Read His for Now (His #2) for Free Online Page A

disagreed.  I’d always thought it was brave of Mina to make the choice she had.
    “Hey you!” she chirped.  “ I thought of you today and decided it’s been way too long since we’ve had a catch-up session.  I’d ask you to go for coffee but lately I can’t even get out the front door without the kiddo having a screaming fit or spitting up on me, ugh.  So phone call it is!”
    “Mina!  It’s so good to hear your voice!  How are things?  How’s the baby?” I asked. 
    “Fantastic!” she replied a little too cheerfully.  “Crawling already…will probably be walking before long.  It’s exhausting!”
    “Wow, crawling?  Has it really been that long since we’ve talked?”
    “I guess so …crazy, huh?  Time goes by so fast…and yet other times it just seems to drag!  How are you?  How’s your love life?  How’s work?  Please, let me live vicariously through you!” she laughed as she bombarded me with questions.
    I guessed spending all day changing diapers, reciting nursery rhymes and following an active baby around the house wasn’t all that glamorous.  In an effort to make Mina feel better, I replied, “Workplace hierarchies suck and don’t even ask about my love life – it’s a mess!”
    “Ooh, so there is someone special in your life?”
    “No.  I dated Mark briefly,” I informed her somewhat sheepishly.
    “Oh.  Like, Mark -Mark? Don’t take this the wrong way, but…why?”
    I snickered.  “I’ve been wondering the same thing.  Let’s just write it off as bad judgment on my part, okay?  Speaking of bad judgment, after Mark there was…someone else.”  I hadn’t talked to anyone about Hayden and I found myself wanting to confide in Mina.  Maybe it would be good to talk through all the drama with someone.
    “Details, I need details!” Mina insisted.  Lowering her voice to a cons piratorial level, she asked, “Was he tall, dark, rich and handsome?” 
    Hesitatingly, I admitted, “Actually, yes.  But he’s also a complete jackass,” I added quickly.  “He might also be mentally unbalanced, I don’t know.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s over between us.”  I already knew that, of course, but saying the words aloud made it seem so terribly final.  Inexplicably, it pained me.
    “Boo, guys suck,” Mina grumbled.  “Or at least they did back when I was actually dating.  Ugh.  I love my kid to death but sometimes I miss those days of being a student hanging out on campus all day and partying all night, you know?”
    I didn’t know, but I murmured something that indicated agreement.  As I thought back to our days in grad school, I remembered something.  “Hey Mina, this is a random question but didn’t you work part-time in the administration office one semester?” I asked.  “You helped with payroll or something, right?”
    “Yeah, I did.  It was completely boring but it paid pretty decently for part-time work.  Why?”
    Pausing, I considered how much I wanted to tell her.  I wasn’t keen on admitting I’d been snooping through Mark’s emails, but at this point I figured I’d just lay it all out there.  It wasn’t as though it really mattered anyway – as it turned out, Mark and I would likely both be out of a job by the end of the semester.  Now I was mostly just curious.
    “Can you think of any reason why Mark would have confidential information from the accounting department in his email inbox?” I asked.  “It was like…charts with expense claims and the annual budget and some other stuff.  I don’t know exactly.  Is there any reason a sessional instructor would be sent that type of stuff?”
    “What?  No, absolutely not,” Mina replied immediately.  “The college has super strict policies about that sort of thing.  Even though I worked on payroll there were some things that even I wasn’t allowed to access…although that didn’t always stop me because my boss was lazy and had me do her work for her.  But