their breaths as they waited for his response. Noah was set to take over a billion-dollar business empire when he left school. It would look pretty bad if he admitted to the teacher that he couldn’t even handle working with me.
Noah seemed to realize that fact pretty quickly because his eyes hardened, and he grumbled his reply through gritted teeth. “I’m sure I can make it work.”
“Good,” Brenner said before he continued listing the pairings. He then handed out the assignment sheets as he described what was required of us.
“You’ll be creating a proposal for a business you want to start,” he explained. “I want to see a full business plan including all the elements listed on the worksheet. The assignment is due the last day before Christmas break. You may use the rest of this class to get started.”
Lily shared a sympathetic look with me. The partner she’d been assigned was almost as bad as mine. She was stuck with a girl who had spent all semester chatting in class. I doubted the girl had learned a single thing. Still, I would have taken her over Noah any day.
I let out a sigh before glancing over at him. He was looking at his phone, showing no indication he was interested in getting started on the assignment like Brenner wanted. I huffed and turned back to my desk. Other students were already sitting in their pairs and getting down to work while I stared at the worksheet, refusing to give in to the temptation to hazard another glance in Noah’s direction.
After pretending to read through the assignment instructions for what felt like the hundredth time, I knew I was going to have to take the first step if I wanted any chance of ever completing this project. Noah sure as hell wasn’t going to come over to me, and I wasn’t going to let him prevent me from passing this class.
Drawing a deep breath in, I gathered my things and walked over to his table. I hesitated when I reached him. Noah didn’t even pull his eyes from his phone to so much as acknowledge my existence.
“We’ll split the work half and half,” he said, still refusing to look at me. “I don’t care what the business is, so you come up with the idea and do the mission statement. I’ll do the rest. You can email me your part when it’s done. I’ll send the finished proposal to Brenner.”
Heat crept up my neck at how easily he dismissed me. I didn’t want to spend any time with Noah, but there was no way we could complete this assignment adequately without collaborating. It was like he hadn’t even bothered to listen to Brenner explain the task.
“We’re supposed to come up with a business proposal together,” I said. “It’s not as simple as just lumping it all on one document and calling it a day.”
“I’m sure you can figure it out.”
He still hadn’t looked up at me, and I opened my mouth to argue, but the bell rang signaling the end of class. Noah stood up, moved past me, and was out the door before the ringing had even stopped. I stared after him, anger bubbling beneath the surface of my skin. This assignment was the worst thing to happen to me all day, and that was really saying something.
I WAS STILL BRIMMING with annoyance as I made my way to dinner that night. Time and distance from Noah had done nothing to calm me down. I’d been recalling his refusal to work with me over and over in my mind all afternoon. And each time, I only felt more agitated.
“It’s been a rough day,” I said as I sat down at dinner with my friends. “You guys need to tell me something to cheer me up.”
Wes threw me a concerned look, and I could see he was worried I was still upset about the photograph. I quickly explained what had happened.
“I got paired with the worst partner for my business management assignment, so I’m probably going to fail that class.”
“Surely they can’t be that bad,” Anna said. “Who are you with?”
“Noah.” I groaned.
A look of surprise fluttered through Wes’s eyes, but then he started to frown. “How did you end up paired with him?” He cleared his throat after he spoke as though he wasn’t happy with the way the words had come out.
“Brenner picked our partners.”
“Ah, let me guess, he went through the alphabet…” Sawyer said. “He always does that.”
“That’s exactly what he did,” I replied. “I’m beginning to wish I’d changed my surname to LaFleur. Seriously, anyone got some good news?”
Sawyer traded a look with his brother, and the crease on Wes’s forehead diminished slightly. He nodded and Sawyer turned back to us, a wide smile on his face. “I might have just the thing,” he said. “Our parents told us over the weekend that we can have the ski lodge for a few days when we break for Christmas,” he said. “And there’s room enough for a few guests.”
Anna and Cress squealed with excitement. “Really?” they asked in unison.
