My Missing Puzzle Piece

Chapter 3

Claire's eyes were hurting after having spent hours staring at her laptop screen. She had been studying all evening for this test she had to present on her first class the following day. She sighed and looked away for a second, rubbing her eyes gently with her fingers before she covered her mouth to yawn.

It wasn't until she fixed her green eyes back on the screen that she noticed she had spent more than her evening sitting there— no wonder her ass was numb. It was already one in the morning and she still felt the need to give her notes one last read before trying to catch a few hours of sleep.

She shut her laptop close and grabbed the few notecards she had prepared with a few questions. She stood up from her desk and decided to get comfortable in her bed. She found a position where she could rest her butt from sitting flat and straighten her legs. She also made sure her current position wouldn't make her fall asleep.

Claire spent an hour studying her questionary and set her notecards on her nightstand. She was now going to go through a couple of charts she had on her notebook and promised herself she'd go to bed after that. She eyed her cellphone charging on her nightstand and picked it up.

There was no harm in taking five minutes to rest her brain and scroll down her Instagram feed, was there? Once on her home screen, the notification on her email app remind her she had been postponing to reply to Owen's last e-mail.

Nibbling on her lip, she opened it and read it. There was something about his choice of words when complimenting her thesis that made her feel all fuzzy inside. She loved it when people pointed out how intelligent she was, but reading it from him was something else. He had sent that e-mail almost six hours ago, so she took her five minute break to finally reply to him.

They had been exchanging emails for a week now, and they often included some casual conversation too, among the whole serious talk about her final paper. But of course, she didn't mind that. At all. This time around, for some reason, they had ended up talking about coffee and how they couldn't understand why people poured almost half a pound of sugar into their cup.

They both agreed coffee was better when black and strong. The only difference between their taste was that his choice of drink was always a cold beverage rather than a hot one like hers.

Claire didn't notice the stupid smile slowly creeping up on her face while she replied to Owen's e-mail. She always started them with matters regarding her paper and the few things they were discussing about it, and from there she would slowly transition to way less professional topics. This time, she was stuck on coffee. She added that she'd heard Central American coffee was one of the best around the world and couldn't wait to try it out one day.

She sent the email and plugged her iPhone back to the charger, leaving it on her nightstand. Claire sighed, and with that smile still on her lips, she finally grabbed her notebook and opened it on that chart she was feeling she needed to refresh before her exam that following morning.

She didn't have time to fix her concentration on her notebook before her cellphone announced she had an incoming e-mail. She blushed, it was two in the morning, definitely not an appropriate time for her to be exchanging e-mails with her professor. She bit on her lower lip and after thinking it through, she reached out again for her cellphone. Claire immediately sighed in disappointment, noticing it was just one of those sales newsletters from one of the online stores she usually shopped at.

She rolled her eyes before she chuckled at herself. She truly believed he would be awake at two in the morning? She snorted. She was probably the only soul awake at that hour, on a Thursday, in the whole campus. She deleted the sales e-mail and immediately noticed, to her surprise, that Owen had indeed replied to her and was thus awake that late. Claire giggled, and feeling her cheeks blush, she opened his e-mail. "Why are you up so late, Miss Dearing?" He had simply replied, postponing the rest of the conversation to be addressed later on.