and addressed the small crowd that had gathered for us in the Foxhole.

Not for Sushmita and me as individuals, but for the monthly WISA bar quiz. We ran it as a networking and de-stress event for students during the semesters.

"Thanks for coming out, everyone," she said. "WISA is always grateful that we have members and supporters as lovely as you."

This time, I convinced an entire legion of people to turn up. Riley, Krista, and Quentin made up one team. The Jays and Sophie made up another. I even glimpsed Ravi and his football teammates in the back, as always—the shy thing—steadfastly supporting Sushmita.

And the quiz winner was none of those three groups I knew, but it was okay. It was about the memories—or some consolatory bullshit like that.

If I had it my way, I would have split the twins up to spread their sports knowledge, and split Krista and Quentin to spread their science and Star Wars knowledge. Riley and Sophie, both doing Humanities majors, had the right idea from the beginning. Divide and conquer.

But then again, I had a fiercely competitive streak—beer pong, Drunk Jenga, bar quizzes... Glory was sweet, man. Too bad my being a WISA executive member prevented me from participating. That, and the fact I made the questions.

"To show some love back," Sushmita continued. "We have one more spot prize for all you quiz masters." The small crowd of familiar faces rustled with good-natured excitement.

I stepped forward, bottle in hand. "I hope you've all kept that card I dealt you at the start of the night. Look at them. Memorise them," I joked. "One lucky person is going to win a bottle of Merlot from the glorious Napa Valley."

The bar staff had donated some prizes to attract more patronage to the quiz, which they hoped would translate into more drinks and meals sold. The Merlot was the crown jewel.

A few appreciative hoots rose into the air when I lifted the bottle of red. I spread the fresh deck of cards in my hand and offered it to Sushmita.

She drew a card and announced it. "Eight of spades?"

For a moment, the crowd intently checked their cards. Then Sophie's jubilant voice sounded, "Jamie!"

"Woohoo!" Krista cheered.

"Hey!" Jake exclaimed, clapping Jamie solidly on the shoulder. "Go, baby bro."

I loved how Jake would never, ever, in the entirety of his life, stop flexing his additional seventeen minutes of age on Jamie.

Jamie rose from his seat, shunting the bar stool noisily backwards. In the low-roofed establishment, he seemed to skim the ceiling as he approached with a bashful smile. He looked nowhere but at me.

"Congratulations," I grinned, playing the role of gracious hostess.

I extended my hand for Jamie to shake diplomatically, almost like I was going to hand him the keys to the city. But when his fingers curled around mine, a firm tug had me falling into his torso. Jamie wrapped his arm lightly around my shoulders and whispered jokingly, "Is this you trying to get me drunk and take advantage of me?"

"Try not to drink it all in one night," I shot back, taking a surreptitious inhale of his citrus scent before I had to leave it.

"I'll do my very best," he murmured solemnly. It was only for a few seconds that Jamie was up here before he stepped away and nodded his head gratefully, smiling at several familiar faces in the crowd. Damn.

Attention looked great on him.

Jake immediately appropriated the Merlot and began reading its alcohol content, while the rest of our group of friends closed around the twins.

"Aw! A cheerful note to end the night," Sushmita called. "Now everyone get out so we can pack up and go home." WISA was well-connected and personable enough that everyone in attendance knew our humour, our casual approach to networking, and knew that Sushmita was joking.

People laughed and dawdled, in turn making Sush grin and hug a bunch of them. "Just kidding," she waved her hand dismissively. "But also not really!"

People did eventually get the message to trickle away, but Krista came up to me and tapped my shoulder to get my attention. I paused in collecting up the used answer booklets to smile at her, noticing that Quentin hovered just outside the doors of the bar.

"Do you want us to wait for you?" Krista asked. "In case you don't want to walk back to the dorms alone?"

"Nah," I told Krista, giving her a tight hug. "Packing up is going to take a long time. I'll be safe, don't worry."

She held me in an embrace a few seconds longer, just to whisper, "What was that hug, though? I thought you guys were trying to be just friends again."

"That was a friendly hug."

"Okay, so when was the last time you buried your face in Jake's chest and he wrapped his arm around you?"

"That—"

Was a good point.

