Chapter 34 #2
Katya entered tentatively, like she was afraid her presence alone would interfere with Oliver’s recovery. She lifted the box she was holding and shook it lightly. “Chocolate babka,” she said. “My grandma’s recipe. I thought you might like something that wasn’t hospital food.”
“Yes, please,” Oliver said, accepting the box greedily and diving in without delay. “Gods, this is delicious. Thanks, Katya.”
Half of Katya’s mouth smiled. “You’re welcome. I’m really glad you’re doing so well. But, um.” She cleared her throat. “The real reason I came by was to tell you I’m sorry. For all of it.”
“Sorry for what?” Oliver said. “Nothing that happened was your fault.”
“That’s what everyone keeps telling me, but I don’t know,” Katya said, looking at her feet.
“I was the first one Silva recruited. I should have done more of a background search on her, questioned her motives more. I didn’t even flinch when she had me hack into the oneiromancy chair’s email to set up that tour.
I was so focused on what I could get from her that I didn’t want to look at anything too closely. ”
“We all were,” Dani said. “I mean, twenty-five thousand dollars? We should have realized it was too good to be true.”
Katya nodded. “Yeah, maybe. But of all of us, I’m supposed to be the expert in security, right?
I didn’t keep us very secure. If you’d listened to me at the gala, Silva would be back in Europe by now with the formula, and who knows what would have happened then.
I’m sorry I doubted you,” she said to Kass, who shrugged.
“I mean, I could have been wrong,” he said. “I know these corporate types pretty well, and it didn’t feel like a safe bet—but I can’t blame you for thinking I might have had some ulterior motive.”
“I thought if I could really impress Silva—I don’t know, that she’d give me even more than what she’d promised.” Katya snorted. “Pretty silly in hindsight. Hopefully I can still get a job after all this.”
“I’d be shocked if you didn’t,” Oliver said. “Sure, what we did was illegal, but it was still kind of impressive, too.”
“They’re right,” Dani said. “And it’s okay—we all did stuff we wouldn’t normally.”
“Speak for yourself,” said McKenna.
“Well, okay, everyone but McKenna,” Dani corrected.
“Impressive is the right word for what you did,” Katya said to McKenna. “How on earth did you marshal such an army?”
McKenna preened. “I can’t tell you all my fairy secrets,” she said. “Let’s just say there was less to the army than meets the eye—that, and you’ve never given Gingerbread the credit he deserves.”
Katya rolled her eyes, but there was fondness to the expression. “Well, if there’s anything any of you need, anything I can do to help, even next semester … I’m around, okay?”
“Thanks, Katya,” Oliver said. “And seriously—don’t beat yourself up too much. None of us should.”
After Katya left, they all devoured the babka, and Dani seized the opportunity to lean in closer to Oliver while the others were talking.
“Speaking of apologies,” she said, “I wanted to say I’m sorry, too. For not coming clean to you about Kass. It’s not an excuse, but I just didn’t know how to handle it.”
Oliver shook their head. “It’s okay, really. I’ve thought about it a lot while I’ve been in here, and I don’t know if I would have done anything differently. It was a weird situation, not to mention an emotional roller coaster. It’s like I said—none of us should beat ourselves up.”
Tears stung Dani’s eyes. She took Oliver’s hand and squeezed it, hoping the gesture could convey all the gratitude she felt. Oliver returned the pressure.
“I think we all learned something about ourselves from this,” they said. “Me, for one—I’ve learned I should turn to people I know and really trust for help, even if it means they might worry about me.”
“Does that mean you called Asa?” Dani asked. “I mean, told him what’s really been going on?”
Oliver nodded. “He’s flying out tomorrow,” they said. “I’m sure he’ll have a lot of scolding to get out of his system when he gets here.” But they smiled, like they were looking forward to it.
The group hung out a little longer, until Oliver got tired.
“They said I’ll be out of here in a few days,” Oliver said as they all got ready to go.
“Just in time for exams, since apparently this isn’t getting me a free pass.
” It was hard to imagine that exams were already starting next week.
“After that, I can only sleep four hours a night for a while and I have to keep taking this nasty syrup they concocted, but I should be fully recovered in a month or so.”
A nurse bustled in a few minutes later, shooing the visitors away so Oliver could take a nap. “We’ll come back tomorrow,” McKenna promised, kissing Oliver on both cheeks.
“You better,” they said, waving to the three of them as they left.
