High Test

by Elizabeth Noble

  Hayden nodded. He was grateful when Rick said he wanted to stay with Hayden at his apartment. Being alone was going to accomplish nothing but encourage Hayden to wallow in self-pity and guilt. As tired as he was, it was impossible to sleep much that night. He tossed and turned, going over scene after scene in his mind, trying to work out how things would go when he confessed everything to Neal.

  No matter how hard he tried, all Hayden could focus on was Maeve’s accusations, her spiteful face, and Neal’s rejection.

  THE next morning, Hayden rode with Rick to the university. During the drive he rehearsed to Rick what he would say to Neal and wrote it down. As they pulled into a parking space, Hayden got a call from the financial aid department.

  “What did they want?” Rick asked after Hayden ended the call.

  “One of my grants was apparently funded by the Owens Coffee Company. It gets paid quarterly and is part of the reason I didn’t have to get such large loans. I really worked hard finding ways to pay for my degree here without having a ton of debt when I graduate.” He dropped his hand, still clutching his phone, into his lap. “Lot of good all that planning did me.”

  “Hayden, dude, get a grip. It hasn’t even been a week. You’ll find another job, and the school will help you get the money. There are still loans and other sources.”

  “I have to go meet with someone there. They said I need to start working out a plan for next semester. I’ll see you later.” He left Rick and trudged to the administration offices for his meeting. The feeling of exhaustion and gloom wasn’t something he was able to shake.

  The rest of that day, when he wasn’t in a class, Hayden was stuck in a small office with a woman wearing too much perfume, trying to work out finances that would allow him to stay in school beyond the current semester. On top of all that, he realized he only had one more day until his rent would be overdue. It didn’t take long for him to acquire a pounding headache to go along with his exhaustion.

  At the end of the day, he met Rick, and they walked in silence to the parking lot. He climbed into Rick’s car and leaned back, rubbing his temples. By the time they were on the highway and heading home, Hayden could barely keep his eyes open. He was no further along in fixing his problems than he had been, even though they were the same difficulties he’d had before the party. Everything seemed compounded because now his personal life was heading down the proverbial crapper as well.

  He had two missed calls from Neal, but he couldn’t think straight through the pain of his headache, and he was completely drained of energy. The next days were spent trying to find a job, keep up with his schoolwork as best he could, and finagle a way to stay in school. The woman in the finance department eventually pointed out he could audit some of the classes next semester so he wouldn’t get too far behind, but he needed to pay his tuition to get credit and his degree.

  He’d planned to call Neal the following day, but by the time he had the chance, it was late, and he didn’t want to wake Neal. Hayden felt directionless; he couldn’t concentrate, and every decision seemed too big to make. One day flowed into the next, and Hayden began to feel foolish as well.

  Hayden had honestly missed Neal’s first two calls, but after that he left the calls unanswered, letting them go to voicemail. It became harder and harder to convince himself he still had a chance to make it all right.

  He fell into the habit of replaying the messages simply to hear Neal’s voice. Hayden continually chastised himself for the sadness he heard in Neal’s voice. There was sadness, not anger, yet still Hayden couldn’t bring himself to call back. Hayden was being stupid, and he knew it. The longer he put things off the worse the scenarios his imagination presented until the inertia of hopelessness set in.

  ON the third day after Hayden fled the hotel, Rick showed up at his apartment with two huge duffel bags.

  “What are you doing?” Hayden asked.

  “Did you pay your rent?”

  “You know—”

  “Good. I told the guys I was moving and didn’t give them my part of the rent. They were perturbed but not surprised since I spend as much time here anyway. That’ll cover this month. It’ll give you enough time to find a job, and then we can start looking for another place like we’ve talked about doing for a freaking year ’cause this place is barely big enough for you, let alone us. If you don’t have a job by the end of the month… I don’t know. We’ll figure it out,”

  “If I don’t get a job soon, I’m screwed. To make up the money I need, I have to get a conventional loan, and no one is going to give me that without some sort of income.”