Jake had given no one reason to doubt his loyalty to Avalon, so whenever we exchanged hugs for congratulatory or consolatory reasons, it was rather like being shoved into a waste compactor and squeezed for dear life. Lungs wheezed. Bones clicked.

Krista observed me coming around to her conclusion, "That's what I thought."

"The feelings aren't going to go away overnight," I reminded her. "But we can both move on like adults, without comprising our friendship or the group dynamic."

"Okay. I just see moments like that and get excited about winning my money back."

I laughed aloud, remembering that Jake and Krista had bet on the relationship between Jamie and me. Official or not. Love or lust. "I thought you already paid Jake."

"I did," Krista mentioned lowly. "Then I remembered we agreed on graduation as the expiry date. So we've got time to turn it around." She gave me a conspiratorial wink I knew she didn't fully mean.

"Since when were famous models so desperate for money?"

"Well... it's not the money, love," Krista chuckled. "It's your happiness. That's all I want."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

I couldn't escape.

First Krista's cheeky speculations, then Sushmita turned on me as soon as the last customer left the bar. "So... did you give him the cake?"

The bar manager on duty tonight was ex-WISA, early thirties, and part of the reason we scored so much free alcohol to give away. She couldn't save me by assigning me a clean-up task because she'd disappeared for a bathroom break half an hour ago.

And, honestly, mood. I felt dead on my feet.

The day had been long, setting up the venue and checking in all the quiz teams. As a longtime WISA executive, I had the pleasure of seeing the same two puns get reused in the team names, but always by people who thought they were original: Let's Get Quizzical and Risky Quizness.

Even before today, the first three weeks of classes had descended like an avalanche. Maybe it was the combination of courses in my schedule—no easy As or electives this semester. Maybe I was finally burning the end of my wick, one season before graduating college. I aimed to practice yoga at least once a week, usually on Mondays. Thursday afternoons I'd given to Jamie for his Innovating Philanthropy project. Friday evenings had the WISA executive committee meetings. And between these commitments and my schoolwork, I still wanted to visit the undergraduate tutoring centre to support my mentees.

I hadn't even the time to tell Sushmita how her advice panned out weeks ago.

"Well, technically yes," I replied. "He licked the icing. Blew my candles out, and then he left before even cutting himself a slice."

Sushmita's hands, coiling an extension cord, paused. "Okay, wait. I thought I could follow the metaphor, but I was wrong. Again, but in rude language please."

I glanced around to make sure we were truly alone and then spilt the whole steamy, confusing, messy affair. And where we ended up: friends.

"Aw, babe," Sushmita frowned in sympathy.

"No!" I protested. Every single woman I knew was powerful and smart and capable, and yet a disturbing proportion of them seemed convinced I was worse off for having kept Jamie as my friend. Were they seeing something I wasn't?

"I'm fine. Really. The problems I was having—the dumb competitions, no meaningful conversations, never knowing about the rest of his life... I think it's actually getting better."

Sushmita levelled an expectant stare my way. "You're fine."

"I am good." I spread my hands at my side. "Truly."

Smart, ambitious, independent Viv. That's what I'd always been, toughing life out by myself, relying on no-one.

"If you ever—"

Sushmita's ringtone interrupted her. She fished her phone out. But whoever was on the line only spoke two garbled sentences before hanging up. I watched my friend frantically swipe on her screen until white light illuminated her face. It perfectly revealed the shock that coloured her features.

"Oh, my God. Viv. Check your email."

I did as Sushmita asked, even refreshing my inbox twice. There was... nothing of note? "Ten percent off my next UberEats order with this limited-time code—"

Sushmita barked a laugh. It sounded hysterical. "Your student email!"

So I did. And the most recent correspondence, from the Halston University Campus Life Fund—

"Holy fuck," I whispered. "They said yes!"

Sushmita's glee overcame her composure as she jumped up and down. "They gave us the funding! You brilliant boss ass bitch, you did it!"

I took her hands and jumped with her. "We did it!"

"We did it!" Sushmita amended. And then we bear-hugged for the next two minutes, congratulating each other over and over. I swore she hugged like Jake.

My fingers trembled when we disentangled, clutching my phone to my collarbone. "I'm tingling. Oh, gosh."

Sushmita laughed like lightning striking the ground. Pure energy. "Cheeky drink? Vodka cranberry can't hurt, Viv. My shout."

