“One day I read a kids’ book to my cousin until she fell asleep, and I didn’t want to put the book down. I stayed up reading it until way past her bedtime. My aunt and uncle got home and found me still there, reading that stupid book with a flashlight.
“They laughed at me, and… nothing happened. The world didn’t end because I got teased a little. I realized I’d been denying myself one of my biggest pleasures in life because I was worried about what people thought. And I decided not to do that anymore.”
All right, I was still working on that. But at least I’d grown the ovaries to read whenever and whatever I wanted.
“So you came to Beasley and decided to study poetry.” A gentle smile tugged at Faye’s lips.
I rolled my head back against the seat. “You’re laughing at me again.”
“Thought you didn’t mind that.”
Ugh… “Could I ask for another change of subject, or would that be too much?”
“Sure,” Faye said. “Like what?”
“I’m curious about your ex.” I had to stop myself from covering my mouth. I really had to work on not blurting shit out like that!
Luckily Faye wasn’t freaking out on me. “What would you like to know?”
Everything, really. “How’d you know it was her who sent that lady?”
“Because she’d texted me a few days earlier and I never answered. This wasn’t the first time this happened. She doesn’t take rejection well, to put it lightly. When I used to tell her to go pound sand, she’d get back at me in even worse ways.”
“So it was the timing.” Made sense. “Why’d you break up?”
I was probably getting way too personal, but Faye appeared to be an open book tonight. “She’s crazy, if you hadn’t noticed.”
“She’d have to be if she left you.” Oh, I needed to cut the tongue out of my mouth to save myself some dignity! I could’ve cried from my shame over what I’d just said.
Faye was polite enough to overlook my idiocy. “I left her,” she said. “We were only dating, not living together, so it was a matter of a phone call rather than any actual leaving.”
“But why?”
“I came across her chat logs. Turns out she was of the opinion that English professors are ‘soft-bellied word nerds’ who get into this profession because they’re not fit for real jobs.”
“Uh, what?”
Faye nodded. “When I confronted her, she claimed she was just trying to sound cool to her friend and didn’t believe that at all. But at that point, a lot of other stuff started to make sense… like how she’d always refused to come to a facu
lty dinner, and how she never mentioned my job when she introduced me to her friends.”
“That’s so bizarre.” I was even offended on a personal level. I could call myself a word nerd if I wanted, but I wasn’t about to let anyone use it as an actual insult. “What did she do, if she was such a prize?”
“She’s an actor,” Faye groaned. “And not a very successful one, either. I don’t think she got paid more than a hundred bucks for a gig in the whole time we were together.” She shook her head. “My place was a mansion compared to hers.”
“Must’ve been jealous.”
“Oh, I think so. Insecure about her own life, so she tore her own girlfriend down to make herself feel better.”
“She’d freak out if she ever went to my hometown. I grew up near an actual movie star. My sister and her were good friends.”
“Who?”
“Callie Hinderbrook.”
Faye’s eyes nearly popped out of her head. “Wow, she’s amazing.”
“I know. She’s really great in real life, too.”