The graduation design contest decided whether my boyfriend and I would land at the same company, so we'd spent the better part of a year preparing for it.
But on the day of the contest, Jim Farley turned pale. "I left my flash drive back at the apartment. Help me out, please? If you go now there's still time. I'll hold things down here."
I hesitated, again and again, but in the end I said yes.
It was an hour's drive. I found every shortcut I could and cut it down to forty-five minutes.
But when I got back to the venue, I found Jim onstage with his junior classmate.
They moved in perfect sync, like they'd rehearsed it a hundred times.
People in the audience were saying, "They work so well together. The championship's definitely theirs."
"Looks like the two of them will get into the Fox Group together."
During the intermission, Jim spotted me.
He sent a message. 【You got here too late. I had no choice but to put Tilda Fox in. Don't worry, once I'm in at the Foxs', I'll find a way to get you an internship.】
I didn't bother explaining that I'd been there the whole time. I just opened the flash drive and took a look.
Sure enough, there was nothing on it.
So I chose to slip away from the venue without a word.
This wasn't the first time he'd taken Tilda's side.
And I had finally learned how to let go.
……
Back at the apartment, I'd just finished packing my things when Jim called.
"Tilda and I got specially recruited. We're celebrating tonight. Come over to Southport…"
He hung up before I could say anything.
No explanation, no comfort, as if everything he'd done was exactly right.
I hadn't planned to go. But while I was packing, I couldn't find the gold bracelet my parents had left me, no matter where I looked.
Then I remembered Jim digging through my jewelry box that morning.
So I texted him. 【My gold bracelet. Did you take it?】
He answered fast. 【Yeah. Tilda stepped in at the last minute and saved us. Think of the bracelet as a thank-you.】
Reading that, I laughed out of pure anger.
Saved them?
He really thought I was an idiot.
And even if she had, what gave him the right to hand off something my parents left me as a favor?
I was too furious to sit still, so I drove straight to the karaoke bar in Southport.
By the time I got there, the private room was already packed.
Jim and Tilda were the center of it all.
Their classmates were toasting them, and the two of them were beaming.
Someone brought me up, his face full of contempt.
"Is there something wrong with Deidre Henson? She wants into the Foxs' so badly but does nothing for it. She kept dropping the ball all through prep, and now look, she actually showed up late on contest day. If it weren't for Tilda, Jim wouldn't have managed either."
While a classmate tore me down like that, Jim didn't just stay quiet. He sighed and let the whole story stand.
I couldn't take it anymore and walked right in. "Oh really? With which eye did you see me not taking this contest seriously?"
The classmate hadn't expected me to appear out of nowhere. He froze on the spot.
Seeing him like that, I looked straight at Jim. "Why didn't I compete? You know exactly why, don't you?"
"All right, that's enough. Everyone's just joking around."
"Joking? Right before the contest, you insisted I go back for a flash drive with nothing on it. Was that a joke too?"
The moment I finished, the classmates in the room looked at one another.
Jim's face changed in an instant. "I know you're upset you didn't get into the Foxs', but you can't just—"
Before he could finish, I played the recording of our voice chat.
