Chapter 29
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Vision Boards - Grace
“Can you hand me that glue stick?” McCall asks.
I reach for the glue stick and hand it to her.
We’re deep in vision-board making for our sisterhood activity, and I have to admit, I’m having fun.
I look around the table we’re seated at.
McCall is across from me, and Sofia is next to her.
Maddie is to my right, and the chair on my left is vacant.
Pop music is blaring in the room, and you can hear the sounds of laughter and chatter as everyone works on their boards.
I’m cutting out a picture of the OCU artistic swim team when I pause for a moment.
I’m happy here.
Of course there are things I don’t like about Phi Mu Phi.
Kaitlyn is a horrible person. I don’t like how she runs things, and I think she’s mean-spirited.
But I do like this. The sisterhood. Activities where phones are put aside and we talk and have fun.
I like knowing I’ll never have to eat a meal alone if I don’t want to.
Maybe I was more opposed to it because I saw it as another thing Mom wanted me to do, I realize as I try to find a good spot for my photo on my board. Instead of making it my own.
Amber Martinez slides into the seat next to me. She’s a sophomore like me, and also on the philanthropy committee. “Can I talk to you about a fundraiser idea I have?” she asks, tucking a lock of her long black hair behind one ear.
“Of course,” I say.
Her brown eyes glance down at the assortment of magazine clippings and photos I have around me. Her hand moves to the hockey team picture I’ve printed. “It’s actually about this,” she says, tapping on Sebastian’s face.
“Sebastian?”
Amber furrows her brow. “Who?”
“You’re tapping on his face.”
She laughs. “Okay, no, I’m tapping on the team. Listen, I know you’re dating Wyatt Jacobs. Do you think you could get some of the guys on the team to pose for calendar pictures?”
“Ooh, I like where you’re going with this,” Sofia chimes in wickedly.
“Right?” Maddie says. “I’m thinking hot guys of OCU. I’d say the hockey team has multiple candidates.”
“Take my money!” Sofia declares.
I shoot her a look. “When did you get so into hockey players?”
“When I saw how hot yours was,” she teases.
I blush, and McCall snorts. “I think it’s a good idea,” McCall says. “Hockey sells.”
“I think so, too,” Amber says, nodding. Then she turns her gaze back to me. “Do you think you could ask Wyatt? Could he get some guys to do it?”
I bite my lip. Kind of a big ask for a guy I’ve been dating less than forty-eight hours, but of course, nobody knows that.
But I know Wyatt. If he wants to do it, he will. If not, he’ll be nice about it.
“I’ll ask him and let you know.”
“Great! If he thinks he can get guys to do it, we can discuss at our meeting on Sunday night. I’m already researching some printing costs and timelines. I think it’s an investment that will raise a lot of money.”
I think Wyatt alone would sell a shit-ton of calendars, but I might be biased.
Amber pops off the chair and heads back to her table, and I look down at the hockey team picture, my gaze lingering on Wyatt’s face.
I still can’t believe he’s really mine.
“Are all his roommates hot?” Sofia asks as she positions the word “success” on her board.
“They are,” I say, picturing them in my head.
“I think they’d all do it, too, so that would knock out four months.
Oh! That reminds me. When I was over there the other night, Nolan was working on his online-dating bio and agonizing over it.
It was kind of cute, actually. He asked me for help, so I need to get back with him on that. ”
McCall puts down the glue stick. “Nolan Wayland?”
“Yeah. He seems sweet. I know he had his heart ripped out last year by some girl, but he’s very relationship-driven, unlike Sebastian and Austin.”
“And he needs help with his online-dating profile?” she continues.
Sofia shoots her a side-eye. “Why are you so interested?”
To my surprise, I see a flush on McCall’s cheekbones.
“Are you blushing?” Maddie asks. “Are you interested in Nolan?”
“What? No! I’m writing for the campus sports magazine. I can’t be interested in any athlete!”
Sofia grins. “Technically, you can be interested, but it’s probably not professional if you act on it.”
“I’m not interested in Nolan Wayland for that.”
I furrow my brow. “Then what are you interested in him for?”
McCall pauses. “If I tell you all something, it doesn’t leave this table, okay?”
Intriguing. We really should do more crafting events if things like this are going to happen.
“Of course,” Maddie says.
Sofia and I agree. McCall draws a breath of air, exhales, and leans forward, as if she’s about to reveal something top secret. “I write online-dating bios as a side hustle,” she confesses.
“What?” Sofia shrieks.
“Shut up!” McCall hisses.
I stare at her, amazed. “You do?”
She nods. “It’s an interesting job. I do it when I want, from my room, the library, wherever, and it’s easy money.”
“I had no idea this was a thing,” I say.
“Well, it definitely is, and if you saw some of the bios I’ve seen, you’d know why I have a gig.”
“This is wild,” Sofia says. “And you haven’t wanted to date any of the guys coming to you for help?”
McCall shakes her head. “None of them are my kind of people. But I’m telling you this because if Nolan wants help, I’d be happy to do it.
