Page 148 of Twisted Needs

“If you don’t mind me saying—I’m a huge fan,” the waitress says to Parker. “My dad’s been bringing me to your games since I was little.”

But then her eyes flicker from him to me, and I can see it click in her head. Parker and I seated so close together that our arms are pressed into each other. His hand is resting comfortably on my thigh.

And Parker…couldn’t care less. He just smiles politely, thanks her, then reaches over and drags my plate a little closer toward me once she leaves, completely casual about the whole entire thing.

“How did the meeting with your professor go?”

Well, fuck. The one question I didn’t want to be asked on our first date. Objectively, the situation is absurd.

“I kind of got offered a job,” I admit finally.

“You did?” Parker’s entire face brightens almost immediately with genuine excitement. “What kind of job?”

“A ghostwriting internship.” I exhale softly through my nose, rubbing a hand over my jaw. “In New York.”

For a split second something weird flickers across Parker’s face, but it disappears almost as soon as it came. “No shit?” he says, grinning now. “Baby, that’s incredible.”

I shrug. “It’s only temporary.”

“Okay?” Parker laughs softly. “That’s still huge. I was starting to worry about how we’re supposed to keep the lights on after I retire—since you’re so unemployed and stuff.”

I roll my eyes and shake my head at him. “It would start in the fall.”

“So?”

“So…” I trail off.

Parker watches me for a second longer before his expression shifts subtly into understanding. “Oh,” he says more quietly. “You’re trying to decide between that and Georgetown.”

I nod once.

Grad school at Georgetown has felt like the clearest path forward for months, and now suddenly there’s this other thing dangling in front of me like a fancy piece of candy.

“I don’t think I’m gonna take it,” I say eventually.

Parker frowns immediately. “Why?”

Because I can’t leave him for three fucking months.

It’s horrifying—and I know he said he would move with me, but this is different. It’s a three month internship in New York. Asking him to come with me for those three months feels like I’m just dragging around my emotional support boyfriend. “I have another reason,” I say instead. Because there’s no way I can’t tell him now.

“Okay.” Parker leans back slightly in his chair, giving me his full attention.

“It’s…” I swallow back the nerves climbing up the back of my throat. “The author only reached out because they somehow ended up reading something I wrote, like, two years ago.”

“Really? What kind of thing?”

I stare down at the straw wrapper between my fingers, slowly tearing the paper into tiny pieces without really thinking about it. “A short story thing.”

“And it was good enough that they tracked you down afterward?” Parker asks, smiling slightly.

Oh, my sweet summer child…

I let out a nervous laugh. “That’s unfortunately the problem.”

His expression shifts almost imperceptibly. “Yeah?”

“I wrote it when I was nineteen,” I continue carefully, already feeling heat gathering beneath my skin. “And nineteen-year-old me was…” I exhale sharply through my nose. “Not subtle.”