  “Okay, well, according to Steffie if you can’t keep up your rent, your credit will seriously tank. This way you won’t have that issue too. Did you call Neal?”

  “I haven’t had time. I—”

  “You what? Sat around and came up with excuses, that’s what.” Rick shook his head, dropped his bags, and turned to leave. “Coming?”

  Once they were at school Hayden spent the morning in lectures. As class was ending and people were filtering out, the professor called Hayden to his office.

  “You don’t have to sit in the back of the hall and hide simply because you’re having trouble arranging for next semester.”

  Hayden nodded. “Understood.”

  The professor smiled. He was an older man, soft spoken and kind. “Catching up will be difficult if you have to skip a semester, but you’re an incredibly bright and talented student.” He held out a thumb drive. “Here is a copy of my lectures and the work to complete. I realize you may have a new employment schedule that may make it difficult to come to class. You can work on this outside of class if you need to.”

  Hayden took the drive with a shaking hand. “Th-thank you.”

  “I was a student working my way through college once too. Your degree may be postponed a year, but if you keep at it, you’ll make it.” He held out his hand and Hayden shook it before leaving the office.

  Word must have spread through the department, which shouldn’t have surprised Hayden. It wasn’t a huge department. He would be banned from the labs at the end of the semester, so now he concentrated on putting extra time into the practical portions of his classes. His professors agreed to let him audit all the classroom work and provided him with lecture materials if the situation went that far.

  People were pulling for Hayden and trying to assist him in finishing his degree. Hayden began feeling better than he had since sitting down to breakfast with Neal that last morning.

  Every day he had a missed call while he was at school. Hayden was afraid they would stop and equally afraid to get the next one.

  As he left class and began walking to the cafeteria, he pulled out his phone and glanced at it. This day he didn’t have a missed call from Neal, but there were four missed calls from the Riverfront Hotel, with messages.

  The first voicemail was from Nathan. Hayden stopped walking and leaned against a wall. His knees felt weak and his head spun when he heard how distressed Nathan sounded.

  “Mr. Owens, since Mr. Kirchner left your number as an emergency contact for his dogs, I feel it’s all right to communicate with you. There has been an incident, and Marty is in very bad shape. I think Mr. Kirchner needs you.” Nathan left a number that wasn’t on Hayden’s caller ID, and he realized it was likely Nathan’s personal number.

  With trembling fingers—Neal loved those dogs so much—Hayden dialed the number. Nathan answered almost right away.

  “Mr. Owens, thank heavens. Would you be able to come to the hotel? I think Mr. Kirchner could use a friend right now. A very close friend.”

  “I… what happened? I don’t know if he—”

  “Please?” Nathan insisted. “I’m afraid I won’t take no for an answer. Do you need me to send a cab?”

  “Sure. I’m out at the university, so it’ll take me a half hour or so.”

  “A cab will be on the way in a few minutes. Have the front desk call me when you arrive, and I’ll
meet you.” Hayden had twenty dollars cash and dearly hoped that would cover the cab. He’d never used one and had no idea how much they were.

  When Hayden arrived at the hotel, the cab driver told him the fare was prepaid. Nathan was true to his word and didn’t take more than a few minutes to arrive at the reception desk. When Nathan headed toward the elevator, Hayden stopped him and pointed. “The Pet Care Center is that way.”

  “Yes, but Mr. Kirchner had both dogs taken to his suite.”

  Hayden thought that was a little odd if one or both of them were hurt but didn’t question it. He chalked it up to rich people doing things differently. Maybe veterinarians made house calls. When they reached the suite, Nathan used a keycard to open the door and waved Hayden inside.

  The sight Hayden was met with was certainly not what he was expecting, though he hadn’t really known what to expect. Royce was sprawled on the carpet, and Marty was in front of the fire. They both jumped up, tails wagging as they ran to greet him.

  “What?” Hayden turned to Nathan, who shrugged and smiled a bit.

