Page 41 of Meet Me at the Metro (Gildenhill #1)

41

HOMESICK

E L L I E

T he warmth of Theo’s arms encases me as I stir awake to the sound of my phone vibrating against my nightstand. I slowly unravel from the entanglement of his body and the soft bedsheets, careful not to wake him, as I reach over to see who’s calling.

A FaceTime from Mom lights up the screen, illuminating the darkened room. I tip-toe out of bed and quietly step to the hallway outside before accepting her call.

“ Hey, Mom ,” I groggily answer, rubbing my tired eyes. I scan her warm and familiar face, immediately noticing the dark circles that have developed beneath her aged eyes as they assess me. It doesn’t take me a second to gather that she’s worried. “Everything alright?”

She smiles wanly. “That’s what I called to ask you. I couldn’t fall asleep. Needed to hear your voice.”

My heart aches at her honest confession, and I resonate with it more than I am willing to admit. I’ve missed home so much lately, and her voice is always a gentle reminder of why.

“So are you... alright ?”

I don’t try to bullshit her by giving her a lie I know she’ll be able to detect, so I settle on answering with, “I’m doing okay.”

“And Harvey? How is he doing?”

“He’s doing better.”

It felt like such a relief to be able to say it out loud. After a month of timed, restricted visits to see him in the ICU, he’s finally showing some improvement. We’ve taken rotations in visiting him and ensuring that at least one of us was always there at the hospital during visiting hours. I admire his strength in all this more than I could ever put into words. He’s pulling through, just as Theo said he would, and it felt good to finally see some light at the end of the dark tunnel I’ve felt trapped inside these past few weeks. It helped ease some of my uncertainty.

“They finally got him weaned off of the oxygen. They’re talking about moving him to a step-down unit and everything.”

“That’s so nice to hear,” Mom says, sighing a breath of repose. “Have there been any updates on—well, you know who ?”

I try not to give any physical inclination to the anxiety suddenly working up my heart. “ N-no. They still haven’t found him.”

Her calm disposition quickly crumbles. “Honey.”

“I’m fine, Mom. We’ve all been looking out for each other. None of us go out alone. We—”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better, Ellie. Knowing that you can’t even go out by yourself without the fear of—”

“I’m fine, okay? Just breathe, Mom. Please .”

I hated seeing her so torn up like this and hated even more that I couldn’t tell her that I knew exactly how she felt because doing so would only grow her concern.

“I’m afraid you’re trying to handle way more than you can bear alone.”

“I’m not bearing it alone. I have my friends here. I have Theo. He’s taking such good care of me.”

“I know he is. I know, but ...” She turns her face away from the camera to hide the tears welling in her eyes, and the sight breaks my heart. “I can email your old University—see if you could transfer back and resume classes here.”

“Momma.”

“I want my baby girl home. Home and safe. ”

“I know. I know...” I mutter, “But I want to stay in London . I want to be here for Harvey when he finally gets home, and I want to finish this final semester. I want—”

“To stay with him ,” Mom finishes for me, sniffling.

I rear my head to peek into the bedroom to the subject at hand. Theo’s long, ink-covered limbs ruffle the covers as he begins to stir, and I hope this phone call hasn’t woken him.

“You love him, don’t you?”

I redirect my attention back to our call. “So much.”

“Just promise me one thing, honey,” Mom pleads, and I nod for her to continue. “You’ll let me or your dad know if things start to feel too much. We aren’t mad at you for choosing to stay, and we won’t be angry if you change your mind either.”

“Okay,” I whisper, hating the conflicting emotions weighing down my thoughts. I know I want to stay here to finish out the school term, but I hate that choosing that means choosing not to have my parents near. “I promise I will.”

“We love you.”

“I love you guys more. Try and get some sleep, will you?”

She brushes back the graying strands of her dark hair, lays back against her pillow, and tells me, “I’ll try.”

“Night, Momma.”

“Night, honey.”

I end the call before the despondence in her final words can settle and tip-toe back to bed, placing my phone down against the bedside table. Theo stretches out as I reach my mattress, his arms widening to welcome me back inside them. I crawl back underneath the covers, intertwining my limbs with his as I lay down against his warm chest.

“How much of that did you hear?”

I can feel the smile lifting the corners of his lips as he presses a kiss against my forehead and answers in a deep, gruff voice, “A lot of it.”

I peer up to look at him through the breaks of shadows in the room and sigh. “I was trying not to wake you.”

His chest shakes with a quiet chuckle. “Like I’d not notice your body not being next to mine.”

I enjoy the warmth of his fingertips against my skin as his hands travel along the dip of my lower back.

“Mom’s worried about me. She, umm— said she wants me to come home. ”

Theo’s body tenses, and he’s silent for a long, sustained moment that has me holding my breath in anticipation of his response. “What do you want?”

