Bay also looked at me with curiosity.

“About a year?”

I wasn’t sure... Maybe even longer?

“A year and you both don’t know who each other’s real personalities are?” Larissa looked at me blankly. “I think it’s about time you met him.”

“I can’t,” I confessed nervously.

“I know, you want to know what he looks like beforehand, okay...”

It was nice not to have to lie when she finished my sentences for me.

It wasn’t about his looks, but about the fact that I liked the way things were right now.

“We already know that he might play football here. We could go to a game.”

It wasn’t a bad idea, but who had mentioned we?

“The season for that is coming to an end,” Bay replied to her friend.

“A training session then.”

“Too obvious,” I said and Bay nodded in agreement.

“Mh...”

Larissa should stop worrying about my private life. But how could I make her understand?

“Honestly, if I wanted to find out if someone was taking a sport, I’d just look through the team list in the student records. Maybe then, you could determine by process of elimination who from the list could be Erik.”

Bayla made it sound so easy.

“I can’t get to the digital files...”

Larissa looked at me, and I shrugged my arms. Then she looked at Bay, and the latter raised her head.

Bay’s smile disappeared.

“No,” she said, shaking her head.

Larissa’s grin widened again. “It was your idea.”

“Over my dead body.”

“You lost the bet.”

“You’ll get your twenty dollars!”

“But I don’t want your mother’s money.”

“Then you’re out of luck.”

Larissa jumped up from the desk and knelt down in front of Bay’s bed.

“Come on,” she said, “we’ve done so little lately.”

Guilt automatically spread across Bayla’s face.

This was definitely not what I’d meant when I’d advised Larissa to talk to Bayla in our business English seminar.

“Please, please.”

Larissa’s puppy eyes were stage-ready.

Bayla seemed to be thinking.

“Okay... This one time,” she finally said warningly.

“Oh my God, I knew you couldn’t keep your nose out of such exciting things!”

Had they honestly just gone over my head and decided to look for Erik’s sports record? I couldn’t believe it.

“Where are the files stored at Vanderwood?” Larissa asked.

“In Professor Copeland’s office...” I began, but realized in mid-sentence that I shouldn’t have said that.

Bayla looked at me urgently when the name Copeland came up.

“Perfect! Then we’ll look there.”

Before I could warn Larissa, someone else appeared in the room.

“Where are you going to look for what?”

Grace was standing in the doorway. When I saw what she was holding in her arms, I forgot all my problems for a moment.

“In a café...” I stuttered.

Grace walked over to my bed, sat down and placed the little tuft of golden fur on my white blanket. It had its eyes closed and was sleeping peacefully.

“Is that a puppy?” Bayla sounded confused.

Larissa laughed. “What do you think? That this is what a kitten looks like?”

“Possibly,” Bayla said, annoyed, and Larissa rolled her eyes.

“Kittens are small, naked and ugly,” Larissa whispered and came over to the bed. “Oh, how cute.”