The Last Lesson Was Losing Me novel · Chapter 20 of 24
Chapter 20: The Dinner
The Hartley Inn ballroom had round tables and white cloths.
A banner over the stage said FELLOWSHIP IN FORENSIC ACCOUNTING.
Cal stood beside me at the door in a rented gray suit and a tie with small orange crabs on it.
"It's the worst tie in the building," I said.
"I told you I'd wear what you told me to."
"I told you it would be terrible."
"You undersold it," he said, and offered his arm.
Our table was near the stage, between a quiet professor and a man from the bank's charitable foundation.
The man shook my hand warmly and didn't know who I was.
The dean sat at the head table with the committee.
At the other end of the room, under a spotlight, sat Bailey.
She wore a pale yellow dress with her hair loose and curled, and a corsage on her wrist.
The ribbon on it was blue.
A woman beside her leaned over and said something.
Bailey laughed and touched her throat, and she looked exactly like the kind of person you give a fellowship to.
I felt Cal's knee press against mine under the table.
"Breathe," he said.
"I am breathing."
"Do it on purpose."
The dinner was chicken and a long speech about the program's founders.
I ate two bites.
At the end of the speech, the dean stood and tapped a glass.
"Every year the committee reviews the October and April scores together," the dean said.
"This year one candidate's story struck us. She never prepared, she sat the October exam almost by accident, and she placed among the best in the state."
People smiled and turned to look at Bailey.
She put a hand over her heart and shook her head modestly.
"We would like to toast her before the final seat is awarded," the dean said. "Bailey Coburn."
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