Breaking Point (Drew Ashley 1) (5 page)

It was a statement, not a question. I raised my eyebrows. "It depends."

"On what?"

I shrugged. "I work fast. I might finish before Friday."

"Well, Friday isn't actually very good for me because I'm doing debate that evening."

I'd seen the posters advertising the last debate of the year all over campus. "Are you on the debate team?"

"Yes. I'm team captain."

"I didn't know."

"Well, you can come and watch. I've been getting battered the past few months. Maybe I'll do better if I have a pretty lady cheering me on from the audience."

"Who are you against?" I asked.

"The other Oxford team. We both got to the final. Apparently, this hasn't happened for fifty years, so you get to witness history being made."

"Wow!" I said, laughing. "What's the debate topic?"

"Cultural degradation through universal education."

I nodded like that made any sense to me. "Are you for or against?"

"Both. We argue against for half an hour, and then swap. We can have dinner after if you're not doing anything."

I smiled. "I'm not."

"Great!" Kale smacked a hand on the table and stood up. "I'll let you get back to smiling at the table."

I watched him in amusement as he sauntered away. I had a date with Kale Marshall. Who'da thought?

Chapter 3

I'd been out of the dating game before I ever really got into it, due to meeting Travis so young and dating him for so long. So I was a nervous wreck about my date with Kale. Everyone knows that the antidote to first date jitters is a new pair of shoes, so after church on Sunday, I dragged Jazz and Destiny shopping with me. There was something about having new shoes that just made a girl feel good.

Jazz dropped me and Destiny off at the station afterwards, and we caught a train back to Oxford. Today was one of those days that I wished I could drive, because the quicker we got home, the quicker I'd be able to get back to my thesis. But after doing my driving test eight times, I'd given up. I just had a mental block with driving, after failing my test so many times.

I was settling down to do some work when my phone rang. I groaned when I checked the caller ID and saw that it was Travis. "Hello?"

"Drew?" Travis sounded uncertain.

"Yes?"

"Are you okay?"

I rolled my eyes, wishing he'd just get to the point. He hadn't called me for two months. I knew he hadn't called now just to check I was okay. "What is it, Travis?"

"Well, I just noticed that I've still been giving you money."

I frowned. Travis used to pay ten thousand pounds into my account every month and after we broke up, I'd texted him, telling him to make sure he stopped the payments. "Are you sure, Travis?"

"Yes. I just checked my account. In fact, a payment was made on Friday."

Travis' accusatory tone stung me. He should know me better than to think I would purposely not alert him about the payments. I'd never wanted his ten thousand a month anyway, and I wasn't the kind of person to fight over money.

"I'll go to the bank tomorrow and have it all transferred back to you," I told him. I'd do it online, but I wanted official evidence to prove I'd done it, in case Travis tried to lay any further accusations.

"No it's fine. Keep it. I just wanted to check if you knew about it. I've cancelled the payments now."

"Good." I hung up and tossed my phone aside.

I shoved Travis out of my mind and forced myself to work on my thesis. At the beginning of my PhD, it had seemed like such a long road. I couldn't believe I was just a couple thousand words away from the end of that road. A stupid phone call from Travis wasn't going to distract me now, while I was on the last lap.

I muttered a prayer as I shook Travis out of my head and got back to work. The next few nights were going to be the sleepless kind.

***

On Wednesday afternoon at precisely three fifty-eight, I typed the last word of my thesis. I jumped for joy, then wished I hadn't as a few other students in the library cast me worried glances.

Jazz looked up from the textbook she was scouring for references. Her hair was a pretty comical mass of auburn spirals today. Stress lines creased her forehead. "What?"

"I've finished."

"You've finished the whole thing?" she asked, incredulously.

I nodded, feeling like a huge weight had been lifted.

Jazz looked depressed. "I still have two thousand words to go and I've run out of things to say."

"I've exceeded the word count, but only by a hundred and two words, so I should be fine."

Jazz looked even more dismayed. "Thanks! I feel so inadequate."

"Well, you still have until Monday, don't you?"

She nodded miserably.

"By the way, the dress I ordered you for the Women in Sport Event arrived this morning," I said to cheer her up.

She grunted.

I emailed my work to my supervisor so she could have a quick look and tell me what she thought of it. Then, I started on my bibliography. An hour later, I received a response saying that everything looked okay, so I printed it out and took it home to read. I didn't finish reading and editing until late on Thursday night.

On Friday morning, I skipped over to the campus and submitted my work. I felt almost giddy as I left. I floated all the way home, feeling so free. I was going to do nothing but sleep today.

I smiled happily as I set my alarm to wake me up at half four. Kale's debate was at six.

***

Destiny got home just as I was about to leave. She eyed my Todd Lynn dress and whistled. "Girl, you're gonna knock that boy out."

I patted my hair. "That was kinda the idea." Kale had seen me looking whack far too many times, in my Gym21 uniform. Not tonight.

"It's raining out there. You might want to wear a coat," Destiny informed me.

"Are you kidding?" It was then that I noticed that Destiny was drenched. "I think I'll call a taxi." I was not allowing my hair to get wet after all my hard work teasing it into easy waves.

"Good luck getting a taxi at five twenty on a Friday," Destiny said, disappearing into the kitchen. "Jazz dropped me off, so call her and see if she'll come back."

I called Jazz and thankfully, she hadn't gone too far. I felt bad for making her come back and drive me to the campus, but my hair really couldn't get wet.

"Thanks very much, Jazz," I said, jumping into her car when she arrived.

