Rachel set down her bags and twirled around, arms outstretched. “We have a window seat! And a spiral staircase! Tell me this isn’t your dream room.”
“It does feel like something out of a fantasy novel. Like we’re princesses in a tower—”
Nina broke off awkwardly, and Rachel pretended not to notice. It just didn’t feel right, joking about being a princess when you’d once dated a prince.
“Although the bathroom situation is less than ideal,” Nina went on in an upbeat tone. Their room occupied the third floor; the nearest ladies’ room was three stories down, on the ground level. Apparently whoever built the turret hadn’t installed indoor plumbing.
“Totally worth it,” Rachel insisted. “Besides, think of how fantastic you’ll look in your jeans from going up and down the stairs so often.”
Nina suppressed a smile. She didn’t actually mind the stairs; she was just grateful to be living with her friends. After all the drama of last year, she could use a fresh start.
Rachel seemed to be thinking along the same lines, because she lowered her voice and asked, “So, have you talked to Ethan or Jeff yet?”
“You know Ethan’s in Malaysia,” Nina said quickly, ignoring the second half of Rachel’s question.
She and Ethan hadn’t spoken for most of the summer. When he’d finally reached out, Nina had felt a pleasant warmth at the sight of his incoming call—and that was it. Not the giddy rush of excitement she’d once felt at the prospect of talking to Ethan.
She may have forgiven him—she knew Ethan was a good person, despite what he’d done to her—but she didn’t want to date him again.
Last year, Ethan had started flirting with Nina at Daphne’s request, to help keep Nina away from Jeff. Even though Ethan had begun to care about her for real, Nina couldn’t get over the way it had all started. She expected such manipulative behavior from Daphne, but not from Ethan.
When Ethan had explained his plans to go abroad, Nina had told him she was glad for him. She hoped he got what he wanted out of this, whatever it was: adventure, perspective, a fresh start.
She and Rachel turned as the door swung open to admit their third roommate, Jayne Chu.
“Look what I found at the bookstore,” Jayne announced, unrolling a poster for the new Pride and Prejudice remake. Nina laughed, but Rachel was vehemently shaking her head.
“No way. We can’t have Mr. Darcy hanging in our common room!”
“What do you have against Darcy?” Jayne climbed onto the couch and held the poster against the wall, leaning back to check the placement.
Rachel reached for the edge of the poster and tugged at it. “When people come over here for parties, I want them to see something sophisticated. Like a black-and-white photo. Or something vintage! Not some random Victorian dude in tights.”
“He’s Edwardian, and they’re hose, thank you very much.”
Nina started rolling her suitcase into the larger of the bedrooms, the one that contained two twin beds, but Jayne interrupted. “Nina—Rachel and I talked about it, and we think you should take the single.”
Nina glanced over in surprise. “Are you sure?”
Rachel let go of the Darcy poster and its edge furled up, so that only half of Darcy’s waistcoat was visible. “Definitely. I’d get claustrophobia in a room that small. Why did they build it in the first place?”
“For the valet,” Nina said, unthinking. When her friends both looked at her, she shrugged. “Back when King’s College was for men only, aristocrats brought their menservants to school with them, to…I don’t know, do their laundry and fasten their cuff links.”
Rachel snorted. “By all means, if you feel like doing my laundry, go for it.”
The three of them peered into the tiny second bedroom, which barely fit a twin bed and narrow set of shelving. There wasn’t even a window.
“It’s perfect,” Nina declared.
“Great, it’s all yours.” Rachel grabbed Nina’s bag from the common room and rolled it through the doorway. “Now can we please get lunch? I’m starving.”
As they started outside, Nina caught sight of the enormous bronze lions at the front of Edwards Hall, which housed the university’s main offices. Her steps slowed. “I need to drop something off at the registrar,” she told her roommates. “I’ll catch up with you inside.”
“We’ll save a spot for you,” Jayne promised.
It was cool inside Edwards Hall, the walls lined with somber portraits of men in academic robes. Honestly, it felt a little like being in the palace. Nina started toward the registrar’s office.
“Nina?”
She froze. This couldn’t be happening.
“Jeff. Hi,” she said clumsily.
Nina had known that Jefferson was starting at King’s College now that his gap year was over, but she hadn’t expected to run into him. After all, there were thousands of other students on this campus.
Apparently, she wasn’t that lucky.
The prince shifted his weight. “Um, how have you—”
“I’ve been—”
Nina gestured for the prince to go ahead, and he swallowed. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, Nina. How are things?”
“I’m good,” she said carefully.
It was surreal, seeing Jeff after everything that had happened. Nina had known him since they were children, had spent years loving him in secret, then dated him in secret…only to date his best friend after she and Jeff broke up.
Now, finally, Nina was single again. And she intended to stay that way.
“I’m just dropping something off at the registrar,” she went on, not sure why she was explaining herself, except to prove that she hadn’t followed him here.
“Are you switching majors or something?” Jeff asked, and she shook her head.
“I need departmental approval for this seminar that I’m taking.”
“Really? Why?”
Nina felt a bit sheepish as she replied, “It’s a graduate course on Gothic literature.”
The prince laughed. “Why am I not surprised.”
“It meets in the basement of the library!” Nina hadn’t even known there were classrooms down there, and she knew the library better than most.
“And you want to take a class that meets in the basement.” There was a note of good-natured teasing in Jeff’s voice that reminded her of how things used to be, back when they had simply been friends. It gave Nina the courage to keep their conversation going.