Lia was at her desk when I came in, laptop opened with a paper in progress, and when she looked up and saw me her whole face changed.
She was out of her chair before I'd said a word and she hugged me tightly. I sighed, hugging her back, feeling the relief of seeing her and being back in this room.. with the fairy lights on even in the daytime, the succulent on the windowsill with its mildly distressed clay face. All of it exactly the same. And all of it I had almost lost.
She jumped excitedly when I handed her the pastries I’d brought and I watched her set them down on her nightstand. Then she turned to me.
"Tell me everything," she said, her eyes bright.
I was glad she didn’t say anything about me going right back to Zane after we’d just had a whole ethics board meeting with the univ
