The Learning Curves Omnibus Read online

  Learning Curves

  A First Edition Omnibus

  Ceillie Simkiss

  Contents

  Consolidated Content Notes

  Learning Curves

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  The Final Interview

  The Final Interview: A Short Story

  Wrapped Up In You

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  The Ghosts of Halloween

  Halloween Past

  Halloween Present

  Halloween Future

  The Wedding

  The Wedding

  Afterword

  About the Author

  For Corey, who will always be in my heart and memory.

  Consolidated Content Notes

  This is intended to help people be as comfortable as they can when reading these stories, and if that’s not necessary for you, that’s fine! If you believe that content notes are spoilers, I advise that you ignore this section.

  Learning Curves:

  Learning Curves contains: mentions of homophobia, mentions of aphobia, worries about and mentions of ableism, discussion of food and cooking, family members showing up unannounced, and an on page panic attack.

  Wrapped Up In You

  Wrapped Up In You contains a lot of food and the eating of it, and Christmas celebrations.

  The Ghosts of Halloween

  The Ghosts of Halloween contains: an on page panic attack from the POV character in Present, discussion of pregnancy between two cisgender women in Future

  The Final Interview

  It contains pre-job interview anxiety from the POV character.

  If there are other content notes that you believe should be applied to any of the stories in this omnibus please send me an email at [email protected] and it can be added to this list.

  Cover Artist: Les Solot

  Elena Mendez has always been career-first; with only two semesters of law school to go, her dream of working as a family lawyer for children is finally within reach. She can’t afford distractions. She doesn’t have time for love.

  * * *

  And she has no idea how much her life will change, the day she lends her notes to Cora McLaughlin.

  * * *

  A freelance writer and MBA student, Cora is just as career-driven as Elena. But over weeks in the library together, they discover that as strong as they are apart, they’re stronger together. Through snowstorms and stolen moments, through loneliness and companionship, the two learn they can weather anything as long as they have each other–even a surprise visit from Elena’s family.

  * * *

  From solitude to sweetness, there’s nothing like falling in love. College may be strict…but when it comes to love, Cora and Elena are ahead of the learning curve.

  Original copyright © 2018 by Ceillie Simkiss

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Chapter 1

  Fluorescent lights bounced off of the whitewashed cinder block walls in the hallway of the Bryan Building. It seemed excessively bright compared to the matte gray that stretched across Greensboro’s skyline as it did on most October mornings, and Elena found herself squinting a little.

  Her head was full of thoughts of the business law class she’d just left, and she was operating mostly on autopilot when an unfamiliar voice said her name.

  “Hey, Elena, right?”

  Elena turned, taking care not to knock her large bag into the other people in the hallway. She found a short, slim woman at her elbow looking at her nervously. The other woman was familiar, but Elena wasn’t quite sure where she knew her from.

  As she stared at the woman wearing a long-sleeved flannel shirt-dress while other graduate students flowed around them in the hallway, something clicked in Elena’s head — this was one of the girls from her business law class.

  “Yeah. You’re Cora, right?” Elena mentally crossed her fingers, hoping that was her name. Seeing her nod, Elena continued. “What’s up?”

  “I’ve noticed you always do really well on the quizzes and stuff. How good are your notes?” She ran a hand through her blonde hair, nearly shaved on the sides, but with a small pompadour of tight curls on the top, pink tingeing her freckled cheeks. She was the kind of girl who Elena would have guessed to be queer on first glance, between the flannel and undercut.

  “Pretty good, why?”

  “I, um, kind of hyperfocused on James singing to himself in the back of class today and couldn’t keep up with class at the same time. Is there any way you could email me your notes? Or I could copy them from you, or-”

  Elena cut her off with a short wave. Cora’s entire face was bright red now. There was no reason to make her suffer any more embarrassment, especially in a crowded college hallway full of their classmates.

  “I take all my notes on my laptop. I can email them to you. What’s your email address?”

  Cora’s face lit up, showing off her slightly crooked teeth. Elena couldn’t keep a matching one from spreading across her own face. Cora handed over a folded sheet of notebook paper with her email address written on it in clear block letters, which Elena folded and tucked into the large purse she carried.

