In Too Hard (Freshman Roommates Trilogy, Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

the desk and handed me a key chain with a key card and two keys on it. “This one is for the building. And this one for my office. You have to use the key card if you enter the building when it’s locked and you use the key. When you enter and leave. They need to know who’s in the building in case of a fire or something.”
    I nodded, holding my hand open under his. He placed the keys on my palm. “The building is going to be open during regular office hours. I guess because of all the front end testing stuff?”
    “Right,” I said.
    “But I’m guessing they’ll be locked up on weekends and on actual Christmas and New Year’s days, so…the key and key card.”
    “Got it.” I wrapped my hand around the keys and put them in the front pocket of my jeans.
    “Not that I’m saying you have to work weekends or anything. Again, you make your own schedule, I just want the job done before the end of next semester, so I can start digging in as soon as I’m done and back in New York.”
    “That’s fine. But my next shift at the admin building isn’t until Monday morning, so I had planned on getting started today and working this weekend.”
    “That’s great. Oh, you mean, starting…today?”
    I nodded. “Right after you leave.”
    He looked around at the boxes and it seemed like panic crossed his face. “Umm…yeah…well.”
    I grabbed his bulging satchel from the top of his desk and handed it to him. He numbly took it, looking at it like it was a foreign object.
    “You’re going to miss your train,” I said. I grabbed his leather jacket from the coatrack in the corner by the door, and handed it to him. “You need to go.” I pulled his arm, the warmth of him seeping through the fleece he wore.
    “Right. Right,” he said, moving to the door, but still looking around like he was leaving his newborn baby with a first-time sitter.
    And perhaps that was exactly what he was doing.
    I opened the door and gently pushed him out into the hallway. He was looking beyond me, back into his office, at his boxes. Then he focused on me, his eyes almost pleading.
    I placed my hand on top of his, still clutching his jacket. “I’ll take care of it,” I said. He just stared at me, his face unreadable.
    “I’ll take care of them ,” I added, meaning his precious characters.
    He took a deep breath and nodded, sensing I got how important the little people in the boxes were to him.
    “Thank you,” he whispered, then turned and walked down the hall.
    I watched him walk away (who wouldn’t enjoy that view!), waiting for him to turn around and come back to look at his babies once more.
    But he didn’t. He kept walking down the hall, turning at the stairwell.
    I returned to his office, shut and locked the door, pulled off my North Face, and set about organizing Billy Montrose’s next great novel.

 
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
    M y phone dinged with a text, pulling me out of my Montrose’s notes-induced haze. I was sitting on the floor of his office, one box’s contents forming a circle around my crossed legs. Reaching for my phone, which was in the pocket of my jacket, I tried not to mess up my various piles.
    You still there? A text from Montrose.
    I looked at the time—nine at night. God, I’d been here working for almost nine hours. I vaguely remembered going down the hall to the ladies’ room once, and pulling a Diet Coke from my backpack, but other than that, I hadn’t moved much from my spot on the floor.
    Yes , I texted back.
    Have you gone back to your room and come back, or have you been there the entire time?
    The entire time.
    Jesus. You’ve got five months, you know.
    I thought I’d just get a start on organizing the different boxes. Putting the boxes in order by the dates on your notes.
    And? That should have taken you a few hours, tops. He texted when I didn’t type anything further.
    And…I got sucked in.
    Tell me about it , he responded.
    My thumbs were poised over my phone, but I wasn’t sure