Out of the Woods | ✓

18 | well, i believed in you

Jensen had been listening to a student performing the sonnet from 10 Things I Hate About You when she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. And promptly ignored it. Mostly because she was watching to the performance, but also because she knew it wasn't anyone who really mattered.

Miles knew she only had an hour between nine and four to reply to texts, so he waited until she was home from school to talk to her. (It had been like that for about a week and a half.) (It was proving a challenge to keep away from Liberty, but Jensen was doing okay.)

Liberty didn't text her in general. If she needed something, she usually showed up at Jensen's office unannounced and got what she needed. It was the pleasure of being a university professor that Liberty seemingly always had time to bother Jensen at her day job—bother being the most loving term Jensen had for Liberty showing up.

            When class was over for lunch—after an especially drawn out not even a little bit, not even at all sonnet ending that made her want to cut the student off—Jensen made her way to her office. Hands full with her marking binder and edited scripts from her directing students, she placed them on her already cluttered desk. This lunch break was supposed to be Jensen putting together the last parts of cast for 9 to 5. Looking at her desk, she figured she should attempt to tidy that up if the final cast decisions didn't take too long. She hoped that dealing with the message wouldn't take too long. Pulling her phone out of her pocket as she leaned against the edge of her desk, Jensen scanned the message quickly.

            Maybe: Keira, said the name bar on the notification. Jensen's eyes nearly bugged out of her head as she continued reading. Jensen, hi. Lunch at Kings, 12:45. We need to talk. Keira.

            Jensen jumped to her full height when she realized she had fifteen minutes to get there. Kings was twenty minutes away. And she only had an hour to talk to Keira. Shit. Grabbing her wallet from her desk drawer, Jensen headed out of the school as fast as she could manage without looking suspicious. Her heart pounded as she walked to her car.

            If she had known Academy Award nominee Keira Lim wanted to talk to her that day, she would have worn something other than the NYU hoodie that wasn't even hers. But there wasn't time to change. Frankly, there wasn't even time to get there, but Jensen was going to do her best.

            Sticking her key in the ignition of her Corolla, Jensen swore under her breath when the engine didn't start the first time.

            Or the second time.

            "This isn't the time," Jensen said. She pressed her forehead against the top of her steering wheel as she took a deep breath in. She rubbed her hand on the dashboard as she sat up properly. "I apologize for every single time I've called you a piece of shit. Just please do this one thing for me. It'll never happen again. Okay? Come on, girl."

On the third attempt, the engine started and Jensen pulled out of the parking lot with a wider smile than she should have had for her car working properly. Massaging the dashboard wasn't uncommon. Neither was apologizing for calling her piece of shit car a piece of shit. Sometimes one just had to white lie to their car in order for it to work.

She only knew where Kings was because there was a grocery store in the same lot that Jensen sometimes had to visit for a quick dinner if she was on her way to Legendary and hadn't had time to pack. Jensen had never actually been inside the restaurant, but as she drove, she was hoping they had some kind of chicken dish otherwise it was going to make for an awkward lunch of her watching Keira eat.

            Getting to the restaurant wasn't all that difficult. Jensen managed to make it with a minute to spare. (She didn't want to think about how fast she had been driving.) (She really didn't.) Jensen took a couple deep breaths before she got out of the car and walked into Kings. We need to talk was probably the most stressful thing that Keira could have said to her—whether she meant it positively or not. Jensen's heart was still racing as she opened the door.