“Want to grab dinner?” Kass asked once they were out of the clinic.
“I have to work,” Dani said. She knew Burren would let her off the hook for her shift tonight if she asked—her manager had seen the coverage about the gala and had been fluttering around her nervously all week—but Dani was desperate for some sense of normalcy.
And now that she didn’t have Silva’s payment, she needed all the hours she could get.
So she hugged both Kass and McKenna goodbye, insisting that she was fine walking to Quarter Cast alone; she needed some quiet time, both to further process everything that had happened and to try to formulate a strategy for the scholarship review that was only days away.
There was no backup plan now—no fabled twenty-five thousand dollars to fantasize about.
That meant everything was riding on Dani’s ability to woo whoever was sitting on the panel on Monday.
The way Dani saw it, she could take one of two routes.
She could acknowledge her perceived shortcomings and swear up and down to the review board that she would become as devoted to her academic life as a priestess to her order, sparing no time for pleasure or socialization—as if she didn’t already do that—ensuring that her grades would be in tip-top shape, and therefore deserving of financial support.
Alternatively, she could plead that this past semester was an anomaly that would never be repeated, her judgment muddled by Silva’s influence.
While true enough, though, that route would involve making the panel feel as sorry for her as possible, and Dani wasn’t terribly excited about debasing herself any further than she already had. But it was still a strong possibility.
She was drafting out a potential speech after the other baristas had left for the evening when the door-ghost moaned, and she looked up to see someone who had never visited Quarter Cast during her tenure at the café: Wyatt.
He had his hands tucked in the pockets of his massive winter coat and a look of what she thought might be contrition on his face.
They hadn’t seen each other since they got out of jail. Well, Dani had seen him on the news, arguing their case, but they hadn’t actually talked face-to-face. She straightened up as he came over to the bar.
“Hey,” he said.
“Hey,” she said. “What are you doing here?”
“It’s a coffee shop, isn’t it?” Wyatt said. “I want some coffee.”
“Oh,” Dani said, folding up the pastry bag she’d been scribbling on and slipping it into her apron pocket. “Okay. What did you want?”
“No, I’m—” Wyatt shook his head. “Sorry, I was trying to make a joke, but it didn’t come out right. I went to see Oliver, and they told me you were probably working tonight.”
“I mean, I can still make you something. On the house.”
“Why not,” Wyatt said. “Can I have a decaf cappuccino with two sugars?”
“Cow’s milk okay?”
“Yeah.” Wyatt took his hands out of his pockets and tapped his fingers on the handoff plane as Dani made his drink. “So, uh. I really came by to say that I kinda whiffed it on the whole Kass thing. I know I made everything harder for you, and I’m sorry about that.”
It was a day for apologies, apparently. “Thanks,” she said. “I appreciate that. Though I’d probably take the kinda out of the equation.”
Wyatt laughed. “Yeah,” he said, sounding relieved. “Me too. I’ve been hard on the guy, but I guess he’s not that bad, after all.”
“No,” Dani said, pouring the most perfect foam she’d ever steamed into Wyatt’s cup. “I guess he’s not.”
She smiled as she slid the finished drink over to him. “So what now?” she asked. “With your family, I mean. I know you didn’t exactly get what you needed out of all this.”
“None of us did,” Wyatt said, popping a lid onto the cup.
“Except Oliver, though they were obviously the most important. But to answer your question, I don’t know.
I’m just going to try to be there for my family.
My mom was a mess when she heard about all this, so I promised her I’d focus on school from now on.
I’ll just have to get a good job when I graduate so I can help them out. What about you?”
“I don’t know either,” Dani admitted. “I have my scholarship review soon. I was trying to figure out what I’m going to tell them when you came in.”
“Well, that’s easy,” Wyatt said, sipping his cappuccino. “Gods, you make a badass coffee.”
“That’s what I’m supposed to tell them? That I make a badass coffee?”
“I mean, bringing them some coffee might help, but no,” he said, and his face turned serious. “You just need to tell them the truth, Dani. That you want to be at the Leap so badly you’d do anything to stay, even commit a crime. You fought to be here. You deserve to be here. Show them that.”
Dani clung to Wyatt’s words for dear life. She could still hear them in her head on Monday morning as she sat in the deliberately uncomfortable chair in the lobby of the administrative building, waiting to be called in.
“Miss Lionet?” Dani looked up, half expecting to see Silva, but it was only the receptionist. “They’re ready for you now.”