That afternoon, I sat at my desk with my practice problems open in front of me and stared at them for a long time. I read the same question three times and still had no idea what it was asking, not because I could not understand it, but because each time, before I could finish, those words came back.
My girl.
I set my pencil down, picked it up again, and wrote two lines of formulas on the paper. A few lines in, I realized the very first step was wrong. The mistake was small, but I stared at it for a long time, suddenly exhausted, my mind stuck in the same place it had been since I saw that reply last night.
Someone knocked twice.
When I turned around, Neil was standing in the doorway. His eyes went first to the workbook on my desk, then back to my face.
“Are you studying,” he asked, “