Free of charge as a friend of Wyatt’s. I’ll do an intake form, format it, everything I do for a client.
Like here, let me pull one up and I’ll show you how I would tweak it.
Just so you can tell Nolan what I do.” She reaches for her phone. “Does he want it for Slip?”
“You do know your target audience,” I say.
As soon as she’s pulling up the app on her phone, Kaitlyn appears at our table. “It’s not time to be on the phone, McCall,” she points out. “You need to be making your vision.”
Then she pauses and studies the boards we have laid out in front of us, and she frowns. “I hope you all haven’t forgotten your vision for sisterhood, because that is sorely lacking on these,” she says in that superior tone.
Suddenly I remember Wyatt’s dare from last night.
And oh, I dare.
“Oh, I was going to ask your table for another magazine so I could spell out mine,” I say sweetly. “I couldn’t find all the letters I wanted in the right size for PRESIDENT.”
Maddie gasps, Sofia snorts, and McCall looks like I’ve just taken the pin out of a hand grenade and launched it in the middle of the dining hall.
“Wh-what?” Kaitlyn asks, her usual mask slipping into shock.
“I think in my future, I might run for president. As part of my vision. My mom did it, so I don’t see why I can’t.”
Kaitlyn frowns. Oh my God, I think she sees me as a threat. This might be useful, I realize. Maybe make her rethink how she does things.
“I also envision a harmonious sorority, where all feel welcome and supported, you know? I mean, not that we don’t have that now, of course,” I say, launching another grenade. “But I’m learning different things from Wyatt, and how the hockey team forms tight bonds.”
Okay, that’s a lie, but she doesn’t need to know that. And this is for the greater good if I can get her to come down a peg.
Or twenty.
“Of course not,” she says, but I can tell she’s shaken.
“So can I come over and look through some magazines in a bit? When I’m done with these?” I say, gesturing toward the haphazard stack on the table.
“Yes,” she says, her brows knitting together. “But you really see that in your future, Grace? With all you have to do? You’re a student-athlete. Being a president is very demanding.”
“Oh, I know,” I say. “Luckily I have good friends and my mom to help guide me down that path.”
“Right,” she says, staring down at me. Then she smiles, the mask back on, and tells us she needs to get back to her board.
As soon as she walks away, the girls stare at me in shock. “What,” McCall says in a low voice, “was that about?”
“Are you serious? Because I think you’d be fantastic!” Sofia says, her brown eyes sparkling.
“No, no, I’m not. But I see that it’s good for her to think she has viable competition. Maybe she’ll approach things a little differently.”
McCall snorts as she goes back to her phone. “Doubtful.”
“I’m in awe of you,” Maddie says, picking up a cutout of the Las Vegas Strip and turning it over so she can put glue on it. “I could never say what you just did for fear she’d go mean girl on me.”
I consider it. I wouldn’t have done that before Wyatt. But there’s something about going out on a limb for him and sharing my feelings—and seeing what came of them—that has made me braver.
I can’t wait to tell him about this when I see him later tonight.
“Okay, let me search for a typical frat-bro bio,” McCall says, scrolling. Then she pauses. “Is Nolan a frat bro?”
“Nope. Nolan is one hundred percent hockey bro.”
“Hockey bro,” Sofia says, snickering as she sorts through her cutouts.
“Okay. Let me find a college athlete,” McCall says.
We all get to work while she scrolls through her phone. All of a sudden, she gasps. “Oh my God,” she murmurs.
“What? You didn’t find Wyatt on there, did you?” Sofia asks.
I drop my scissors, and my heart drops into my stomach at the same time. “What?” I gasp, my mind reeling. No, there’s no way Wyatt is on that app. She has to be wrong. Or maybe he is for hookups, but he didn’t have time to put his account on pause—
“No, not Wyatt,” McCall says, and relief instantly sweeps through my body. Then she shifts her focus to Maddie and pauses before speaking. “Maddie, I found Thad.”
Oh no, no, no!
The table falls silent.
Maddie shakes her head. “No, that can’t be my Thad.”
McCall extends her phone toward her. “You need to see this.”
Maddie bites her lip, hesitating. Then she shakes her head. “I—I trust him. I mean, we’re in a situationship, but he’s promised me I’m the girl he loves and he doesn’t want anything with anyone else,” she says, her voice going up a notch.
McCall stares at her, and with a gut punch, I realize she’s deciding if she should press or share more info. “Maddie. He’s active. He’s been chatting with other girls this week,” she says. “I think you need to see it.”
Oh my God, I feel sick. I share a look across the table at Sofia, whose eyes have the same worry I know is showing in my own.
“You’re wrong,” Maddie says, finally taking the phone from McCall. I hold my breath as I watch her stare down at the screen. Her eyes go wide, and then her face is ashen. Her hand is shaking, and I know McCall is right.
The guy on the app is Thad.
And the world Maddie had wrapped herself up in has just shattered all around her.