Could Not Afford It
The smell roused the scruples of a passing housekeeper. Setting aside the broom in her hand, she felt
the urge to discuss it with a co-worker with whom she was close.
“I noticed it yesterday… I supposed it was perfume, but the scent was much too strong for that, so
much so that I was starting to think it less like perfume and more like poison…”
Horrified by the implications of their own conjecture, the pair exchanged grim looks as they fell into a
synchronous silence.
Meanwhile, without rhyme or reason, Wendy stared at her phone and felt the impetus to make another
call.
Only that this time, she was greeted with a reminder from a female machine voice about her unpaid
bills.
Things had gotten so bad at present that she could not even afford to pay for her own phone usage.
Never in her life had Wendy ever been this hard up before. Her only hope was for Cecilia to snap out of
her stupor, initiate contact, and then settle this problem for her in a timely manner.
Elsewhere, Donovan was in an inexorable mood.
He kicked himself for not getting a grasp of the situation before he lobbied Selena, for the latter did dole
out the punishment except that it was against Wendy.
As much as he did give up on Wendy, he nevertheless felt the pinch from it. As among the few of them,
Wendy had been the most consistently excellent one in terms of individual academic performance or
otherwise.
With one of his graduating criteria being to successfully guide at least three students into Maxwell
University, the loss of Wendy was tantamount to an inability to lock in one of those slots. How could he
possibly not be bummed about this?
However, there was no undoing what was done. It was pointless to rue over it.
Just then, a call came through from Noah.
“Hello, Mr. Noah…”
“I’ve great news. San has just arrived at school. Ms. Selena told me that she’ll be making inquiries on
my behalf and will furnish us with San’s contact details if she’s amenable to helping you.”
Donovan’s eyes spontaneously brightened up.
“Do you really mean it?”
“Why would I lie to you? I heard that San’s quite generous with her time and so I fully expect that she’d
meet with us in short order, barring any unforeseen circumstances. You’d best prepare yourself well
and decide on a restaurant in advance.”
“Got it. No worries. I’ll see to it right away!”
Donovan did a little cavort when he hung up. With the cloud he had over him before lifted, he
enthusiastically went about looking into the finest dining spots in the vicinity.
Though there were many eateries within Maxwell University itself, San was no ordinary guest. Hence,
after being gripped by a brief sequence of indecision, Donovan lined up his options according to pricing
and settled for the most extravagant revolving restaurant available.
That extremely classy diner that sat at the roost of the highest building in Lightspring boasted
spectacular views all around and mandated a minimum spending of eight thousand per pax.
Now that reservations had been made, Donovan went back in front of his computer to refine the parts
of his thesis that he could complete on his own.
Once that was sorted out, all that was left for him to do was to put on the finishing touches by
illustrating his points using solutions for elementary mathematics and further mathematics problems.
There in, his thesis would be made perfect.
The part that made him feel conflicted was that both of the examples cited within the dissertation he
authored himself actually did not originate with him.
One of them was based on a solution Arielle had penned during the opening exams, and the other was
conceived by her inside the auditorium.
The fact that both of those examples were proposed by Arielle made him inexplicably self-conscious.
Donovan tried hard to suppress the shame he felt while he notified his students to convene at his dorm
for lessons in half an hour via the chat group.
Factoring in the addition of an interview segment, I’ve to figure out a way to dramatically improve my
students’ presentation skills in the shortest time possible.
Of course, Trisha had long been ousted from this group, but Wendy was still in it.
Although Donovan knew Wendy was out of contention and had lost every chance to undertake the
exams, he had to keep up the charade. Allowing Wendy to come back to class and pretending that she
was still in with a shout was his way of avoiding having her kick up a fuss.
When all the students arrived, Donovan discovered that Terry, now the most promising in the group
with Wendy gone, was conspicuously absent.
“Where’s Terry?” Donovan asked with a frown.
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