Sam, though, didn’t seem to pick up on my self-doubt.
“It’s a position at a private school up in Evanston,” I eventually said. “Teaching art at their high school.”
“That’s fantastic!” Sam’s smile grew. “You’re so talented, Cassie. And you’ve seemed to enjoy art nights with the library kids, right? That school would be lucky to have you.”
“You really think so?”
Sam walked over to Manor House and paused, studying it. “I do,” he confirmed. “Of course, I know more about corporate mergers than I do about art. I admit I don’t know exactly what I’m looking at, but I can tell, just from looking at it, that you know.” He smiled at me. “You are someone with vision, and who is passionate about that vision. Who better to teach young people about something than someone who cares passionately about what they do?”
His words surprised me. Sam had always been supportive of me and my goals, but in a vague, I-love-you-but-I-don’t-really-understand-you kind of way. This might have been the most effusively he’d ever praised my skills in all the years I’d known him.
“Thank you,” I stammered, at a total loss. “That . . . really means a lot to me.”
“If you need to give them references, you can give my name if you like.”
I snorted. “You’re my best friend, not my current employer.”
“The offer stands,” he said, with conviction.
“Thank you, Sam,” I said. “I . . . just, thank you.” And then, without thinking, I added, “I can’t wait to tell Frederick the news.”
Sam looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “I’m sorry. Who can’t you wait to tell? I didn’t quite catch that.”
“Um.” I reached up and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. “Just Frederick.”
Sam was smirking at me now. “Just Frederick, huh?”
“Yes,” I said. “Frederick. My roommate.” Roommates told each other things, right? Why was Sam acting like this?
“Why are you blushing?” Now even Sam’s smirk was smirking.
“What? I’m not blushing. It’s just . . . warm in here.”
Meeting Frederick in person had apparently put Sam’s mind at ease that I wasn’t living with a serial-killer monster. Which was great, of course. Even if a bit ironic, since Frederick was a literal monster.
Only right now it wasn’t so great. Sam was acting the way he did every time I’d ever confessed a crush to him. And that just wasn’t what was going on here.
Or, even if it was what was going on here, it wasn’t like anything was going to come of it.
I rolled my eyes at Sam, my irritation with him growing, then walked over to Scott, hoping that would be the end of this conversation. Fortunately, Scott was looking at his camera, not at me.
“Could I look through the pictures you took?” I asked, trying to ignore how flustered I was. “I’d like to send my application to the show organizers tonight.”
“Sure,” Scott said. He leaned closer to me so I could see his screen, and then gave me a wide, shit-eating grin. “I won’t even give you grief over how much you’re blushing over your roommate while we do it, either.”
* * *
There was a note from Frederick waiting for me on the kitchen table when I got home that afternoon. My heart skipped a beat, and I felt my lips curve into a smile as I unfolded the now familiar sheet of crisp white stationery.
Dear Cassie,
What are your favorite foods?
I haven’t asked my personal question yet today, and I would like this to be today’s question.
Yours,
FJF
This one-personal-question-per-day thing was something new we agreed to try after the night we’d stayed up too late watching Buffy. After he said he wanted to know more about me so he could learn about the modern world, we decided one personal question per day would be a good way to accomplish that.
I knew, on some level at least, that the learning more about the modern world bit was just a ruse we were using to get to know each other better as people. But I tried to shut down that line of thinking whenever it cropped up.
I wasn’t quite ready yet to ponder what that meant was happening between us.
With each subsequent question he asked, though, the truth of what we were doing was getting harder to ignore.
Dear Frederick,
I have a lot of favorite foods! Lasagna, chocolate cake, honey nut cheerios, eggs benedict, and chicken noodle soup are probably the top 5.