Off the Record (Record #1)(56)

And that was how Liz ended up driving into Raleigh after class on Wednesday. Victoria walked through the sliding glass doors at the airport looking as gorgeous as ever in a flouncy cream top, pale pink skinny jeans, and electric blue platform heels. Her long, dark hair was in big curls, and her eyes were covered in heavy makeup. She carried an oversize hobo bag in a soft light brown leather and rolled a sleek suitcase behind her.

Victoria placed her bag in the backseat and dropped into the passenger seat. “Hey, bitch! I’ve missed you!”

Liz rolled her eyes and smiled. “Missed you too.”

“I need a drink. Let’s go to a pub,” she said, sighing as she looked out the window.

“There aren’t pubs in the States, Vic. You probably need to detox for a couple weeks.”

“God I haven’t been in the lab in so long,” she said, tilting her head back. “I’m dying to get back to work.”

That was what Liz loved about Victoria: Under all the drama and ridiculousness was a brilliant, beautiful mind. She never thought that someone who cussed like a sailor and dressed like a superstar would be interested in being a lab researcher in genetics and dreamed of isolating genes to reverse the effects of Alzheimer’s.

“Lunch instead of booze?” Liz suggested. Victoria nodded and they headed back into Chapel Hill.

Liz parked and they walked across the street to the second-story restaurant Top of the Hill. They were seated at a high top table on the outdoor balcony overlooking the Franklin and Columbia intersection that Justin had blown through the night of his DUI.

Victoria accepted water instead of beer, and they both ordered lunch. The weather was hot, but they had an umbrella to shade them from the sun. It was nice hanging out with Victoria again. Liz had spent half her summer at the newspaper and with Brady. She needed some girl time, time to kick back and relax.

“So, did you do anything other than the TA the whole time you were there?” Liz asked, leaning back into her chair.

“Yeah. We took a weekend and went to Paris. I should have taken more time to see the rest of Europe, but his bed was really comfortable.”

Liz rolled her eyes. “Did you like London, at least?”

“Oh, yeah! I loved it. My kind of city…busy, busy, busy. Hot guys everywhere, all with accents, who like to dance. Surreal life over there. We should go back together sometime.”

“Sounds fun.”

“What about you? Anything fun? I see you have a tan. That’s new. I didn’t think vampires came out during daylight.”

“Ha. Ha,” Liz said dryly. “I don’t work all the time.”

Victoria tilted her sunglasses down so she could stare at her.

“Okay, fine. I’ve been working the whole time, but I’ve been playing tennis, and I even went to a frat party with Justin.”

Victoria wrinkled her nose. “Why the eff would you do that?”

Liz shrugged. “Desperate for company?” She couldn’t tell her the real reason. “I got trashed and he drove me home…”

“Did you sleep with AV Justin?” Victoria asked, her eyes going wide.

“What? No! Have some faith in my taste for once, Vickie!”

“Oh my God, stop calling me that!” she cried.

Liz laughed, loving how much it irritated her. “Actually, he ran a red light and then was arrested for DUI.”

“Shit!”

“Yeah, it was a rough night.”

“Well, at least you did something interesting instead of following around politicians.”

Liz choked on her drink and coughed a few times to clear her throat. Oh how true that assessment of her was.

“What about that guy you were crushing on? Have you talked to him?” Victoria asked, tapping her manicured finger to her lip. “Gah, what was his name?”

Liz knew who she was talking about. It certainly couldn’t be Brady, because she had never spoken about him with anyone. It had to be Hayden Lane. A trickle of doubt formed in her stomach when she thought about him. It felt a little strange to feel bad that she missed him.

She liked what she had going on with Brady. It made her a bit antsy and uncomfortable at times…especially when she had thought he had been with someone else. But she really liked being with him. Then why at the thought of Hayden did her insides squirm?

She hadn’t heard from him since the emails at the beginning of the summer session, and she didn’t know whether he had even thought about her. Actually, she didn’t even know whether she was still going to visit him.

Her life felt so removed from what it had been last semester, and she kind of liked it that way. She liked that Brady consumed her thoughts and that she got to look forward to every moment they shared together. With Hayden it was more complicated on some level. At least with Brady she knew where she stood.

“Hayden?” Liz finally offered when it didn’t seem that Victoria was going to be able to place his name. She could remember entire DNA structures of a thousand different plants and animals, but names…who needed to remember names?

“Right! Hayden Lane. Have you talked to him? He was going somewhere else for the summer, right?”

“Yeah, he has an internship in D.C., but I haven’t really heard from him. He emailed me some work stuff at the beginning of the summer, and we talked about me coming to visit, but I doubt that’s happening anymore.”