“I’m not proud of myself!” she spat back in frustration.

“I don’t understand, Liz. I said from the beginning what this was. There are going to be aspects of the situation that you don’t like. You can’t go off and try to get fucked by some frat boy every time you get your feelings hurt,” he growled.

“I wasn’t trying to get fucked, all right?” she cried. “Justin is just a friend from school. He helps me at the paper.”

“Every guy at that fucking school wants to have sex with you. Every one.”

Liz ground her teeth in frustration. “You don’t know that.”

“I do, and you should too,” he said.

“Whatever. I’m drunk and sick and totally fucked up right now. I don’t need to be lectured,” she said, throwing his words back at him.

“You’re mouthy when you’re drunk,” he said, the words coming off more enticing than she expected.

“I’m always mouthy,” she said, flopping back on her bed. Big mistake. The world spun.

“Do I need to come over there and find that out firsthand?”

“Yes,” she said. She wanted nothing more than to see Brady, even if she was still angry with him. “Make up for staring at me like you didn’t know me by coming over and fucking me like you do.”

“Liz,” he said with a sigh, “are you going to be all right?” He lost the cocky tone for that briefest period of time, and the fire left her body. She felt sick to her stomach. Tears from the shock of the incident and her experience with Brady welled in her eyes, and she tried to blink them away.

“Yeah. Can I have some forewarning next time I’m not supposed to exist?” she asked weakly.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” he responded sincerely. It was more than she ever expected. She didn’t know why, but she suspected it took a lot for someone like Brady Maxwell to apologize.

It seemed she owed him one in return. “I’m sorry I overreacted.”

Liz stared up at the ceiling and tried to get it to stop spinning. Brady sighed into the phone, and she wondered if he was still mad at her.

“Can I see you soon?” he asked, answering her thoughts.

“Tonight?” she whispered.

He sighed like he was debating. “All right.”

Liz broke into a smile. Tonight.

Twenty minutes later, Brady Maxwell was in her house…in her bed…stroking her hair and coaxing her to sleep. He planted kisses on her cheeks and hair and shoulders and held her close to him. It was like a dream all over again.

Liz called Justin the next morning to check up on him. His parents had bailed him out of jail, but they were livid and he couldn’t really talk much. She had apologized for what had happened, especially since she had been the reason he had gotten behind the wheel, but he had said he was equally at fault. He was on the same Morehead scholarship that she was on, and she couldn’t imagine what it would be like to lose that, especially as an out-of-state student. She knew there were strict policies about alcohol-related infractions.

Over a week after the event, Victoria called. Liz panicked when she saw her phone buzz. She had never called Victoria back after she had ignored the call at the lake!

“Vickie,” Liz said with a smile. Victoria seriously hated the nickname Hayden had given her, and Liz liked it even more for that.

“If you call me that one more fucking time, I swear by all things holy…I will kill you,” she said pleasantly.

“I’ll take that into consideration.”

“So, where have you been, bitch? Can’t return my calls?” Victoria asked.

“I’ve been busy, and it’s not like you’ve tried to reach out to me again. Has your postcoital bliss finally worn off?” Liz asked with a smile. She didn’t realize until then how much she missed Victoria always being around.

“Hardly. I made a slight error in judgment, that’s all.”

Uh-oh! “A slight error in judgment? Care to elaborate?”

“I’d hate to hurt those sensitive virginal ears,” she said with a cackle.

“Oh, shove it up your ass, Vickie.” Liz had been having nearly as much sex as Victoria typically did…soooo…

“Well, he did. That’s part of the problem.”

“Oh my God! You’re insane,” Liz said, her eyes wide.

“Don’t be such a prude, Liz. It was just a threesome.”

Liz shook her head. “Do I even want to know what happened after that?”

“Well, the professor I was seeing last semester is the professor for the TA I was with…”

“Victoria. You’re serious?”

“I’m an equal opportunity offender. Anyway, we were in the TA’s office going about our business, and the professor walked in. Lapse of judgment.”

Liz burst out laughing. “You were having a threesome in the TA’s office, and the other guy you were sleeping with walked in? Fuckkkk! Only you!”

“Anyway, long story short, I think I’ve worn out the History department for a while.”

Liz clutched at her sides as the laughter rolled off of her. She had never met anyone else like Victoria.

“So, I’ll be flying into Raleigh-Durham on Wednesday. Come pick me up, bitch!”

And that was how Liz ended up driving into Raleigh after class on Wednesday. Victoria walked through the sliding glass doors at the airport looking as gorgeous as ever in a flouncy cream top, pale pink skinny jeans, and electric blue platform heels. Her long, dark hair was in big curls, and her eyes were covered in heavy makeup. She carried an oversize hobo bag in a soft light brown leather and rolled a sleek suitcase behind her.

Victoria placed her bag in the backseat and dropped into the passenger seat. “Hey, bitch! I’ve missed you!”

Liz rolled her eyes and smiled. “Missed you too.”

“I need a drink. Let’s go to a pub,” she said, sighing as she looked out the window.

“There aren’t pubs in the States, Vic. You probably need to detox for a couple weeks.”

“God I haven’t been in the lab in so long,” she said, tilting her head back. “I’m dying to get back to work.”

That was what Liz loved about Victoria: Under all the drama and ridiculousness was a brilliant, beautiful mind. She never thought that someone who cussed like a sailor and dressed like a superstar would be interested in being a lab researcher in genetics and dreamed of isolating genes to reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s.

“Lunch instead of booze?” Liz suggested. Victoria nodded and they headed back into Chapel Hill.

Liz parked and they walked across the street to the second-story restaurant Top of the Hill. They were seated at a high top table on the outdoor balcony overlooking the Franklin and Columbia intersection that Justin had blown through the night of his DUI.

Victoria accepted water instead of beer, and they both ordered lunch. The weather was hot, but they had an umbrella to shade them from the sun. It was nice hanging out with Victoria again. Liz had spent half her summer at the newspaper and with Brady. She needed some girl time, time to kick back and relax.

“So, did you do anything other than the TA the whole time you were there?” Liz asked, leaning back into her chair.

“Yeah. We took a weekend and went to Paris. I should have taken more time to see the rest of Europe, but his bed was really comfortable.”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Did you like London, at least?”

“Oh, yeah! I loved it. My kind of city…busy, busy, busy. Hot guys everywhere, all with accents, who like to dance. Surreal life over there. We should go back together sometime.”

“Sounds fun.”

“What about you? Anything fun? I see you have a tan. That’s new. I didn’t think vampires came out during daylight.”

“Ha. Ha,” Liz said dryly. “I don’t work all the time.”

Victoria tilted her sunglasses down so she could stare at her.

“Okay, fine. I’ve been working the whole time, but I’ve been playing tennis, and I even went to a frat party with Justin.”

Victoria wrinkled her nose. “Why the eff would you do that?”