It definitely couldn't be here, considering the manager was still absent.

I pocketed my phone and smirked. "You had me at drink."

Sushmita and I tidied the loaned equipment to the best of our ability and slipped out through the personnel door.

The air was freezing, but our hearts were on fire.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

The next morning was a wonderful morning.

Sushmita didn't have nearly as large an appetite for partying now that she had Ravi. We were also buzzing with anticipation that lingered, impossible to dampen or distract. So even in Halston's karaoke bar, our conversation veered forcefully to the plans we could finally action now, primarily the Intersectionality in Science panel and the WIBA collaboration events that we'd dreamt of but never dared to pursue.

In the end, Sushmita and I each had two cocktails and called it a night. See? I could totally drink in moderation.

In the dining hall, I assembled myself a bowl of cereal with fruit slices for Sunday brunch. I felt like a million bucks—or six thousand dollars, to be precise. By the time I returned to the common room, it had filled with a handful of people, Jamie and Krista included.

Krista's eyes flitted to me at the sound of the door opening. "Congratulations on the funding!"

"Why, thank you, thank you," I mockingly dipped my head. "How has your morning been, guys?"

It seemed she was studying outside of her bedroom for once if her notebooks and highlighters scattered on the table proved anything. Jamie's school supplies sat opposite hers. Behind those sat the man himself, with an uncharacteristic Star Wars sticker-plastered laptop in his hands. And behind him, Krista leaned curiously over Jamie's shoulder, perfectly posed to stare at the screen.

"I take back what I said about math. It's now killing me. No, it has killed me. I'm deceased."

Laughter welled up from my chest. "I told you so. Rest in peace. You will be missed." I said that truthfully—she would be missed—since I knew Krista wasn't the type of student to roll over and accept anything less than an A. Most likely, she'd disappear into her studies for weeks and weeks until she conquered the vile fiend that was Multivariable Vector Calculus.

"And you?" I asked Jamie. "Drink the Merlot already?"

Jamie clicked his teeth and shook his head. "No, I'm saving it for a special occasion."

I could hardly think of a better time to drink than the present, nor an occasion more special than winning free stuff, but I obliged Jamie.

"Guess who so modestly begged me for help debugging her C++ project?"

Krista growled under her breath but didn't contradict him. Jamie shot me a warm, knowing smile and I immediately thought of the conversation we'd shared last Thursday.

I'd code circles around her C++.

One second I was reminiscing about studying in Science 2, and the next I sensed a flash of something superimposed on the back of my eyelids.

I'd run circles around that bastard.

No sights, but traces of audio. Dialogue in an achingly familiar voice. Thumping music underneath, and the choking laughter I'd tried to make derisive but failed—

"Oh, yeah, Viv. What will WISA put the funding towards? How do you even get sent the money, anyway?"

"WISA has a bank account registered underneath the university. If we need to pay for anything like catering or decorations, we need to submit an itemised budget." Which, tediously enough, often fell to me, the treasurer. "Then they'll either order those goods and services online on WISA's behalf or issue out a temporary debit card if we physically need to purchase the items."

"Fascinating," Krista drawled.

"Isn't it just?"

Jamie cleared his throat and laced his fingers together, pressing his palms into the air. "Ladies, gentlemen. You're about to see magic."

Krista almost jumped at her laptop. "You did not."

"Oh, but I did." With two expert keystrokes, the code executed and spat out a simple webpage, blank except for a pale blue button with the word start.

I didn't really see the hype, but Krista collapsed with relief. "What was the issue?"

"One of your result sizes was 32-bit, but you defined the input as 16-bit."

"Fuck, I knew it would be something small."

Blah blah-blah blah blah, was what I heard, though the comedic amount of gratitude Krista had taken to shovelling upon Jamie still brought a smile to my face.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

I had a Physics exam today. Did not go great, but it's over and I passed the course and now I only have Maths (a.k.a. the vile fiend that is Multivariable Vector Calculus) and Politics to go.

This chapter is setting up the last act of the story, which is also more plot-driven. The first one was character-driven and the second was sex-driven, lmao. Fun fact: it reflects the three stages of Jamie and Viv's relationship: friends, to something messy, to stable partners.

See you there,

Aimee x