  “Thank you, Nathan.” Neal was standing by the door. He put one hand on the handle and nodded to Nathan. Once the man was out of the suite, Neal closed the door softly. “I’m sorry for the deceit, but I had to talk to you. I think I deserve an explanation, and since you wouldn’t return my calls, Nathan came up with this idea.”

  “You lied about…?”

  Neal raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms in front of him. “Really?”

  Hayden pushed his glasses up his nose and looked down at his feet. “Yeah. Sorry.”

  “First.” Neal crossed to the dining table and held up the envelope Maeve had given him. He turned it so Hayden could see it was still sealed. Holding the envelope in both hands, Neal ripped it in half. He walked to the fireplace and tossed both halves inside.

  “I w-wanted to tell you, and I t-tried so hard to get the words to come out,” Hayden confessed.

  Neal nodded. “I know.”

  “You know?”

  Walking back to the dining table, Neal opened a green file folder. “I knew all along you weren’t the son of Frank and Lilia Owens of The Owens Coffee Company.” He set a photograph on the table. “I was in the Finger Lakes region two years ago for one of their daughters’ wedding. They were enjoying retirement because they’d just sold the company to a conglomerate. It’s pretty apparent now the Owens Coffee Company was intended to be nothing more than a write-off. Frank and Lilia are probably sick over what happened.”

  “You know them?”

  Neal nodded, and Hayden moved to the other side of the table and glanced at the photograph. It showed a nice-looking couple in their sixties. Frank Owens was a bald man with sparkling hazel eyes and a smattering of freckles over his cheeks. The woman beside him had dark hair in a stylish cut and a complexion Hayden would refer to as dark chocolate.

  He pointed to the picture. “That’s Mr. and Mrs. Owens?”

  Neal nodded and gave Hayden a small smile. “It is. So you see, I knew from the start you weren’t one of their children. What I said that day was sort of a joke and maybe a little of me trying to find out if you were one of Frank’s nephews or a cousin or something.” He pulled out one of the chairs and sat down.

  “You’re not angry?”

  Neal drew a deep breath. “I’ll admit to being hurt you didn’t stay and defend yourself, or talk to me about it later, but I understand why you didn’t. When I asked myself if positions had been reversed, how I would’ve reacted twenty years ago, I can’t honestly say I’d have been any different. Then I thought about how you made an effort to let me think we had more or less the same financial standing. All my life I’ve had to wonder if people liked me for me or for my money. Oddly enough, this has proved to me that with you it’s the former.”

  He motioned to the chair Hayden was gripping the back of. Glancing down at his white knuckles, Hayden licked his dry lips and sat down. He lifted his head enough to meet Neal’s gaze and mumbled, “I’m glad your dogs are okay.”

  Neal offered him a small smile. “Most people will set aside many emotions when asked to help with a dog.” He shrugged. “The good people anyway.”

  “You think I’m one of the good people?”

  “You showed up when you thought my dog was hurt. You’ve never asked me for money despite your financial situation, you have no criminal record, and you’ve never missed a day of work at any job you’ve had.”

  “Did you do some sort of background check on me?”

  Neal rolled his eyes. “I might not be heavily involved with the day-to-day operation of The Indian Tea Rose Corporation, but I’m not an idiot, and I do have considerable business knowledge. Of course I did. Anyone in my position would, or is a fool if they don’t.”

  He pulled out the chair opposite Hayden, sat down. From a blue plastic accordion file, he extracted a small stack of papers and set them on the table between them.

  “What’s this?”

  “You feel we can’t date and fall in love since you don’t have enough money. This is my solution,” Neal said.

  “You’re giving me money? I don’t want anyone to give me—”

  “No, I’m not giving you a damn thing. Will you listen, or do you want to run out the door again?”

  “I should’ve never run out like that,” Hayden confessed. “Of course I’ll listen.”