"No worries. Nice dress," Jazz replied.

"Thanks."

A few minutes later, she pulled up outside the student union where the debate was going to be held. "Have fun with Kale."

"I will."

I hurried into the student union. Thankfully, not much rain hit me. I still had half an hour until the debate started, so I decided to go to Joyce's, a little café within the student union building.

I admired my dress in the glass door of Joyce's Café as I entered. It had a silky grey wrap top and a black skirt. Its beauty was in its simplicity. A few heads turned as I walked to the counter, attracted by the clicking of my heels. I was seriously overdressed for this place.

I scanned the café specials, which were scraggily written in chalk on a blackboard on the wall, then I took my place in the queue. I ordered a white chocolate mocha and chocolate chip cookie when I got to the front. I was going for dinner in a few hours so it wouldn't make sense to eat much.

"Anything else?" the woman that was serving asked.

I wondered if she was Joyce. "No thanks." I took my purse out of my bag, and it fell out of my hands. It opened, of course, but thankfully didn't empty itself out. A few pound coins rolled away and the guy behind me went after them. I bent over to retrieve my wallet and my Bible, which I'd thrown in for good luck, fell out and with it a couple of church leaflets.

The stranger behind me helped me out again. I straightened up as he held out three pound coins and a fistful of Life Church leaflets.

"Here you go," he said. His voice was deep, and had a slight twang to it.

I looked up and my breath caught in my throat as I took in the vision of a man in front of me. It wasn't often that the sight of a man caused me to gape, but this man was gorgeous! "Um, thanks," I mumbled.

I took my money from him, then grabbed my Bible and the leaflets, and stuffed them into my bag. I was holding up the queue. I paid for my drink and cookie and scuttled off to sit in a corner.

I sipped my mocha trying not to think about how embarrassed I was. Dropping my wallet and my Bible when I was dressed to the nines. Goodness gracious!

Someone approached my table. It was the handsome stranger. He was holding a cup of coffee. "May I sit down?" he asked, flashing me a devastating smile.

"Sure."

"Thank you."

His accent jogged my memory. I took a long sip of my mocha, taking a discreet look at him over the rim of the cup. I'd seen him before. He was the guy that had asked about cash machines in Gym21. The guy that I'd seen in the men's changing room and almost lost my emotional balance.

"No flowers today?" he asked.

He remembered me! "I'm afraid not."

He took a mouthful of coffee, his eyes not leaving me. It was an effort not to squirm with insecurity.

"Are you American?" I asked, for want of anything better to say. Of course he was American!

He nodded his dark head. "I take it you're British?"

I laughed, then realised it wasn't a joke. "Um, yes."

I took another sip of my mocha, savouring the sweet chocolaty taste as I studied the man opposite me.

Mr America's skin was a delicious rich cinnamon. Dark brows slanted over brown eyes that gave the impression of seeing through to your soul. His hair was a mass of thick, black waves. I wanted to run my hands through it.

"Are you a student here?" I asked him. If so, he was probably younger than me, unless he was doing a post-grad course.
Please don't let him be too young,
I begged God.

"No. I work here. It's only a three-month contract. I'm too busy to commit to more."

"What do you do?"

"I'm supervising research for the school of journalism. One of their professors is on sick leave."

He was a supervisor? So he was both handsome and intelligent!

"How long have you lived in England?" I asked.

"Three weeks."

"Do you like it?"

"Yeah, but the weather is terrible. That's the only thing that makes me miss home."

Our surroundings seemed to all fade away as I gazed into this man's mesmerising eyes. "Yeah, our weather is pretty unpredictable," I agreed.

"And there's the fact that I can't find any cornbread to buy."

"Cornbread? I've never even tasted cornbread. Is it nice?"

He shrugged a broad shoulder. "It's like anything else. Some people like it, some don't." His eyes dropped to my dress. "You look beautiful. Are you going somewhere?"

I almost melted at the way he said beautiful. "Thanks, I—"

"Drew!"

I snapped out of my handsome man induced daze and looked around. It was Kale. He was grinning as he made his way through the café. "Thanks for coming," he said, removing his mobile phone from his jacket pocket. "I wanted to call you, but I don't have your number."

I guiltily gave Kale my number, then said goodbye to my handsome stranger, and followed Kale into the debate hall.

When the debate started, I was surprised to find that Mr America was on the debate team. That is, the team that Kale was against. And he tore Kale to smithereens! It was painful to watch.

I read his profile in the leaflet I'd been handed at the door. His name was Harvey Lawrence and he had all sorts of letters after his name. He was competing tonight in place of the professor that was off sick. His teammates consisted of the legion of lovelies that I'd seen at the gym the other day, and two girls. Kale's team was ninety per cent girls, and it was obvious that they were slightly distracted by just how attractive their opponents were.

Each team was allowed one professor. The professor on Kale's team had long given up, as had most of Kale's team members. So it was pretty heroic of Kale to keep putting himself forward, although being the captain I supposed he had to.

Needless to say, Harvey's team members were crowned the season's champions, although they were penalised some points for allowing a professor to do most of the arguing. The two girls on Harvey's team were all over him, hugging him. I was disgusted.

I left the hall and went to wait for Kale in Joyce's. He joined me a few minutes later. "You were good," I told him as he sat down.

"Not good enough," he replied with a slight smile. "At least we got to the final."

I nodded my agreement.

Kale leaned forward, sending a hint of woodsy fragrance across the table. "So, where am I taking you tonight?"