For the Record (Record #3)(31)
Author: K.A. Linde

Brady flew her to D.C. for the week of spring break, since she didn’t have to be in New York City for her internship. As disappointed as she was about not working with the New York Times, it was a dream to spend an entire week with Brady. No interruptions. No rushed meetings. No secrets whatsoever. Just the two of them together every second they could be.

She got to see his office and meet the staff. Heather actually managed to act like a normal human being, even though it was clear that they were still on rocky ground. Elliott took her on a tour of the Rayburn building, where Brady’s office was located. Liz and Elliott joked and laughed while they wandered down the plethora of corridors.

She and Brady had lunch on the steps of the Capitol building. He took her to fancy restaurants and dive bars and rooftop parties. He took her on a tour of old cemeteries. She insisted on peeking in at Hayden’s sister, Jamie’s, latest artwork and sighed in relief when she wasn’t there. They snuggled in bed and watched bad movies over Chinese food. She fell asleep in his lap while he read on his iPad.

And they had sex. Lots of incredible sex. Nearly every morning and every night until her body was sore and satiated. If that was even possible with Brady Maxwell.

The next two months were a wonderful haze of Brady. They fell into an easy routine where every weekend he would fly down to Chapel Hill or she would fly up to D.C. Liz focused on her graduate school applications and the articles she was writing for fun on the side that she had submitted to a few online columns. She also started up regular tennis sessions with Easton. It made her feel better about having so much extra time and kept up her stamina, which she needed when it came to Brady.

Soon she was closing her booklet on her last final exam in her college career. She felt a little sentimental turning it in to her professor and walking out the doors. Campus was quiet. She had one of the last exams of the day, though there were still a few days left in the exam schedule.

This had been her home for the last four years, and it was surreal to think that she would be leaving it behind for . . . whatever was to come in the fall. She stared around at the brick buildings and beautiful landscapes with newfound appreciation. Everything was going to change.

She knew that before she left she had one more place she needed to go: the newspaper office. It was late enough in the afternoon that she hoped everyone would have cleared out by now.

Trekking across campus, she savored the short walk and then took the stairs up to the second floor of the Union. She glanced into the office and saw that it looked deserted. She breathed a sigh of relief and pushed the door open.

She wasn’t sure what had brought her here. She hadn’t set foot inside the office since clearing out her desk after Massey had requested her “temporary leave of absence.” She had barely set foot in the Union for fear of running into anyone from the paper. The only person she still kept in contact with was Savannah and on occasion Tristan, but they had been her A-team from the beginning.

She ran her hands over the desks, most of which had been emptied for the summer, and then she walked to her old office. She and Brady had had sex in that office. She had spent a year of her life working as editor out of that office. It would always feel a bit like it belonged to her.

She toed the door open and took a step back. “Oh, sorry,” Liz whispered, seeing Massey hunched over the desk on her laptop.

“Liz,” Massey said softly, glancing around. “What are you doing here?”

“I was just leaving,” she said, turning to go.

“Wait,” Massey called. She jumped up from her desk and into the open doorway.

Liz stood still and took a deep breath before facing her again. “What’s up?”

“I haven’t seen you since . . . since you left.”

“Left . . .”

“You know what I mean,” Massey said. “How have you been?”

“Keeping myself busy. But I’m sure you guessed that with all the things popping up in papers,” Liz said dismissively. She didn’t want to have this rift in her friendship, and she knew it wasn’t exactly Massey’s fault that Liz had been forced out of the paper. Still, the argument hit too close to home.

Massey cringed at her statement. “Well, I’m glad you’ve been busy. When are you moving to New York?”

It was Liz’s turn to cringe. “I was let go.”

“Oh,” Massey said. “That’s awful. I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah. It sucks,” Liz found herself admitting.

“I can’t believe they did that.”

“Well, they did.”

“What do you plan to do now?” Massey asked.

Liz shrugged. “Kind of an open game plan. Applying late to grad programs.”

“Can you do that?”

“We’ll see. Professor Mires thinks so.”

“Oh right. She loves you,” Massey said. “If I can get into UVA for the PhD program, then you’re sure to get in anywhere . . . even late admittance.”

“You got in!” Liz cried. “That’s so great.”

“Yeah. I was really excited. So much to do to get ready to go now, though.”

Liz could feel the tension slowly draining out of her. She might be angry with Massey for what had happened, but she was angrier at the system that had made all of this the reality. Not any one person had ruined everything that she had worked toward. It wasn’t fair to pin it all on Massey just because she was an easy target for Liz’s animosity.

“I know what you mean. Victoria and her boyfriend are moving to D.C. over the summer. They both got into Johns Hopkins and are planning to live together when they go to school. Our house looks like a train wreck right now,” Liz told her.

“Victoria and boyfriend in the same sentence is still weird to me.”

“Join the club, but they’re really serious now.”

“Serious enough to move to D.C. together and get into the same PhD program,” Massey said, shaking her head. “Who knew Victoria would be the first of us to settle down?”

Liz laughed. “No one! But I’m really happy for her. She needed someone like Daniel to keep her ass in line.”

“And if any of us know her, we know he’s probably keeping her ass in line a lot.”

“Oh, God, you’re as bad as she is,” Liz cried, throwing her hands up.

Massey laughed. “So what about you? Are you happy with . . . everything?”

“I’m happy with Brady,” she told her, and then glanced around.