Jamie screamed at the top of her lungs and launched herself at him. Her gla.s.s toppled to the ground, discarded in her haste. It landed on the wood and shattered, but Jamie didn't give it a second glance. Her arms were wrapped around James's neck and he was struggling to stand as he laughed at her enthusiasm. Liz could see that through her excitement, Jamie's body was shaking with tears.

"Oh my G.o.d. Oh my G.o.d. Oh my G.o.d," Jamie said over and over again. "I can't believe this. Yes! I want to marry you. Yes!"

He laughed and kissed her full on the mouth.

Without even knowing it, Liz had moved closer to Hayden. He was looking straight at her and Liz just smiled. "You knew," she whispered.

He nodded. "Of course."

Liz watched as James plucked the ring out of the box and slid it onto Jamie's finger. Jamie jumped around in circles before thrusting her hand out to Meredith and then Liz in between squeals.

Liz couldn't think of a couple that she thought should be married more than Jamie and James. They just worked. They weren't rushing into things, and they weren't doing it for the wrong reasons. Liz could tell that it was going to really last. And she was so happy to have witnessed their moment, even if she had this strange feeling creeping through her . . . as if she couldn't imagine herself going through that anytime soon.

She shook that thought away. It was probably just residual jitters from Clay's comments. Who really knew whether they wanted to marry someone after only two months anyway?

Chapter 5.

ALL THE WRONG REASONS.

Thank you all so much! Next week we will be discussing the new digital age, so please be sure to read chapters six and seven in the textbook and the three articles a.s.signed on the syllabus," Professor Mires yelled over the shuffling of students stuffing everything into their backpacks at the end of cla.s.s. "Please remember to turn in your a.s.signment here on my desk. I've graded last week's papers and they are sitting in alphabetical order over here." She placed a stack of papers, likely bleeding red ink, on the other side of the desk. School had started three weeks ago and this was already their third round of papers.

Liz closed her computer with a sigh. Professor Mires had recommended that she take her upper-level political journalism cla.s.s in the spring after Liz had excelled in the news writing and editing prerequisites and then the special topics cla.s.s she had taken over the summer. She had wanted to take the professor's cla.s.s anyway, so it was an easy yes, but she wasn't quite prepared for how much extra time she would be spending.

Professor Mires had also engineered an extra three-hour course as a field credit to prepare for the political journalism colloquium that she and Liz were orchestrating at the university for the end of the semester. Plus Liz had research hours a.s.sisting the professor with the papers she was sending out for publication. Add aiding Ma.s.sey with running the Washington division of the newspaper and Hayden's insistence on pushing for her to be editor, and it was no surprise that Liz was a bit overwhelmed.

The only thing that really bothered her was her slacking on tennis practice, but school and her career came first.

Liz pulled her paper out of her backpack and placed everything else back inside. She walked down to the front of the cla.s.sroom and waited as everyone rifled through the stack of papers to claim theirs. She smiled at Professor Mires and handed in her draft.

The benefit of seeing her professor all the time was that sometimes she gave Liz ideas for what to write about or looked over the copy before she turned it in. A lot had changed since last summer, when Liz had been terrified of getting a C in her cla.s.s.

"Thank you, Liz," Professor Mires said, taking the paper out of her hand. Her professor had dropped the formality of calling her Miss Dougherty once Liz started working for her, but Liz still couldn't get used to calling her Lynda. "Will you stay after so we can review the incoming submissions for the colloquium together?"

"Sure." She had been expecting that. Last semester they had put together panels, and the call for papers had gone out near the end of the semester. Professor Mires had also sent some personal invitations to prominent professors in the field, journalists at top newspapers and news broadcast venues, as well as some politicians. Since then they had been flooded with inquiries and responses to their call, and Liz had been tasked with sifting through the mountain of messages.

The rest of the cla.s.s slowly filtered out, leaving only the papers of students who hadn't shown up. Liz's was sitting at the top, and she grabbed it, reading through the notes. She had received an A. From the looks of the students who had left before her, not many others had. Another benefit of taking Professor Mires's summer course.

Once everyone left, Liz followed the other woman back to her office. She took a seat across from the professor and waited as the computer booted up.

"That was great work this week," Professor Mires said.

"Thank you," Liz said cautiously. Those words normally came with a but.

"Do you feel challenged in my cla.s.s?"

Oh boy! It wasn't that she didn't feel challenged, but she enjoyed the subject so much that it didn't feel so much like work.

"Um . . . yes?" she said, it coming out more like a question. "This is the subject I want to move into. I find it very interesting and valuable for my future."

