The Ten-Year Game Plan

Chapter 29- Josie

I spent most of Friday morning staring at the sign-up screen for the LSAT. The next test was over winter break and I got all the way to the check out screen when I paused.

At the start of the day, it seemed like a good time as any to make life-altering decisions, but something stopped me— a tightness in my chest. I'd been putting it off for weeks, knowing that once I took the test it meant that I was ready for the next step. Whatever that meant. Wherever it took me. But the test could also tell me that I wasn't cut out for law school. It could tell me that I wasn't able to go where I wanted or do what I wanted. A good score meant a good school. A good school meant a good job. A good job meant making a difference.

No pressure or anything. Just a test that decides the next forty years of my life.

Donovan: I'll be there in ten, Fish. Ready to be convinced?

Well, hell. What's one more life-altering moment on a Friday afternoon? Loosing a deep breath, I pressed the final button and stared at the confirmation page until there was a knock on the door. A similar tightness, one that sank a little lower in my belly, distracted me from Cam's sudden appearance in the living room.

"Are you going to answer that?" she asked with an amused look at my face.

"I signed up for the LSAT," I blurted out, "I'm going to take it in December."

"Oh, um," she glanced toward the door, "okay? Yay?"

"Yay," I repeated.

She furrowed her brow, waiting for some other type of reaction but I wasn't sure how to act. Donovan was waiting at the door while the confirmation screen still lingered on my laptop. Cam sat down next to me on the couch. Another knock at the door sounded, but neither of us moved.

"Which one do you want to talk about?"

"Huh?"

"Well," Cam began, "do you want to talk about the test you just signed up for or the guy waiting for you at the door?"

My eyes widened, something finally coming loose in my brain. Probably my last brain cell. I jumped up from the couch regardless.

"What the hell am I supposed to do? It's Donovan! He knew me when I had braces! Braces, Cam! A few weeks ago I couldn't stand him, and now what am I supposed to do? I don't even know how to act. It's Donovan."

"First of all," my best friend began, "everyone had braces so I don't think that's a good argument. Second of all, yeah... but he's Donovan."

I don't know why and I don't know how, but her reasoning made sense. His name had such strange effects on me in such opposite directions.

Doing my best to forget my minor panic attack, I opened the door and forgot why I was even panicking in the first place. Clad in a tight black t-shirt, jeans, and a backward ball cap pressing his curls down Donovan stood flipping his key around his finger.

Fuck my mouth for watering. Honestly, fuck all men and their ability to look good with such minimal effort. And fuck Donovan especially. 

But when his dimple appeared on his cheek as he grinned at me, I took it back.

"Ready, Fish?"

I rolled my eyes. "You've gotta stop calling me that."

He reached his hand out for mine.

"Get a new last name then."

For some reason, when he said it this time and when I put my hand in his, it meant something different.