Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“So, as for your list, I refuse to believe you’re having any trouble with your classes. You ace everything, and the semester started two weeks ago,” Harper stated before shoving the last of her wrap into her mouth. “Research?”
“Fine. Nothing much to report yet. I’m still refining my thesis.”
“Job?”
Luke slumped on the bench and frowned at the remains of his wrap. What he’d eaten was already turning in his stomach. “I’ve got Burger Hut four nights a week, and I’m working four nights a week at Sinful Soaps stocking shelves, sweeping, and doing general cleanup and prep for the next day.”
“First off, you know I’m pretty good at math.” She leaned close enough to bump Luke’s shoulder. “Finance major and all.”
“Uh-huh.”
“But that adds up to eight nights a week, and last I checked, there are still only seven days in a week.”
Luke rolled his eyes. “I don’t have any classes on Friday, so I work a double starting in the early afternoon into the evening at Burger Hut, then head to Sinful Soaps.” And even with that, he wasn’t making enough to get by. His scholarship didn’t cover all his class and book costs, which were outrageous. Plus the cost of living in the quaint town of Rookborough was through the fucking roof. He needed to find a third job during the day on the weekends, but his plan had been to catch up on his schoolwork and sleep those two days.
A person didn’t need that much sleep, right?
“I’m afraid to ask how the housing situation is going…” Harper balled up her empty wrapper and dropped it into the paper bag before grabbing the fries.
Luke forced himself to eat the last two bites of his wrap and added the paper to Harper’s bag. “Still surfing Jacob’s couch, but I think tonight’s the last night for that. I overheard his roommate bitching about me while I was brushing my teeth this morning, and I don’t want to put Jacob in the awkward position of having to kick me out.”
“No apartments with roommates?”
He groaned. “You mean like the mixed-media artist I shared an apartment with, who I caught cutting off little pieces of my hair in the middle of the night to use for his next project? Or the health nut who thought because I was gay, I must spend all my time at the gym working on my perfect ass and abs? Or maybe the asshole who thought I would be his live-in maid since the apartment was in his name, only to find out that we weren’t splitting the rent fifty-fifty, but more like seventy-thirty because he was doing me a favor by sharing with me?”
“Yeah,” Harper drawled. “You have the worst luck in finding roommates. And school just started. I wish I could help…”
He waved off her comment. There was no way she could help. Yes, her parents were paying for her education, but they were making her pay for her own room and board, which meant she was sharing an apartment with three other women. Nothing could convince him to surf on that couch. If he was desperate, there were park benches, homeless shelters, and he thought he’d worked out a hidden spot in the library where no one ventured that he could sleep in for a few undisturbed hours.
“I’ll figure something out,” he said, his mind already distracted by the trio of crows that had settled on the back of the wooden bench across from them. They’d been watching him and Harper for several minutes now, their heads cocking this way and that, as if they could understand their conversation.
“Have you noticed that this campus seems to have a lot of ravens?” Harper asked in a low voice, as if she were afraid of the birds overhearing her. “Like, way more than normal.”
“First off, those aren’t ravens. You can tell by the lack of a hook in the beak. These are American crows, and I wouldn’t say there are more than normal. There are a lot of food scraps to be scavenged on campus because of the students. This is a very easy place for them to feed,” Luke murmured. He put his cell phone into his pocket and began digging in his bag.
“Don’t you think they’re creepy?”
“Not at all. Crows are among the smartest birds in the world. It’s Hollywood that has been determined to make them harbingers of evil and death. Bunch of nonsense. Did you know crows have made and used tools? They can recognize human faces and can even hold a grudge.”
“Lovely. It isn’t bad enough that humans can hold a grudge?”
“They also mate for life.”
Harper huffed. “Okay, that part’s romantic at least. Do you think they’d take a fry?” She held one up as if she were about to throw it to the trio still watching them.