28. Isaac
Chapter 28
Isaac
“ Y ou’ll just need to provide us with your flight and hotel information, and we will reimburse your travel expenses.” Having moved to the east coast for my residency, I became quite good at traveling, but I’ve never dealt with campus-sponsored travel. I wouldn’t call this particularly fun. “The university will also cover one meal a day, so long as it is under $50.” She spouts off lines of information she’s probably had memorized for years.
“Has Dr. Carello submitted travel info yet?” Our trip to the conference in Sacramento is swiftly approaching, and I’ll be damned if I can’t use it to my advantage. The edge of the desk makes deep indentations in my forearms as I lean over, attempting to sneak a glance at the secretary’s computer screen. She grabs the edge of the monitor, twisting it away from my wandering eyes.
“Yes, it looks like Dr. Carello will be flying Southwest out of Midway Airport on the twenty-third.”
I fold and tuck my current flight information into the breast pocket of my suit jacket. “As soon as I have my information, I’ll let you know. Thank you,” I glance at the nameplate on her desk, “Beth. Thank you.”
“What’s up, shithead?” my brother Liam answers on the first ring as I exit the registrar and head back to my office.
“Whaddya say I just give up on this whole plan and move to England with you?” My voice is tight and trapped. “She’s gonna hate me more than she already does.”
Liam groans, and the line goes quiet. If that fucker just hung up on me, I’m getting on a plane to London right now to put him in a headlock and give him repeated wet willies until he begs for mercy.
“Sorry, just connecting to my headphones. What’s going on? What happened?” His voice is clearer now.
“I can barely even get her to look at me. How on God’s green earth am I going to get her to forgive me?” I glance up and down the hallway as I reach my office door. “Let alone fall in fucking love with me.”
Liam’s laugh emanates from the speaker, making my blood boil.
“Listen, this is not going to be easy,” he says, the background noise becoming louder. “You’re the one who decided you didn’t like her, or whatever.”
Though Liam is older than me, he’s clearly not wiser. I think all those rugby concussions are starting to add up.
“I didn’t decide I didn’t like her , asshole.”
“Whatever you say.” Liam clears his throat, obscuring the voices around him. “Collins thinks you’re an idiot.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t give a shit what your dumbass roommate thinks. You’ve seen how he treats women.”
Laughter rings out in the background and I slump back in my chair, logging into my computer.
“Well then, brother, what are you going to do?” A door slams and the background noise disappears, Liam’s voice louder than before.
“I only know one thing,” I hesitate only momentarily, “I need to change my flight.”
“Wha—” My brother begins to respond, but I end the call, setting my phone down on the desk in front of me.
There are a lot of things that I don’t know about Jo.
A lot of things that I can’t wait to learn, if she’ll let me.
But one thing I do know—she is freaking out right now.