Right Place, Wrong Time

9. Something Like Soulmates

It was always close to a deadline that things were most likely to go wrong, as Joey found out on Monday. He'd put off finishing an essay while he took care of Lauren and advantage of the snow, and had spent all that morning in the library working on it. Now he'd come to print it in time for his class first thing, it seemed he'd failed at the last hurdle.

"No, no, fucking work!" he said, repeatedly tapping his card on the printer, but it stayed still and silent. The message flashed up on the display: no credit. Fifty thousand dollars tuition a year and he couldn't print a five page essay.

"Fuck," he said again, looking around, but there was no one here to help him this early. He glanced back down at the printer, wondering if he could perform some miracle to get it to work for him.

A moment later, a miracle arrived. A hand swiped a card, and the printer whirred into life, spitting out his essay at last. He turned and saw a smiling Lauren.

"You are a lifesaver," he said, scooping his essay out of the tray and into his backpack.

"I've heard that before," she grinned.

"Do you need this?" he asked, starting to step aside.

"Nope," she said. "I came looking for you."

He paused in the middle of zipping up his bag. "How did you know I was going to be here?"

"I asked Brian."

"Where did you run into Brian?"

"I didn't. I went to your dorm," she said, as if this should have been obvious. Joey could only gape at her.

"How did you find my dorm?"

Her hesitation was so brief he might have missed it. "I asked Darren."

As usual, at the mention of that name, her cheeks turned pink, but they ignored it for both their sakes, even as he wondered what she'd told Darren about why she needed to see him.

"Well, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"Can you make that lunch date today after class?"

"Lunch date?" That wasn't what he'd been expecting.

"You owe me one, remember?"

He smiled. "I guess I do."

"So does today work for you?" she asked again.

"Today works," he smiled. "But you know you could have just asked me in class."

"You might have made other plans by then," she smiled.

He rolled his eyes, following her to class. It hit him then as he sat beside her, the last class with her of the semester, how much he was going to miss her over break. She made him laugh a lot, even in the little notes they still passed to one another, and he considered her a very good friend already. So he was glad she'd asked him to lunch today.

They walked out together at the end of class, Joey a half step behind as he let her lead him to whatever destination she'd picked.

"I had to get away," she said. "Julia takes every meal lately as an opportunity to impart wisdom on me."

"About what?"

"Oh, you know," she said. He didn't know, and she didn't expand, so he just kept following her. They arrived at a deli where they both ordered sandwiches and took seats opposite each other.

With the rest of the day ahead of them if they wanted, they talked about things their interactions hadn't allowed for before — home, their families, what they wanted from life after they left school. When the conversation turned to animals, she perked up even more.