Chapter 7
Johnson left.
Fast in, fast out.
I slept like a baby.
The next morning, I was at the airport right on time.
Just before boarding, I got a call from my old college advisor.
“Scarlett, your senior lab partner just flew back to the States today.
Got time to catch up?”
I paused.
Thought of him.
Sebastian Kane.
Cool, brilliant, composed.
I was an orphan.
Grew up in a group home on the South Side of Chicago.
Learned early that no one was coming to save me.
So I studied like my life depended on it.
Got into the best school in New York.
Picked the hardest major.
By sophomore year, I joined the university’s top research group-
Even if I was just the lab grunt.
Sebastian was the star of that lab.
He was also my first crush.
But he left for grad school abroad during junior year.
I never got the chance to say a word.
I didn’t respond right away, so my advisor kept talking.
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You and Sebastian–my two best students.”
I always thought you two were going places… then you got married.”
I bit my lip.
Felt something twist in my chest.
If I hadn’t married Johnson, maybe I’d still be in research.
That thought alone made me stop walking toward the gate.
Maybe thirty isn’t the end.
Maybe it’s a new beginning.
So I said yes.
I’d meet them for the reunion.
I headed to a quiet, run–down part of Brooklyn.
Back in college, I used to rent a tiny apartment here.
After marriage, I bought it.
It became my sanctuary.
Whenever I couldn’t breathe at the Johnson estate-
I came here.
It was small.
One bedroom, one bath.
Maybe 400 square feet.
But it was packed wall to wall with books.
I dropped my suitcase and collapsed onto the bed.
Pulled a random book off the shelf-
Every page filled with notes.
I had never stopped learning.
Even while married. Even while suffocating.
With the reunion tonight, I pulled out my old research notebooks.
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Chapter 7
If I see my advisor, maybe I can ask-
Even if it’s just to intern again.
Because even after all these wasted years….
The happiest I’ve ever been-
Was in that lab,
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