“That’s not a thing,” Miranda reassures her with a withering stare that she doesn’t need to be in the same room as her to know she’s wearing.
“I don’t know, it could be a thing that just got invented.”
“Bianca.”
“Yes?”
“I just got a call from the University of California library system.”
“Okay?” she asks. That’s not unusual. Miranda is one of the top librarians in the state and she’s consulted by the UC Libraries Advisory Structure a lot.
“It was from a friend of mine, one who sat on your interview committee.”
“You had a friend on my interview committee?”
“Bianca, if you don’t stop being this deliberately dense right now, I might actually take back your doctorate.”
“You just said that wasn’t a thing . . .” She trails off, her chest suddenly tight and warm because she knows what’s coming next, she knows what Miranda is about to say and it’s everything she’s worked for her entire adult life and she doesn’t know if she can handle hearing it.
“Bianca. You got the job.”
“Are you . . . are you kidding me right now?”
“Is this something I’d kid about?”
“No, absolutely not, but I . . . are you sure?”
“I’m positive. Congratulations, Dr Dimitriou – when the new academic year begins, you’ll be an employee of the University of California library system! A three-year contract. You did it.”
Holy shit.
Oh God.
This is . . . this is too much.
She barely hears Miranda’s congratulations, and somehow manages to thank her and end the call before her knees start to wobble and she has to lean against the kitchen counter in complete shock.
“B?” Julie asks, taking the phone from her and placing it safely on the kitchen table. “Is everything okay?”
“I got the job,” Bianca whispers. “The UC library job, I got it.”
The shout of joy that Julie lets out has Xavier running in from the bedroom, Amelia hot on his heels, but when Bianca catches sight of him over Julie’s shoulder in the hug she’s been yanked into, his expression softens from panic to something else . . .
“Um, everything okay?”
Julie pulls back, scooping up Amelia who was rubbing against her ankles, and Bianca grins at him. “I got the job.”
He’s across the room in just a couple of strides, pulling her into another hug. Being in his arms again, even after just a few minutes away, is so perfect. Too perfect, but she doesn’t pull away. She deserves this. She inhales deeply, pulling in the scent of his soap and the hint of cologne still left at the end of the day, feels the soft cotton of his t-shirt against her cheek and revels in the firm planes of his chest and thighs as he holds her to him.
Safe. Wanted. Loved.
It’s all still there, just like the other night, and even in this moment, when all of her dreams are literally coming true, there’s something overpowering about it.
“I had no doubt.”
“I did,” she says, not quite ready to let him go yet, but knowing she has to.
“Well, that was stupid,” he says, finally stepping away, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans, clearly unsure what to do with them.
