Page 11 of Fundamentals of Being a Good Girl
Oh my god, finally! A kindred spirit! “I’ve been trying to say this! It makes no sense to name the Astra University campus cat after apythonwhen our mascot is a copperhead snake, which is a type of viper! Pythons are nothing like vipers! Pythons strangle their prey! Vipers strike! Vipers are venomous! I don’t even know who came up with this stupid name; probably somebody in Fine Arts—”*
“No,” Leo interrupts. “No, this creature makes no sense. That is not a cat.”
“We’re certain it’s a cat,” I say. And then amend, “Well, maybe like seventy-thirty that it’s a cat. Actually, the oSTEM club is trying to get an internal grant*to run a feline DNA test on him.”
“You should do that,” Leo says, fear and disgust edging every syllable. “Because I’m pretty sure that thing came from hell. We’re very close to Stull, you know.”*
Leo follows me cautiously up the stairs, careful to keep me between him and Dr. Monty at all times, and then we go through the doors and find the large tiled staircase up to the second floor. I haven’t been in this building since I was an undergrad myself, so it takes me a minute to find Maddie’s class. The door is closed; she’s still teaching. I can hear the appealing alto of her voice, and when I come up to the window set into the door, I can see—
“Oh, she’s poli-sci, all right,” Leo says. “Look at her. She looks like she’s running for mayor of a mid-sized town in the upper Midwest.”
Leo isn’t wrong. If yesterday Maddie looked like she’d just come from Sunday brunch, then today she looks like she just came from a casual sit-down with the morning news. Wide-legged trousers and a white silk blouse, both of which look understatedly expensive. She’s wearing a tidy strand of pearls that nestle at the base of her neck, and her long, blond hair falls in loose curls over her shoulders. She looks focus-grouped.
She looks beautiful too.
“What is this section?” Leo asks.
“Intro to US Politics.”
“She doesn’t have the room,” observes Leo, taking a bite of his apple. Juice shines on his lower lip and he licks it away, and a student walking toward us accidentally drops a stack of handouts onto the floor.
I turn away from Leo’s latest convert and see that he’s right about my brat—ah, childcare provider. Maddie doesn’t have the room, and while I don’t know her well, it feels completely out of character based on everything I do know about her.
She’s in the front, futzing with an uncooperative laptop (something we’ve all lived through but that can be extra brutal on the first day), and I can see at least seven sleeping students from where I’m standing. A clump of football player–shaped boys are talking openly in the back, and several students are looking at their phones under their desks.
This close to the door, I can hear Maddie clearly as she starts speaking again, the words coming out lilting and a little uncertain, almost like she’s waiting for someone else to tell her the right answer. Nothing like the fearless brat who unflinchingly negotiated herself to a 25 percent raise yesterday.
“So... that will be the judiciary section. We’ll have one final section on the media and politics, and... did you have a question? Just stretching? Sorry. Um, media will be the last section, and then we’ll have the final. And—that’s it. That’s all. Does anyone have any questions?”
One of the muscled young men in the back raises his hand, going from slouched backward to sitting completely upright, like he’s trying to touch the ceiling with his fingertips. “Professor Ko—Kowow—uh, Professor K, can we go now?”
“Yes,” Maddie replies faintly and there’s a backpack-jostling scramble as the students race down the steps of the small indoor auditorium and rush for the door. Leo and I step back just in time—the door crashes open and students flood out, already texting, shoving, wedging earbuds into their ears.
We walk into the classroom after the students leave, and Maddie’s head swivels at the movement, sending her curls bouncing. She glares at me.
“What are you doing here?” she hisses.
Leo glances between us, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “Great question, sweet,” he commends, and then turns to me. “Dr. Loe?”
“I just wanted to make sure you had everything you needed to pick up the twins,” I say.
“You,” she accuses, pointing her finger at me, “were watching me from the door.”
I slowly drag my eyes from her finger to her face, the blood suddenly kicking so hard in my veins that I’m almost dizzy with it. I want to wrap my hand around that finger and pull her close and tell her exactly what’s coming to her for that little show.
And then I suck in a deep, quick breath through my nose. Whaton eartham I thinking? She’s my employee. She’s almost ten years younger than me. And even before I gave up on dating, I still wasn’t the... theyou’ve been a bad girlguy.
Maddie spins away, back to the podium where her laptop is still sitting open, obviously upset about something. Possibly me. Even more possibly what just happened during her first class here at Astra University.
I look at Leo. “You should leave.”
Leo bites his apple smirkingly in response. Only Leo Saint James can bite into an apple smirkingly.
I sigh. “Please?”
“But where would I go?” he asks when he swallows, looking suddenly like a lost angel, bewildered and innocent.
“I don’t know, Leo. Your home? Your office? Your local library?”
