Chapter 23: Twenty-One Thousand and One

Keith's POV

On Monday at nine the bursar's office smelled of toner and bad coffee.

I stood in the corridor with my hands in my pockets, because Nessa had asked me not to come in.

Through the glass I watched the bursar slide a cashier's check across the counter.

It was made out to Nessa Colby for twenty-one thousand dollars.

She read it twice.

She did not smile, and her shoulders came down a full inch.

Then the elevator opened behind me, and Calvin stepped out in yesterday's shirt.

He had not slept.

He did not look at me.

He walked to the glass door, pushed it open, and stopped in front of her.

"Nessa," he said.

He had been saying it since Saturday, awkwardly.

She turned.

"I brought this," Calvin said.

He held out a folded sheet of lab notebook paper, and a dollar bill clipped to the corner.

I could read the pencil line from where I stood.

I, Calvin Saltonstall, owe Nessa Colby $21,000, payable in March with interest.

"It said with interest," he said. "I didn't know what the interest was, so I made it a dollar. I know that's stupid."

She took the paper.

She unclipped the dollar, folded it into her wallet, and crossed out the word March with the bursar's pen.

Over it, she wrote: Monday.

"That's the first time you've paid me back," she said. "Thank you."

Calvin nodded, over and over, and then he turned and walked down the corridor, and the elevator took him.

Nessa came out and stood next to me.

"Don't say anything," she said.

"I wasn't going to."

"You were watching."

"I was standing, in a hallway, near you."

She almost laughed.

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