“Yep.” Sawyer was still grinning. “Time to get your snow gear out of the closet because we’re going to Aspen.”
Anna and Cress squealed again, and I glanced around the table. Everyone had eager looks on their faces. It sounded like good news, but I wasn’t so sure.
“Uh, but I don’t know how to ski,” I murmured.
“Oh, don’t stress about that,” Anna said, waving a hand at me. “I usually spend the whole trip hanging out in the chalet or eating in the amazing restaurants in the village.’
“Yeah, skiing’s only part of the trip,” Cress added. “Wes and Sawyer’s chalet is amazing. We stay inside and relax in front of the log fire, watch movies, and drink our body weight in hot chocolate. It’s beautiful there too. You’ll have a blast even if you can’t ski.”
“I’d also be happy to teach you to ski if you like,” Wes added. “But, Cress is right; you don’t have to hit the slopes if you don’t want. It’ll still be fun.”
It sounded pretty great. I was reluctant to miss any time with my mom over the holiday, but I’d be back in Rapid Bay for Christmas, and I was sure she’d understand if I decided to go. Besides, Wes and I struggled to get any privacy at school. Maybe a trip like this was exactly what we needed.
“Okay.” I started nodding. “I’ll have to check with my mom. But as long as she says yes, then I’d love to come.”
Cress and Anna cheered, and Wes gave me a warm smile. Their excitement was beginning to rub off on me now, and I found I was grinning too. I still had finals week to get through before the break, and I’d promised my father I’d start thinking about college applications, but it was definitely nice to have something to look forward to. Especially when that something was snuggling up to Wes by an open fire while it snowed outside. It sounded very romantic.
We continued talking about the trip over dinner, and once we were done, Wes offered to walk me back to my room. We were silent as we left the dining hall, and Wes held my hand and rubbed his thumb lightly across the back of it.
I was still excited about our ski trip, but my enthusiasm was dampened when I saw a couple of girls whispering and nodding in our direction. I let out a sigh, assuming they were still gossiping about the picture in the paper.
Wes seemed to notice them too because he pulled me in a little closer and wrapped his arm around my waist. “I really am sorry about that photograph,” he said as he steered me away from the girls.
“I told you earlier it’s okay.”
“I know,” he said. “But when you said you needed cheering up tonight, I felt partly responsible.”
I let out a sigh and turned to him. “It just took me by surprise a little bit. You guys were together for such a long time. And you only just broke up.”
“I get it,” he said. “But I’m not the only one who broke up with their ex recently. At least you don’t have to see mine every day.”
I was surprised by the slightly defensive tone to his voice, but Wes was right. I knew it was hard for him to see me around Noah, and I could tell he was still thinking about the fact I had to work with him on our business assignment.
“I really didn’t have a choice about being paired with Noah,” I said.
“I know. It just feels like he’s always there.”
While I didn’t have to deal with seeing Sarah every day, I still felt like it was a slightly different situation. Noah and I had broken up because of something we could never overcome. And he had a new girlfriend. Sarah’s biggest fault was that she went to a different school. She and Wes didn’t hate each other like me and Noah. I pushed the thought from my mind as quickly as it had popped up though. I didn’t want to compare our circumstances. It didn’t matter what we’d been through; we couldn’t keep letting our ex’s affect us this way.
“Wes, we trust each other, don’t we?” I asked.
He nodded. “Of course.”
“Then there shouldn’t be anything for either of us to worry about, right?
“Right.”
“We both just got out of relationships, but like you said this morning, that should only make it easier for us to realize how much better off we both are now. It shouldn’t make it harder. We can’t let it.”
“You’re right,” he said, smiling at me. “I won’t if you won’t.”
“Deal.”
Wes leaned over me and we kissed, trying to quell any fear the other might still harbor. It made me feel better in the moment, and I hoped it did the same for Wes. But, as soon as we parted ways, a seed of doubt seemed to sprout anew. What if this was going to be harder than I thought?