“I want to stay,” I murmur, and his tight, rigid muscles instantly slacken.

“Did you tell her that?”

“I did, but I feel like such an asshole for it.”

“What for?”

“Because it’s not what she wanted to hear. Because I miss her and Dad so much, but I still want to stay, and I feel so selfish about it.”

“Well, I must be one really selfish bastard then because I want you to stay, too.” Under the moonlight pouring through the small window of my room, I watch as his expression slowly turns serious. “Like, really stay , Nora.”

“ What?”

“Past the year. Past this final semester. You being here...it doesn’t have to end in a few months.”

The alternative he’s introducing has my mind whirring, and immediately, I’m mulling over every obstacle I’d have to overcome for it to be possible.

“I can’t afford to stay here. My parents have already poured out so much to cover my rent for the year.”

“I could set you up with a job at Gullie’s .”

“You’ve thought about this hard, haven’t you?” I tease.

“Of course, I have.”

I bite back my smile. “My classes take up so much of my time, though. I don’t know if I could work as much as needed to keep up with rent.”

“You wouldn’t have to pay rent if you came and lived with me.”

“Theo,” I breathe, heart racing.

“I’m serious, Nora. You’re at my place so much as is. What difference does it make?”

“The difference is that I’d be living with you. Permanently. All the time. You’d have no personal space for yourself if you wanted it.”

He grins roguishly. “That’s music to my ears. ”

“I’m serious,” I reprimand, playfully shoving his chest.

“I am, too. As a fucking heart attack.”

“What about school? The cost of tuition is another thing I’d have to consider, and besides, I don’t even know if they’d accept me for another semester.”

“There are grants I can help you apply for, and you forget that I’ve got connections to the admissions faculty. Remember? ”

He flashes his brows mischievously, and I roll my eyes, unwilling to let him see how much hope he’s flared up inside me. My heart aches for home, but it aches more to know what a future with him could look like outside of all the mess we’ve been dealt.

“You haven’t even spoken to Kimberley since your dinner. I don’t know if she’d be so keen on helping us again.”

“Fair point,” he shrugs, “but I’m sure she’d be more than happy to help her precious baby boy’s best friend.”

“No,” I object, shaking my head. “I’m not using Connor as a game piece in this.”

“Fine,” Theo huffs, looking to the ceiling for answers. After a few beats of quietude, he informs me, “I’ll handle it.”

“You’ll handle it, huh?” I giggle, pulling myself over his body and straddling his hips. I prod his chest and taunt, “You’re a rather persistent thing, Theodore.”

He snatches my finger and playfully nips it with his teeth, making me quietly squeal. “I’m determined to keep waking up to you. Is that such an awful thing?”

“Not awful at all,” I counter, my grin growing wider. Waking up to Theo was the highlight of most of my days— and nights . I relished every morning kiss and craved every midnight hour spent exploring each other’s bodies. “Let me think about it, alright? We still have a few more months left. We don’t have to figure it all out now.”

“Alright,” he grumbles. “But promise me something?”

“ Hmm? ”

“You’ll actually consider it—staying here. Because I swear to you, Nora, I’ll make sure you’re taken care of. You know that, right? ”

He looks so handsome like this when he allows me to see his vulnerable side—the soft one that he keeps tucked away for only me to know.

My fingers stroke back his tousled dark blonde hair as my eyes travel over the intricate tattoos mapped along the taut skin of his biceps and broad shoulders. It doesn’t seem fair for one to be so effortlessly handsome in the way he is—a perfect image of masculine beauty.

As I study him, discerning the raw, unfiltered plea in his sleepy gaze, I can’t find it to answer him with anything other than, “I know you will.”

“ Good ,” he grins, rolling us over until our bodies are flush against the bed again. Theo draws me in, pulling me away from the edge of the bed as he nuzzles his head into the crook of my neck and places a lifetime’s worth of tiny kisses along my skin. “ Sleep, pretty thing .”

However, he doesn’t know how impossible of a request that is for him to make because, after all the words and prospects that’ve been exchanged between the two of us, sleep is the last thing my mind wants to do.

“Well, that’s just fine,” I say, reading off the Chicago the Musical script book held in my hands. “Sign right here, Mr. Hart.”

“Happily and gladly. Happily and gladly,” Connor recites from memory.

“Freely and gladly ,” I correct, chuckling. This is only the fourth time we’ve run through this line, and he still can’t say it right.

“ Ugh!” Connor dramatically throws himself back against the white, plush cushions of his living room couch, his long limbs splayed. “Why do I keep wanting to say happily? It’s freely. Freely and gladly. Freely and gladly. Freely and gladly .”

“Atta boy,” I torment, winking at him. “Fifth time’s a charm.”

“You’re hateful, you know that?”

