Chapter 14 Miranda — Neve Reynolds
Hide not thy poison with such sugared words
Henry VI, William Shakespeare
It was a month later and I could barely contain myself.
The scholarship announcements were supposed to come out yesterday and I hadn’t heard anything.
Letty shushed me at work today when I suggested that I had been rejected.
“Nonsense, Miranda. I checked with Lucas. They send both rejections and approvals on the same day. They’re just late.
The chair of the scholarship committee is Neve Reynolds; what did you expect? ”
Neve Reynolds was Letty’s nemesis. I have no idea why, but they had beef that went way back apparently. The art world could be surprisingly bitchy.
I kept checking my phone every few minutes, which was driving Cordy nuts.
We were sitting around enjoying a “picky dinner.” We called it that to make it sound like an actual thing, rather than just us eating cheese, biscuits, and dip for dinner.
Bad Cam was here for some reason. He dropped in a few times a week, insisting that “friends” did that.
I could see he was upset, so I let him hang around.
“Randa, I can’t watch this any longer. I’m going next door. Call me the moment you hear anything!” Cordelia was never good with suspense. She was the kind of person to read a mystery thriller and turn to the back few pages after reading only the first few chapters.
“Chicken,” I laughed. She’d barely left when she ran back.
“Nettie’s run off. She won’t come back to Damon calling her. Randa, please bring out some ham and we’ll lure her back.”
Nettie was a good girl most of the time, but sometimes adventure called and she was helpless to say no. I actually saw a fair bit of myself in her.
“I can do it!” Cam offered. He was the perfect friend lately. Always wanting to do things for me, always wanting to pay, which I obviously declined.
“Nah, I got it.” I grabbed the ham and ran outside.
“Damon Bentley, this is very disappointing. I had thought better of you.” Peggy was out the front of her house watching Nettie run from Damon and Cordy, who approached her from different directions. I ignored Peggy. She wasn’t a bad old stick, but she could be really annoying.
“Nets, baby! Auntie Miranda has some ham! Oooh, look at this ham.” I flashed the ham around, catching Nettie’s interest. She rushed over and swallowed it without chewing, allowing me to grab her collar.
“Thanks,” Damon grunted, lugging the reluctant Labrador toward his house, with Cordy following.
When I made it back into the house, Cam was cleaning the kitchen.
Ok, that was it. He never cleaned. This was some kind of redemption attempt, and I’d told him so many times over the last month that there was zero chance of us getting back together.
“Cam, why are you cleaning?”
“I’m just trying to make your life more comfortable. I love you.”
I sighed. I had to just cut him out. This was painful. “Cam, we are done. I don’t think we can be friends for a while.”
This French retreat, if I was accepted, would be perfect. Three months away would help Cam stand on his own two feet. Maybe even find a new girl. That thought didn’t hurt me, though the fact that I wasn’t unbothered by him moving on didn’t surprise me.
He hung his head. “Fine, I’ll leave.” His posture was sad, but his tone sounded angry. If he wanted to be angry, that was okay with me. I wanted this to end nicely, but now I didn’t care, as long as it ended.
I checked my email again. Nothing. Fucking Neve Reynolds.
__________
“Miranda, can I please speak to you in my office?” Letty asked. She seemed angry. Well, not angry, she was too poised to be angry, but she was definitely something.
“What’s up?” I asked, flopping into the chair.
“I’m really disappointed. I know you have things going on in your personal life, but this was a huge opportunity for you. Once you reject something like that, the chances of the committee selecting you again are slim.”
What? I didn’t reject anything.
“I’m not sure what you mean. I still haven’t heard.”
Letty frowned. “Miranda, the applicants don’t know this, but their sponsors, which is me in your case, are blind copied into the responses. You sent an email back expressing regret that you had to decline.”
“I didn’t! I promise I didn’t!”
She turned her screen towards me, showing me the offer and “my” reply.
I thank you for this opportunity, but unfortunately, I must decline for personal reasons.
Miranda Bard
“That isn’t from me! I wanted this! Oh God! Can I call someone? How can I fix this?”
Who would have done this to me? Lucy played pranks occasionally but would never do this. Shit. Cam was alone with my phone when I chased Nettie. Surely he wasn’t that angry with me.
“I don’t think you can. Once you give up your spot, the offer goes to the next person on the list.”
I was frozen in my seat. How could he have done this to me? Sure, I helped Harrison lose his job, but he would have lost it anyway and he deserved it. What had I done? Letty’s cold face turned sympathetic.
“I’ll call Neve. You owe me.”
“Anything, I promise. I am so sorry this happened, Letty. I think it was Cam. I don’t understand.”
I left that day feeling like utter crap. What if Letty couldn’t fix this? The moment I left work I called Cam. That went well.
“Miranda, I’m so glad you called,” he answered eagerly.
“Did you reject my scholarship?”
Silence.
“I am so sorry, babe. We were spending time together again, and I thought that if you stayed … I thought we were … But then you asked me to leave, and I wanted to tell you but didn’t want you to hate me. I can’t … I’m sorry.”
I ended the call. We were no longer friends. We were no longer anything.