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She had interfered in his life enough, another reason he was determined to earn the highest grades.
“Fine, but if you decide—”
He cleared his throat, desperately needing to change the subject. “What are you two doing tonight?” he asked. “Is Dad taking you out?”
She sighed, and he imagined her laid out on the couch with her feet on a pillow like she always did after a long day of work. “Yeah, we already went. A movie and dinner. We’re old like that.”
He laughed. “Living the dream.” It was his dream. Find someone he cared about and settle down, but so far, his search for someone beautiful and practical had been a far cry.
“Well,” his mom said, sighing into the phone, “I better get Herbert to sleep. It’s not even ten, and I can’t get this man to stay up with me.”
He laughed. “Night, Mom.”
“We’re excited to see you in a few weeks, honey. Make sure to have your calendar free. Your siblings have lots of plans.”
He rolled his eyes, thinking of his large house. He was the youngest of six and all of his brothers and sisters loved to razz him. “Sure, Mom.” Got nothing else going on.
As he finished his walk to the engineering building, he thought about the progress he’d made in the last year. Finally, he was focused on his schoolwork. Finally, he’d picked a major. Finally, he knew what he wanted even more than a career. That last one, he was still working on, but the more he looked for a compatible match, the more discouraged he became. If a girl asked him to do a raptor pounce, they were out, and that limited his field quite a bit.
He sighed as he reached the front door of the engineering building and pulled. The door jerked in place, but didn’t open. Darn it. He’d have to figure out Holly’s favorite place to study.
As he walked back, he thought about the few items she’d bought at the store earlier. Cereal, noodles, and bread. Surely, she had more food than that. Her roommates had each filled a cart of their own, and there were only three weeks until the semester ended.
He shrugged away the thought and tried to imagine Aimee’s face. As far as looks went, she had it all, and it was fun to be around her when she was silly and outspoken. But was it enough to make a relationship work? He wasn’t sure, but it was worth finding out, and hopefully before the semester ended. Time was ticking.
3
Holly
Holly’s roommates pulled her out to the front room early Saturday morning. “You’ve gotta see what arrived,” Aimee gushed. “We were told not to open it until all the roommates were together.”
Holly groaned and rubbed at her eyes, having stayed up all night to finish an assignment. Academic work usually took her three times the effort that it took someone else. Her ability to focus suffered whenever she needed more brain power.
“What is it?” she asked, yawning.
“A package from my mom,” Diane said.
“So?”
Diane’s mom sent them a package every month. Being from an affluent neighborhood in Boulder City, her mom took care of both of them, even from five hundred miles away.
Holly’s eyes widened as she noticed the package for the first time. It almost covered their entire kitchen table. “Wow, she went all out this time,” Holly said.
Aimee reached into the box and pulled out a wreath to hang on the door along with lights and ornaments and a strand of garland to put on a tree.
“This is amazing,” Holly said, pushing away the twinge of jealousy she felt. She’d learned long ago to not compare her story to another person’s, especially a best friend’s.
“Right? Should we hang stuff up?” Aimee asked. “I think I have a tree in storage.”
Holly and Diane laughed. “What do you not have in storage?” Diana asked, poking Aimee in the side.
Holly smiled as Diane turned on Christmas music, and the apartment took on a festive mood as they cleaned the front room and decorated it. Holly grabbed the last thing in the box—some kind of ornament—and Aimee snatched it out of her hand before she could find the ornament’s hook.
“There it is,” Diane said, smiling.
“What is that?” Holly asked.
“Mistletoe, silly. My mom said she’d be sending some. Should we hang it on the front door?”