  “First order of business is you’ll need a new job. I understand that’s imperative for purchasing things like books and lab materials, not to mention lunch. I’ve got some pull with the hotel, and Nathan has worked here for something like twenty years. With his recommendation and mine, the hotel will offer you twenty hours a week. It’s a hotel, they always need help with serving and cleaning. If you’re interested, you might be able to help out in the Pet Care Center. I’ll leave you to work out the details with HR.”

  Hayden opened his mouth but didn’t know what to say. He tried doing some mental mathematical calisthenics to figure out if that would cover his expenses.

  “Next,” Neal continued, “is where you’ll live. As I told you before, this suite is mine in exchange for work I did for the hotel. It’s also become necessary for me to travel to Dubai every few weeks. I don’t want to have to leave the boys kenneled so much, so I’ll need someone to stay at my house and care for them. Finding someone trustworthy to do that is a monumental task I simply don’t want to take the time to do. My architectural work I can do remotely. The work I need to be involved in for my family business I can’t.”

  He took a set of keys from the folder and laid them in front of Hayden. “That’s to my house and pickup truck. There is plenty of room for your car in the garage while you restore it.”

  “I don’t….” Hayden wasn’t sure what he wanted to say.

  “When I’m home, you are welcome to live in this suite. When I’m away, I’d like it if you’d stay at my house, keep an eye on things and take care of the boys.”

  “Neal, I—”

  Neal held up one hand. “Let me finish, please.” He took more papers from the folder. “Here is an agreement saying I will cover the remainder of your tuition costs. As with your student loans, six months after you graduate, you’ll begin paying me back at a cost of ten percent of what your student loan payments are. We can reevaluate that after you get a job. In your chosen profession, you have the potential to make a very good living.”

  Hayden stared down at the papers and slowly began reading through them. “Why are you doing this after what I did to you?”

  “You didn’t do anything to me other than confuse and hurt me when you bolted from this room. All couples have arguments, I can deal with that. I believe in paying it forward. I firmly believe in education and its need. Someone paid for me to get an education, I was very lucky. This is my way of paying her back.”

  “Your grandmother?”

  Neal nodded. “We still have something special, you and I, and I don’t want anything as stupid as
who makes how much money to get in the way of that.” He tapped one of the papers. “Oh, and I want a car named after me. It’s right there in article six. You’ll name your first commercial design Kirchner One.”

  Hayden burst out laughing. Neal reached out and took his hand, giving a squeeze. “Hayden, take the money, the job, and the suite. Finish school. There is no reason for you to give up on your dream.”

  “What about us?” Hayden asked. “I’d like to start again.”

  Neal let go of Hayden’s hand and sat back, cocking his head and smiling. “A counteroffer? I’m listening.”

  “Hi, I’m Hayden Owens. No relation to the Owens Coffee Company, though I do love their product.” He stood up and walked around the table, offering Neal his hand.

  “Nice to meet you.” Neal rose to his feet and shook Hayden’s hand. “Sign the papers and we’ll get everything going. I have a lot to do before my next trip to Dubai, and you have schoolwork to keep up with and a new job to settle into. Text me your schedule. There’s a new restaurant I’d like to try, and I was hoping you’d go with me?”

  “I’d love to. I have another question. Did I see your pickup truck in my neighborhood?”

  “Guilty,” Neal said with a laugh and held up one hand. “I wanted to make sure you could get where you needed to go, so I drove around your area a few times a week in case I needed to run into you if you were at a bus stop. It sounds sort of stalkery, but that wasn’t my intent.” He slipped his hands into his pockets. “Do I have a house and dog sitter?”

  Hayden was a little overwhelmed, but the fact was this was a good deal and likely the only way he’d be able to finish school. He picked up a pen sitting on the table and whispered, “Thank you.”

  He signed the papers.

  Chapter Ten

  “CAN I have your apartment?” Rick didn’t normally get so excited, but right now he was practically gushing. “I’m so sick of living with those guys. I should have moved a year ago. They were great in undergrad and during the summers when I stayed here and worked, but now that two of them aren’t in school anymore, it’s getting rough.”