"Good. Good," Professor Mires said absentmindedly as the computer brightened before her eyes. She took the distraction to filter through her emails and Liz just waited. "This colloquium is very important to me and to the university. It is truly part of my life's greatest work to be able to bring together my colleagues along with prominent journalists and politicians to foster more research and development, as well as the potential for great educational and networking opportunities for everyone involved. I want everyone to benefit from this, and I want you to partic.i.p.ate."

Liz sat frozen. How could she partic.i.p.ate more than she already was?

"I would love for you to present some of your own research at a special topics in undergraduate research in political journalism on Friday afternoon."

"Me?" Liz asked, excitement bubbling up in her chest.

Professor Mires looked back at her from behind her horn-rimmed librarian gla.s.ses with a smile. "Yes. I thought I would include your final research paper for the semester. Of course, that would mean it would be due a couple weeks early, but we could work with the preliminary drafts, if that suits you."

"That would be . . . wow," Liz said, speechless.

"I'll take that as a yes?"

"Yes! Absolutely."

Professor Mires's face brightened further. "Are you sure you're set on becoming a reporter? You would do wonderfully in graduate school."

Liz's head buzzed with the compliment. "I'm open to different options, but I've always wanted to be a journalist."

"Well, don't rule grad school out," she said with a nod of her head. "Now go on. That's all I wanted to talk about. You can respond to these emails tomorrow during your research hours."

Liz blew out a sigh of relief. She really just wanted to get home and see Hayden. Ma.s.sey was covering the paper this afternoon, so Liz had the night off.

"Thank you again," Liz said, before darting out of the room.

When she left, she was walking on cloud nine, with a bounce in her step and everything. Liz took the stairs two at a time and pulled out her phone to text Victoria. She was supposed to meet with her after cla.s.s to walk home, but she had forgotten to let her know she would be late. She jotted out the message to ask her to wait.

As she hit Send, her phone started ringing. s.h.i.t! Had she had that on loud all cla.s.s?

Then Liz noticed the name flashing on the screen. Justin. That wasn't a name she had seen in a while. After he had gotten a DUI last summer, lost his scholarship, and left the school, no one had really heard much from him except to know that he was taking a semester off to "get his life back together." Sometimes he didn't even return the messages she left for him, which was why she wasn't expecting him to call back now.

"Justin, hey! How have you been?" Liz asked.

"Hey, Liz. Not too bad actually. Yourself?"

"Good. Professor Mires is working me into the ground and Hayden wants me to be editor-in-chief next year, but you know, nothing big."

Justin laughed. "You still dating Lane?"

She hadn't heard from Justin in weeks. "Yeah. We're still together. What's up?"

"I'm coming into town for work in a couple weeks. Do you want to catch lunch next Friday?"

"Sure," she said immediately.

Liz's cla.s.ses were over early on Friday, but she usually had plans with Hayden. No biggie. He wouldn't care if she rescheduled. She almost laughed at the thought. Only a couple months ago she had gotten out of a similar lunch with Justin at the thought that she might see Brady, and now she was dropping her lunch with Hayden with equal ease.

"Sounds good. Aren't you back in school? What has you traveling to Chapel Hill for work?"

"Yeah. So about that," Justin said. She could practically see him shrugging through the phone. "I got a job with a software company. I'll tell you all about it when I come into town."

"Just text me when you get here and we can figure out where to meet."

"Sounds good, Liz. Catch ya on the flip side."

"Bye, Justin," she said, trying to hold back an eye roll.

Liz dropped her phone into her purse and rounded the corner. Victoria was standing under the tree in the middle of the Pit, talking on her cell phone. She hadn't even noticed Liz walking directly toward her.

"No, seriously, you're ridiculous," Victoria said into her phone. "I am never going to do that."

"Hey," Liz said, waving at Victoria as she approached. Victoria still ignored her.

"You can try if you want." Victoria tapped her foot impatiently. "Yes, I might be amenable to that, but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you bring one of your friends in on this. If I'm having a threesome, I want some double penetration." Victoria glanced up then, smiled and waved. "Hey, Liz is finally here. I'll call you later." Victoria snapped her phone shut. "Ready to go? I've been waiting all f.u.c.king day for you."

"Trouble in paradise?" Liz asked.

Victoria shrugged. "I'm giving Daniel a hard time. He wants to threesome with some other chick, which I'm down for, but not one of his friends. Ew. Gross. Let me find the chick if it has to be a chick. You know?"

"I just can't believe you are still dating the Duke Fan," Liz said the name with disdain, "let alone sleeping with him."

"Oh, lay off. He's not that bad. And anyway, at least I'm sleeping with someone. How come you haven't f.u.c.ked Mr. Perfect yet?"

Liz shrugged. "Not ready." How many times had they had this conversation? Victoria didn't want details if she did sleep with Hayden. She just wanted it to happen already so that she could tease Liz.

