JOURDANNE
“Can you believe he’s giving us another test on Monday?” my new friend Leah said with a gasp as we left the lecture hall.
I laughed. “Yeah, I didn’t even take any notes the last two days.”
“Oh my gosh! You’re totally going to fail,” Leah laughed.
Marina, another girl I’d met in the first week at Yale, shook her head. “No way. You can use my notes to study.” She was a real sweetheart, and she was always looking out for me.
“Thanks.” We walked out across the campus with our books tight in our hands. It was a cool early autumn day with a little bit of sunshine. The whole campus had a relaxed and comfy atmosphere to it. Like we could just order a latte and bury ourselves in books from the old library. I wasn’t exactly a study nerd, as my friends would say sometimes about other girls, but a nice quiet place sounded sublime. I’d been spending too much time thinking about Matt and Leandro as of late to keep myself focused on anything. I just kept asking myself why I didn’t see it coming. How could I ever have thought that two highly successful men who threw money at me for sex would actually want a real relationship in the end?
“So.” Marina tucked a thick strand of her curly dark hair behind her ear. “What’s on your mind lately, Jourdanne?” She looked over at me through her big glasses with a curious stare.
At first, I shrugged. But then I thought about how college was meant to be a place of new beginnings, and how that could only happen if I was being real with myself. Leah and Marina weren’t exactly my best friends, not yet anyway, but they were friends for sure. I wanted to be honest with them about Matt and Leandro, but even thinking it over in my mind sounded wild. How on earth would I say it out loud?
“Is it a boy?” Leah bumped into my shoulder as she grinned.
“Well, I guess I’m just a little homesick, you know?”
Leah started to laugh. “Oh my gosh! You were so adorable when you first arrived.”
“I was? You guys saw me that day?”
“Oh yeah,” Marina cooed. “You and your dad and uncle were so cute together. They must be so proud.”
“My dad?” I was mortified! They thought Leandro and Matt were my dad and uncle! Now there was no way I could be honest with them. They’d probably disown me as their friend, and since we roomed together, the rest of the year would probably be awful.
“I get it,” Marina added. “I miss my younger sister a lot. We used to have movie nights on Saturdays most weeks.”
“Well, hey, we can do that too,” Leah said with a smile. She leaned forward to see Marina on the other side of me. “Let’s pick out something for this weekend.”
Marina nodded. “Yeah. What do you think, Jourdanne? Anything sound good off the top of your head?”
Before I could answer, my phone started to vibrate in my jean pocket. I pulled it out and saw that it was my dad—my actual dad.
“Oh, hey, speak of the devil,” I said as I waved my phone around. The girls smiled at me as I slowed down to answer.
“You’re never going to believe it, beetle!”
“What is it, Dad?”
“There are two teams of repair men here to fix the problems with the inn.”
I could hear banging and drills in the background.
“Dad? What? Two teams?”
“Hang on, let me get outside.” I waited a minute for him to clear the noise, then he started to speak again. “Two groups of men showed up this morning to fix up some of the problems at the inn.”
“But I only arranged for the roofers last week. Did they finish? Is something else wrong?”
“Oh, no! Some philanthropist has invested in the inn and has taken control of the property. He won’t even accept a rent check!”
“What? Are you sure? That sounds too good to be true?”
“I know, I was as confused as you. But the man told me on the phone that I deserved something good for helping out the community for over thirty years.”
I stood there clueless for about two seconds. “Dad? What was the man’s name?”
“Oh, well… you know, he didn’t say. But he did say it was for the… oh, the Valentini Firm.”
Valentini? As in, Leandro? Why would he help out the inn? Our contract had ended; we had parted ways.
“Dad, I think everything will be fine. The firm will probably take good care of the inn.”
“Oh, it’s not just that either.”
“No?”
“The firm bought up the café down the way too. The repairs were too much for the owners to open like they’d planned, but the Valentini Firm stepped in to invest. I think they’re part owners or something now.”