  “I’ll send them to you when I get to lunch in a few minutes. James is a terrible singer, and I don’t think he knows.” Elena rolled her eyes in commiseration. James was one of her fellow law students, and she had purposely sat as far away from him as possible in the thirty person classroom. “All of our other professors have banned him from singing in class, but I guess Doctor Burgess hasn’t noticed yet or just doesn’t care.”

  “Ugh,” she moaned. “It’s the worst. I wish I hadn’t sat next to him, even if that seat did have the best light. Priorities, right?”

  Cora widened her eyes and grimaced in an expression that Elena found strangely adorable.

  “I’m ADHD and even with meds, stuff like that can really screw me on a bad day,” Cora continued. She rubbed her fingers through the short-cropped hair in front of her ear. Her expression turned rueful.

  “That’s probably more than you needed to know about the girl begging for your notes. I’ll let you get to lunch. I know they keep you law kids on a really tight schedule. Thank you again for the notes, Elena. I really appreciate it.”

  “It’s not a problem. We all have bad days,” Elena said reassuringly. “You should have an email from me within the hour.”

  “Thank you thank you thank you!” She began to walk away, then turned and waved goodbye. Elena’s heart skipped a beat.

  Walking across the campus to the dining hall, Elena found herself wondering why she hadn’t ever talked to the girl before. She was the kind of girl whose aesthetic Elena loved, and she seemed really nice. Then she remembered — she didn’t really talk to anybody in the class, except when required. Cora hadn't been wrong about the law students being incredibly busy, and most of Elena’s classmates were problematic at best.

  Business law was one of the hardest classes to get into at the university they attended. It was a required class for both business and law graduate students at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. There were never enough sections of it offered for the number of students who had to take it. There were barely enough seats in the classroom for every
one who needed to be in it.

  However, it was also one of the only classes that didn’t have group projects, which was a relief. Group projects were only helpful if you were a slacker because you could figure out who usually did the work. Elena was usually that person and thus hated group work.

  Elena slotted herself into one of the cafeteria chairs that had been designed for much slimmer people than she was. Chairs with molded arms always were. Settling in, she pulled out her laptop and closed the extraneous programs to get to her email.

  With a flash of brilliance as she checked her notes for spelling errors, she remembered that there was a free seat on the far side of her self-assigned desk in the classroom. Elena smoothed down the Puerto Rican flag sticker that covered the area next to her laptop’s trackpad. Smiling, she typed out an email, attaching the notes.

  To: Cora ([email protected]);

  From: Elena ([email protected]);

  Subject: Bus Law Notes

  Hey, Cora,

  This is Elena from Business Law with the notes you asked for. Hope these are helpful for you. Let me know if there’s any shorthand in here that doesn’t make sense, and I’ll try and translate it to you.

  I remembered as I sat down that there’s a free seat next to me by the door, from when that greasy kid dropped out of the program. James is always noisy, so if you wanted to start sitting there, I wouldn’t mind. I’d love to get to know you better.

  Sincerely,

  Elena

  Gnawing her lower lip, Elena stared at the email for a few moments, wondering if the last sentence was too forward. Shaking her head at herself, she hit send. Cora would want to be friends or not - Elena being too forward in an email wouldn’t change anything but how long it took them to figure it out. She wondered if being forward was even a thing people worried about anymore.

  Elena took a deep breath in through her nose and remembered how hungry she was. Dining hall food was no comparison to the homemade food she’d grown up making and eating, but it would do for a working lunch. Elena slid her laptop back into her bag and made her way towards the food, her heart thumping slightly at the idea of making a new friend.

  By the time the next class rolled around, Elena had almost forgotten that she’d told Cora about the empty seat. The much shorter girl had already set up her laptop in the seat directly between Elena’s usual seat and the wall. And… there was a clear plastic cup of iced coffee sitting on Elena’s desk?

  “Is someone sitting there?” Elena asked quietly, blinking several times in rapid succession.

  “Oh, hey!” Cora jumped a little in her seat, her cheeks coloring a little in clear embarrassment.