"It's been a couple months. It's kind of weird. You're not going to f.u.c.king save yourself for marriage or anything, are you? I might disown you."

"Oh my G.o.d, no. I'm not saving myself. I just . . . I don't know. I'm not ready."

"How are you going to know when you're ready? When he puts his d.i.c.k inside of you and you don't tell him no?" Victoria asked. "I think you should just let him f.u.c.k you and then you'll know if you were ready or not."

"That does not make any sense. At all, Vic."

"Try it out and then it'll make sense." She stopped midstride and gasped. "Oh my G.o.d, is he impotent?"

Liz rolled her eyes and picked up her pace. "I'm never talking to you again. We've ceased being friends."

Victoria laughed boisterously and jogged to catch up in her mile-high heels. "I'm f.u.c.king with you. Slow down. Slow down."

"You're a real b.i.t.c.h. You know that, right?"

"Cla.s.s A act. The one and only."

"Cla.s.s A tramp."

"I love you, Lizzie," Victoria said, trilling the name affectionately.

"I love you too, Vickie," she said, in the most annoying singsong voice she could muster.

They turned the corner onto their street with a relieved sigh from both of them. It wasn't a far walk, but in chilling temperatures and high heels, it sucked. Liz changed the topic and told Victoria about her conversation with Professor Mires. Victoria was happy for her, and even managed to hold in her sarcastic comments until the very end. Victoria knew how important this was to Liz, because Victoria's success was just as important to her in her genetic research laboratory. Both girls were on the right track to getting any job they wanted after graduation.

Once they finally made it to the house, Liz dropped her backpack in her room and quickly changed into a pair of jeans, a black tank top, and black sweater with her black riding boots. She was glad she had the night off to hang out with Hayden. It had been a while since they had just relaxed together. School was sucking the life right out of her, and he was loaded down with coursework, the newspaper, and applying to jobs at the same time.

"Heading over to Hayden's," Liz called out to Victoria.

"Tell Mr. Perfect I said h.e.l.lo and to f.u.c.k your brains out," Victoria yelled back.

She cringed. Liz had used the phrase with Brady the first time they were together. She did not want to think about Brady. It felt wrong to even think about them in the same sentence. But Victoria was kind of right. It had been a long time since she and Hayden had started dating, and why was she holding back anyway? She should want to be with Hayden like that. Maybe if things felt right tonight . . . maybe.

Rushing out the front door, Liz hopped into her car and drove the short distance to Hayden's house. His car was in the driveway, but his roommate, Kevin, was missing.

Liz parked behind Hayden, and then walked up to the front door. She knocked and then walked inside without waiting for him to answer. He was halfway to the door when she stepped across the threshold.

"Hey, gorgeous," Hayden said with a bright smile plastered on his face.

"Hey," she said, closing the door behind her.

She walked right up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. He pulled her against him and dropped his lips to hers. Liz let him take over, feeling the energy of his kiss and losing herself in the electricity that pa.s.sed between them. She let her mind wander to that moment at the Lincoln Memorial, how her body had reacted, how a part of her even then had wanted that kiss. She had wanted that kiss for a long time, and now that she had it, she let the tingles run up her spine and opened her mouth to him eagerly.

Their tongues met and ma.s.saged each other. His hands gripped the thick material of her sweater and pulled it up so he could feel her skin. She clutched the longer strands of his medium brown hair, not even thinking for a second of letting him go.

But slowly his kisses became pecks and he stepped back, laughing, as if he was surprised he had lost himself so completely in the moment. "I guess you missed me," he said, keeping a hold of her hand and walking her toward his bedroom.

"I think you missed me too." Her eyes darted to the outline of him now visible through his jeans.

He chuckled again and nodded. "I always miss you."

She walked into his room and kicked off her boots while he closed the door. "How was Professor Mires's cla.s.s?" he asked, as he flipped on a side lamp.

Now was not the time for talking, but that was what made Hayden, Hayden. He was not an act-now-and-think-later, fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants kind of guy. Normally she really liked that about him. It was definitely different from most guys, who thought with their d.i.c.ks and wanted to talk only after they got it wet.

"Good. I got an A on my paper. After cla.s.s she told me that she wants me to partic.i.p.ate in the political journalism colloquium and include my research paper in the undergraduate research panel," she told him proudly.

Hayden broke into another huge smile. "That's awesome, Lizzie," he said, wrapping her in a hug.

Not an ounce of jealousy. If something similar had happened to him, Liz knew she would have been jealous. But Hayden wasn't like anyone else. He was genuinely happy for her.

"What a great opportunity for you."

"Yeah, she's trying to get me to go to grad school, I think. She told me she thinks I'd conduct great research."