“I said I’d help you run lines! I didn’t say I’d go easy on you. ”

He shakes his head in dismay, tossing his playbook onto the silk-threaded rug as he rises from the couch and stalks toward the chicly designed kitchen. “I need a caffeine break. Want something?”

“ Coke , please?”

“No Cokes , unfortunately. We’ve got Pepsi Max or Tango .”

“ Pepsi’s fine.”

With two chilled cans in tow, Connor returns, tossing one into my lap as he plops back down on the loveseat beside me.

“Harvey loves these. He’s got a mini fridge full of them back at the flat,” I comment out loud, popping open the tab of my drink. I let the fizz settle before taking a sip.

Connor grins. “Does he?”

“He really does. I’ve been bringing him a few every time I visit him, and he gets as excited as a kid on Christmas morning.”

“It’s the little joys in life, innit? I hate that he can’t do the spring musical anymore.”

“Me too,” I sigh, feeling my gut twist with guilt.

“How was he doing today? Any changes?”

“He looked really good today. Told me he was feeling much better and said the Doctors are saying that his labs are trending down, which is a good thing. They’re hopeful they’ll be able to discharge him home within a week or so. They want to send him home with some oral antibiotics and have him come in for follow-ups to keep a close eye on everything.”

“I’m sure he’s excited to be home again.”

“He is. Poor thing has been stuck in that tiny hospital room for weeks now. Evie’s going crazy not having him at the flat.”

Connor’s eyes widen slightly at the mention of her name. “She doing okay?”

“I think? It’s hard to tell. I’m pretty sure she hides a lot of how she really feels. I think everything that happened that night at the club and with Harvey still has her shaken up, but she won’t dare admit to that.”

“I think she masks a lot of herself,” Connor remarks, distracting himself with the seam of his jeans .

After his statement, an awkward silence settles in the room, and I wonder what my friend’s words could mean. To me, Evie always seemed like an open book, one with bold letters that were clear with its thoughts and intentions. Was Connor aware of something I wasn’t regarding Evie? From the few instances I’ve seen the two of them interact, there was definitely an energy between them, but I couldn’t quite discern it. I wasn’t sure if it was the creation of genuine curiosity at one another’s contradictory personalities or something more.

“Anyways,” Connor blurts. “We should get back to rehearsing lines.”

“ Right ,” I nod. “But before we jump back into the agonizing practice of you forgetting your lines—”

“Arsehole.”

—can I use the restroom?”

“I should tell you no, just for that insult.” He kicks me with his socked foot right before he nods toward the staircase looming behind me. “Upstairs. Second door to your right.”

“Which one’s yours?” I ask as I start making my way up the steps, stopping halfway up them to hang my head over the banister. “That way, I can be sure I’m snooping in the right room.”

“Never telling you.”

“You’re just no fun!”

When I reach the landing of the second story, the hallway leading to the upstairs rooms is painted in a sleek shade of steely gray and accented with pearly white wainscoting. Polished golden decor and abstract artwork hang along the velvety walls. This house screamed elegance and finesse, which surprised me, given how humbly Connor tended to present himself.

Ivory sheets and a tufted, downy duvet catch the corner of my eye from the bedroom at the far end of the hall. It’s a far cry from being excused as the second door on the right, but I approach the room anyway, curiosity getting the best of me.

The evening sun sweeps across the master bedroom as I step through its threshold. I quietly look around, inspecting the t-shaped space for traces of Theo or his dad that might still be left behind. I find them in the framed pictures on what I’m assuming to be Kimberley’s nightstand.

I pick up one of the photographs to get a closer look, smiling as I study the familiar faces beneath the glass. Theo and Connor look young in this picture, no older than twelve. They have massive grins on their chocolate-covered lips as they strike goofy poses before a massively lit Christmas tree. Twinkling lights of amusement rides and London’s nighttime cityscape loom in the background.

They look carefree and happy— so close . I’d do anything to see them like that with each other again.

I set the picture back down, carefully returning it as I grab the next frame. I quickly cover my mouth to stifle my giggles as my eyes roam over the nostalgic photo. It’s an image of Connor, no older than four, sitting in a bathtub full of bubbles. Though, they reach beyond the confines of the tub. They’re scattered in small mountains along the tiled floor and piled atop Connor’s tiny head. He’s even got them assembled like a white-haired beard over his face. He looks ridiculously adorable, and I am definitely going to—

“You find it?”

Connor’s voice completely startles me as it calls from downstairs, and the frame in my hands crashes to the floor. I cringe at the small crack it makes as it meets the carpet. A corner of the frame splits apart, freeing the glass and photograph inside, along with several rectangular pieces of paper stuffed inside.

“Shit.”

I drop to my knees and scramble to pick up the mess I made, working as quickly as I can to fit the broken pieces back together again and gather the small, loose documents.

“Ellie?”

“Y-yeah, I found it. Be down in a minute!”

