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28
AUSTIN
“Congratulations!” Scott and the rest of the guys cheered in unison as I stepped into Scott’s living room for poker night.
“Thanks, guys.” I accepted a bottle of root beer from Cody. “It’s been a week of ups and downs for sure. But getting engaged to Kayla is the best, brightest spot.”
“Nice. What’s Megan think?” Cody stood beside me, his elbow bumping into mine. “She squealed, right?”
“She did.” After a minute. And that hadn’t gone by Kayla. She’d spent the whole ride back to her apartment obsessing and overthinking and generally filling the car with words that I’d struggled to process. I’d been a little disappointed by those two beats before the squeal myself.
“When’s the big day?” Cody slapped my shoulder. “Man, we’re falling like bowling pins.”
“I think the phrase is ‘dropping like flies,’ Cody.” Tristan shook his head and reached for the bag of chips in the center of the game table. “Even with the wrong words, it’s a fair assessment.”
“What? There’s two of the six of us. That’s only a third. Hardly a startling majority.” I shook my head. Dropping like flies. Whatever. “Do the math before you make statements like that.”
“Pft. I’m not doing any more math today.” Noah rubbed the middle of his forehead. “We have a new initiative that they’re considering. Mr. Ballentine and Mr. Trent are both determined to double-check all the numbers before launch. And I got tasked with the spreadsheet and manual check of all the costs.”
“Spreadsheets are fun. What’s your problem with them?” Cody frowned. “I was on the phone all day talking to potential vendors for the gala in November. Not sure why I ended up in charge of that, but I’d rather have the spreadsheet. Wanna trade?”
Noah laughed and shook his head. “No. Suddenly, my job seems much better. Thanks.”
“Yeah, sure. Happy to help.” Cody shrugged. “When are we gonna have poker at my place? I’m set up now.”
“Next week is all you.” Tristan pointed.
I laughed. Tristan was always happy to hand off hosting. “Nice, Tristan. Way to share.”
“Hey. Cody wants to host, I’m not saying no. I had to actually run the vacuum after our last game night because it was too much to leave for the next time my cleaning service came.” Tristan crunched chips.
I gestured toward the crumbs that fell from Tristan’s shirt as he ate. “I don’t think you can blame us for that. Not all the way. You need a plate?”
“I’m good.” Tristan brushed the crumbs onto the floor.
Scott winced. “Guess I’m cleaning up later tonight, too.”
“Are we playing, or what?” Cody pulled out a chair at the table and sat. He reached for the deck of cards and started to shuffle.
“Yeah, yeah.” Noah dropped into the seat beside Cody. “Hey, Aus, what were the downs?”
“What?” I paused in the middle of pulling out my chair and tried to figure out why Noah was asking.
“You said it was a week of ups and downs. Engaged is obviously the up. What’s the down?” Noah reached for a handful of chips.
“I, uh, am officially out of a job at the end of the school year.” Possibly sooner. I didn’t want to go there, though. I was still mulling the principal’s offer. I was going to call it an offer not an ultimatum, because it wasn’t as if she’d ordered me to leave the school grounds. She just made it very clear that was her preference.
“Can they do that?” Noah looked between me and Tristan. “Can they just let him go because of the media?”
Tristan frowned at me. “I’m surprised, possibly a little offended, that you didn’t tell me about this when it happened. When did it happen?”
“Wednesday. And there was no point in calling you, because she’s perfectly within her rights to do it. My contract was up for renewal; she’s declining to do so. I can look around at other jobs available in the county, see about a transfer.” I shrugged, hoping it came across as nonchalant. What they didn’t need to know was how unlikely it was going to be for any other school to want me, either. There was the media coverage, to start out. And then there was the fact that I definitely wasn’t going to ask for—because I wasn’t going to get it—a recommendation or reference from my current administrator.
“But?”
I sighed. Tristan always heard more than anyone said. More than people wanted him to hear. “It’s just not happening. After the media storm, no one is going to hire me and bring reporters and all that publicity to their campus.”
“I thought there was no such thing as bad PR?” Cody picked up his cards and looked at them.