  “No, no one’s sitting there. Um, that’s for you? I used to work as a barista and noticed that you bring mocha frappucinos to class a lot, so I wanted to thank you.”

  “Oh!” Elena made a sound of surprise and set her bag on the ground. “I didn’t realize you’d been watching me so carefully. I didn’t have a chance to get coffee this morning, so this is perfect! Thanks so much!”

  “You’re welcome. Your color-coded notes were the only reason I know most of the stuff that’s gonna be on the test this week.” Cora’s cheeks turned an even deeper pink, making her freckles stand out. “I’m hoping that sitting over here will be a game changer for me. I’ve been struggling with James’ singing under his breath all semester and I didn’t realize this seat had opened up.”

  “I think the kid who sat here dropped out entirely last week? I don’t even know his name. Either way, I promise there won’t be any singing,” Elena laughed lightly. “Dr. Burgess also teaches a couple of my other classes, and my notes are probably the only reasons I’ve passed them all so far. She’s a hardass, but she’s a great teacher.”

  “She seems like it. I’m in the MBA program, so the law aspect is less critical for me to know offhand, but it’s really interesting, as weird as that sounds.”

  “That doesn’t sound weird at all!” Elena smiled back, glad to know that someone other than her found joy in different aspects of the law. “The law is really intricate and specific, which is why I love it.”

  She looked like she wanted to say more, but Dr. Burgess swept in and slammed the door of the classroom. The professor threw her purse on the desk at the front of the classroom, and Elena and Cora exchanged wide-eyed glances.

  The entire class sat up just a little bit straighter, and aside from the noises of breathing and shuffling, was absolutely silent.

  “Hello, class.” Dr. Burgess huffed. “Take out a pen and some paper. Pop quiz time.”

  The class groaned in unison before moving to take out something to write with and on. Elena wondered what had bit her to get her in such a mood today.

  Cora had been typing furiously on her laptop, and Elena felt her phone buzz in her blazer pocket. While pulling out her notebook and setting herself up for the quiz, Elena checked her phone and saw an email.

  To: Elena

  From: Cora

  I like your flag sticker. Want to get lunch later? Here’s my number. (336) 555-5555

  Elena glanced sideways at Cora. She guessed she hadn’t been too forward last week. Catching Cora’s eye, she nodded, and the other girl’s entire face lit up. Elena’s heart skipped a beat again, and she couldn’t help but smile back.

  Elena had just closed the door behind herself in her apartment when she felt her phone vibrate in the pocket of her maxi skirt. She pulled it out to find a picture of her mother on the screen.

  It was a photo that radiated joy - a huge smile on Maria’s wide brown face, with her head thrown back and the summer sun glinting off of her forehead. It was one of Elena’s favorites.

  She tossed her keys into a bowl on the short dark wood bookshelf by the door, set her backpack down next to it, and swiped to answer the phone call

  “Hola Mamá,” she sang into the phone. “How are you today?”

  “Well, somebody is cheerful,” Maria laughed. “Cómo estás, mija?”

  “I’m good, Mamá! Something crawled up Doctor Burgess’s butt today, and we had a really difficult pop quiz, but otherwise, it’s a pretty good day. I actually had lunch with a classmate.”

  “A classmate, eh?” She could hear her mother’s thick eyebrows rising to her hairline despite the distance between them. “Is it a girl?”

  Elena felt a blush rise to her cheeks. “Maaaaaybe?”

  “Oh, a girl! How delightful. What is her name? Tell me all about her!”

  She could hear Maria settling into her favorite armchair, and could picture her resting her chin in one hand, her elbow on the arm of the chair, and the phone in her other hand. She was in full on gossip mode, and Elena couldn’t help but laugh.

  “I’ve only talked to her twice! I don’t know that much about her yet.”

  “Well, you haven’t even told me her name yet, mija! Surely you know that much?”

  Elena rolled her eyes.

  “Her name is Cora, Mamá. Give me a second to strip and then I’ll spill all the details.”

  As soon as the words left her mouth she realized her mistake. Before she could correct herself, her mother’s voice went stricken.

  “Elena Maria! Where are you that you are stripping? