40. Epilogue
MIA
“God, this is good.” I sipped the cinnamon-spice chai latte. “And I didn’t even have to make it myself.”
“You’re free from the coffee shop for a month.” Tori raised her mug and tapped it against my cup. Then Hailey did the same.
We were in the coffee shop near Hailey’s condo.
There’d been a lot to catch up on. The week after Thanksgiving had been so busy with final presentations, exams, and a seemingly never-ending stream of assignments to turn in.
This was our first chance to catch up in a while, and the first topic of conversation was how we spent Thanksgiving break.
There’d been a lot of blushing during that conversation, mostly by me.
Now the topic was schoolwork. Since today was the first official day of winter break, everything was already turned in, thank god.
“It sounds like it went really well,” Hailey said when I told them about presenting my video in class.
“Do we get to see it?” Tori asked. When I hesitated, she elbowed me. “Wasn’t it supposed to be a public service announcement?”
“Yes, but neither of you are likely to enter foster care and apply to college in the near future.”
She laughed. “True. But I’d still like to see it. I bet Aaron’s voiceover sounds sexy.”
“It’s supposed to sound trustworthy and informative,” I said. Then I smirked, too. “But yeah, it does sound sexy. And the music is wonderful.” It still amazed me that Cody had composed something brand new, music no one in the world had ever heard before, just for me.
Then I felt bad for not including Diego in the praise. “Diego’s input really made the presentation stronger.” Yes, he’d also translated the script into Spanish, but his insight helped make it more effective in the first place.
“So, what happens to Team Mia now?” Tori asked. “I hope it’s going to continue. I’ve heard they do good work.”
I broke off a piece of cranberry muffin but didn’t eat it. “I’m thinking about doing another video presentation, and they said they’d help.”
“For next semester?” Hailey asked. Her ears sparkled as she talked, and I suspected that the new diamond earrings she had on were real. I wondered which of her hot boyfriends had gotten her those.
“Just in my free time.”
Tori looked aghast. “You do homework in your free time?”
For some reason, I blushed. You’d think, after all the X-rated things I’d recently done, I wouldn’t blush anymore, but sometimes I did. “I kind of want to make it for Sara. About how to get help when you’re misusing drugs. Diego’s been helping me research it.”
“Wow, that’s great,” Tori said.
Hailey nodded, but she looked like she was holding something back. Finally, she blurted it out. “That is great, but that’s not what Tori meant when she asked if Team Mia was going to continue.”
Tori grinned. “Yeah, I kind of meant some of your other team activities.”
“Oh.” Yep, blushing again. “Things are going… well. We’re trying not to get ahead of ourselves.” Or maybe that was just what I kept telling myself. It still all seemed almost too good to be true. I’d never had this healthy and fulfilling a relationship with one man, let alone three.
“Are you all going to stay at the house over the break?” Hailey asked.
“Yes. Well, I’m going to go with Aaron to a holiday party, but yes, for the most part.” The heat from my cheeks now rivaled the heat from the chai latte. “Jenna will be with her boyfriend, and Evan invited Raymond to his parent’s house for Christmas.”
Tori gave me a high five. “So in other words, you four get to have Thanksgiving Break Part Two.”
“Hopefully.” Part One had been the most amazing week of my life. “And they told me to keep a couple of days at the end of the month free. I think they’re planning a surprise for New Year’s Eve.” That they’d do that filled me with both wonder and love. Plus, they were pretty damn good at surprises.
“I think my guys are, too,” Hailey said. Then we both looked at Tori.
“We haven’t planned that far ahead,” Tori said. “We’ve just barely made it through final exams! Besides, we share a house in the middle of nowhere, so we don’t need to travel somewhere else when we want to have loud, kinky fun.”
My cheeks heated. “I’m not sure that’s the purpose of keeping those days clear,” I began.
“Bet you twenty bucks it is.” The smile Tori gave me showed that she was both serious about that and happy for me at the same time.
My phone buzzed, and I waited to check until after Hailey and Tori had filled me in on what the next few weeks would entail for them.
When I looked, it was a message from Zoe. She’d sent it a few hours ago, but she was headed up that resort high in the mountains today, she might not have had much reception.
“Sorry,” I said, not wanting to be rude. “It’s from my boss.”
“First you’re planning to do extra homework over the break and now you’re getting messages from your boss on your day off?” Tori teased.
“Yeah. Except she’s kind of becoming a friend, too.”
“I thought she was hard on you,” Hailey said.
“She was, but she’s harder on herself.” I scanned her message. “Anyway, she’s on her way to that ski resort. You said Grant’s been there before, right Hailey?”
“Yes. He says it’s extremely ritzy, and coming from a guy raised with that kind of wealth, that was saying something.”
I frowned. I hoped that Zoe would get a chance to show what she could do and not just be treated like lowly staff. An attachment appeared under her message, loading slowly.
“Who’s the hottie?” Tori asked after I enlarged a picture.
“The culinary student she’s riding up with. He’s doing an internship there too.” I closed the picture, and I re-read her message. “She said he’s a grumpy bastard and if he kidnaps her, I should show that picture to the police.” Which I hoped was a joke.
“Let me see it again,” Tori said.
I opened the attachment again. It was of a good-looking guy with dark hair, but it was a bit hard to see. His face was partially turned away, as if Zoe had wanted to snap the picture without him knowing.
Tori stared at the screen for a long moment.
“Don’t you have enough handsome men at your disposal?” I teased.
“Look at this.” She shoved my phone toward Hailey.
And there was another long pause as Hailey squinted at the picture. Then her jaw dropped.
“It is, right?” Tori asked.
“What?” I asked.
Hailey nodded. “I had no idea he was a student, let alone at Langley.”
“Me either!”
“Who?” If someone didn’t start talking soon, they were going to wind up wearing a cinnamon-scented beverage.
Tori pushed the phone back. “Your boss is currently in a car with—and is going to spend the next month with—none other than our favorite internet cooking instructor.”
“What?”
“He’s the shirtless chef,” Hailey explained.
“What? No. Wait…” I opened the picture again. Squinted. And gasped.
Holy shit, they were right. Suddenly, Zoe’s internship looked a hell of a lot more interesting. Whatever she was getting herself into, I wished her luck.
Thank you for reading Fostering Chemistry !
Zoe’s story is next. She’s determined to make the most of her internship up at the mountain resort, but she doesn’t yet know she’ll be sharing the staff quarters with the sexy internet chef and twin hot-as-hell ski instructors. Private Lessons is coming soon!