Page 21 of Take Care, Taylor

“Oh wow!” A pretty brunette smiled at me. She had sleek, straight hair that fell to her elbows, and her tight-clinging floral dress looked like it belonged on the front cover ofVogue.

“I’m Stacey, Taylor’s girlfriend!” She extended her hand. “And you are?”

“Audrey.” I shook her hand out of politeness, but I refused to introduce myself as this man’s roommate. “I’m one of the scholars in the program.”

“Oh, well, cool!” She beamed. “Hopefully, you can convince him to give up his spot to someone else before this thing starts next week.”

I arched a brow.

“Come on!” She patted my shoulder like we were friends. “I’m sure everyone else in the cohort is gossiping about it.”

“I haven’t met anyone else yet.”

“Well, whenever you do, you’ll hear about it.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’ll have to wait on his roommate to try to—Oh! Audrey, youarehis roommate. I’m sorry I didn’t catch that.”

“She was trying to be dramatic as hell about it…” Taylor muttered.

“I’ve heard a lot about you over the years.” She was completely oblivious to the awkwardness surrounding her. “It’s kind of cool that you’re coming full circle, especially after being Taylor’s little bully for so long, huh?”

“I’m sorry, his littlewhat?”

“Bully.” She smiled.

That word hit harder than I expected. Like everything he’d done to me never happened.

“You bullied him so much that he still talks about how badly you hurt him back then,” she said. “I think you even made him cry a few times.”

Liar.I glared at Taylor, and he glared right back at me.

“But hey,” Stacey was still talking. “That was then and this is now. It’s all water under the bridge, right?”

We said nothing.

“I need to go check on something,” was all I could say.

“It was a pleasure meeting you, and I look forward to getting to know you more,” she said. “I’m sure Taylor feels the same.”

“Oh, I’m sure…” I stormed out of the suite, hoping I would wake up from thisTwilight Zone-themed nightmare.

“Good afternoon, Miss.” A woman in all red greeted me the moment I stepped into the admissions office. “How may I help you this afternoon?”

“I’m having a personal crisis and an extreme emergency.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Miss Parker.” She frowned, motioning for me to step forward. “What’s wrong?”

“Well, I—” I blinked. “Wait a minute. How do you know my name already?”

“I know all the program attendees’ names.” She smiled. “I studied everyone’s social media after we sent out the acceptance letters, and I bet I could tell you what your status was four years ago to this day.”

I blinked.

“‘Audrey Parker at 3:26 p.m.—Is it legal for a therapist to quit on you in the middle of a session? Asking for a friend.’” She clapped. “Want to give me a random date so I can recite another?”

“No.” I shook my head. “I would like you to assign me a new roommate. Now.”

“Our system selects people at random,” she said. “It’s pretty effin’ good at matching people, and you signed off on that policy when you agreed to come here.”

“That was before I knew that I would be randomly assigned to an asshole,” I said. “I’m not working or sharing an apartment with Taylor Wolff.”