Chapter Thirty-Four
A girl from my floor walked by in her towel, and I nodded in a polite greeting.
“You coming out, Maximus?” she purred, pulling my attention from the FaceTime call with Daisy.
“Not tonight.”
She pouted in disappointment, but I didn’t care. “Sorry,” I said, turning back to my screen, “what were you saying?”
“Maximus?” Daisy’s brow lifted.
“Yeah, it’s—” I chuckled at the memory. “Kinda funny. For movie night, someone put on Gladiator, and—”
“You’re frozen.”
“Shoot. Hold on, let me…” I raised the phone, as if that would help. “The Wi-Fi’s not usually so bad. That better?”
After a pause, Daisy said, “Mmm, I think so.”
I didn’t want to waste time talking about a stupid film night in the dorm, so I changed the subject. “How’s your mom?”
“Good. She’s repainting all the rooms since it’s slow season. She says hi.”
I didn’t miss my parents, but marching to Daisy’s house right now, curling up on the couch, and eating pizza with the two of them sounded better than anything. A Friday-night phone call—late-morning in California—would have to suffice.
“She wants to see more Dublin photos from you,” Daisy said.
“Sorry, it’s been crazy, I just—”
“It’s fine, I get it.” There was resignation in her tone. I needed to get better at making time for Daisy, but the summer schedule was intense. With the time difference, my class load, and everything going on in the city, this felt like my first free night all summer.
“She misses you a lot,” Daisy said, her voice weaker. “Harlow’s really different without you here.”
“That your mam?” A guy from the floor below sneaked up behind me, hooking an arm around my neck. “Shite. You’re not Max’s mam.”
“I am not.” Daisy laughed, igniting an immediate flicker of jealousy inside me. I wanted to be the one to make her laugh, not a gymbro finance major she just met on a video call.
“This your sister?” he asked me.
“This is Daisy.”
“Oooh.” The guy nodded his head cautiously, and although I mentioned Daisy to my new friends any chance I got, he couldn’t have made it look more like the opposite. “Well, good to meet you, Daisy.” He released his grip and walked backwards, a finger pointing at me. “Pub night. Wanna join?”
“Maybe later.” I slunk around the corner, slipping onto a couch in the common room. “Sorry.”
“You should find some karaoke, like at Sal’s.”
“Sal’s karaoke can’t be beat. I’m not even gonna try.”
“You’re frozen again,” Daisy said.
If we hadn’t already rescheduled our chat three times, I’d suggest we do some other night. I had figured a Friday evening when most people were out would give us the best shot, but apparently not.
“Here,” I offered, “I’m gonna head to my room. I might lose you, but I’ll call you back.”
She didn’t reply, or perhaps her connection was so poor that her response didn’t come through.
Halfway down the hall, her still image breathed to life again, and I smiled.
She smiled back, and my chest throbbed from the agony of missing her.
Maybe that’s why I’d been avoiding talking to her this whole summer—because I was still hopelessly into Daisy, and because I only ever felt homesick for Harlow when I thought about her.