The dozen or more sheets of paper that were concealed within the decor are the hardest things to gather. There are so many of them that I can barely keep them in my grasp.

I begin stuffing them back inside the frame when I catch a glimpse of the front of one of them. It's a bank deposit slip—as I fan them out in my hands, I realize they all are. My eyes widen when they scroll over the various, large amounts of money scrawled against them.

￡7,000, ￡14,000, ￡5,000, ￡3,500, ￡9,000....

The hefty sums kept coming, and each of the slips was addressed to Kimberley. The strangest part I couldn’t understand was the short range of dates written at the corners of the papers. By a quick glance, there was no more than a six-month window between them all.

I was sure her salary at Gildenhill granted her a profitable income, but I never imagined it could be anything of this abundance. Unless the University was well adept in frequently giving their employees generous bonuses, but considering the recent scandal spreading around campus, I didn’t see that being possib—

Oh, my God .

I tried thinking of all the ways it could make sense but fell short. I couldn’t come up with any rational means for her to acquire that significant amount of money in such a short span of time.

I suck in a shallow breath, rapidly blinking and scanning over the bank documents once more to be sure my eyes weren’t misreading the numbers.

They weren’t. Together, the deposit slips had to total at least ￡40,000 or more.

“What the hell?”

I wanted it all to be a coincidence: finding the deposit slips hidden so inconspicuously within the photo frame, Kim’s close ties with the University, and the news article Connor shared with me only a few months ago...

I draw my phone from my pocket and quickly type in a Google search, hoping that when the results pop up, I’ll have remembered wrong. So many truths have been revealed to me in such a short matter of time these past few weeks. I’m not sure I’m prepared to uncover any more right now, but I suppose I don’t get a say in the matter because the top web search link that pops up is one my eyes have seen before.

Police begin an investigation after ￡50,000 goes missing from Gildenhill University funds account.

I’m uneasy as I hastily read more of the news article .

…Gildenhill University has been rocked by revelations of an embezzlement scheme involving substantial sums of money illicitly withdrawn from tuition funds. The discrepancies surfaced when several departments of the school noticed that projected budgets for student programs and services were mysteriously short of the expected funds. Further examination led to the discovery that a series of transactions, masked as legitimate compensation for extracurricular expenditures, had been processed without proper authorization....

My hands shake as I return my gaze to the bank slips held in my grasp.

They were no coincidence; they were a certainty.

I never even contemplated Kimberley could have such a significant involvement in a fraud that had been haunting Gildenhill for months. All this time, the person responsible was right beneath our noses.

My head snaps toward the hallway outside the bedroom as a stair creaks in the distance. The upstairs remains empty, but another squeak along the steps has me hastily tucking the loose documents into my back pocket and setting the broken photo frame back along the nightstand.

“ Better not be in my room! ”

I bolt off the floor, trying to keep my steps deft and noiseless as I sprint for the bathroom. I reach the doorway just as his feet hit the landing.

“Great porno stash you got under your bed,” I tease, attempting to mask my breathlessness.

“ Mhmm .” Connor hums, rolling his eyes. “You going to come to help me with these lines or stay getting off to my Marvel comics?”

I huff a small laugh and hope it sounds believable enough to conceal the dismay causing my thoughts to run rampant. “Yeah, let’s go.”

It felt wrong to keep this from him, but at the same time, I couldn’t find the nerve to tell him about the papers burning a hole in the back of my jeans.

Connor follows me downstairs, and I work to calm my hammering heartbeat as we sit back against the couch and return our focus to our playbooks, but I can hardly think straight. My mind is screaming, my thoughts scrambling and fighting one another for my attention .

They put me so on edge that the buzz of my phone has me jumping up from the cushion beneath me.

Connor chuckles at my skittishness, utterly oblivious to the gravity behind it. “ Bloody spazz. You alright there?”

“S-sorry. Just give me a second,” I mumble, excusing myself to the house’s entryway as I read the incoming text from Theo.

Heading to campus. You still with Conn-twat?

I can’t even pay the joke any amusement as my trembling fingers type out my response.

Where to? I need to talk to you.

Administration’s office.

My breath hitches at the message, but I try to keep my rising anxiety at bay. However, it feels impossible to do with the revelation suddenly weighing on my chest. For some reason, my gut tells me this runs deeper than some embezzlement scheme.

Something feels very wrong, and I can’t place why.

I don’t hesitate as I reach for my book bag hanging against the coat rack in the foyer and slip out the front door. I don’t have time to warn Connor of my sudden disappearance as I hurry down the city sidewalk. The day is growing dim as the sun sets along the cityscape,but I don’t let the approaching night slow my steps as I bound for the staircase of the underground station emerging ahead.

The need to confess everything to Theo expanded with every swift step my feet took, and when a new text from him rang through, a greater sense of urgency was suddenly humming through me.

What’s up? Are you okay?

It’s about Kim.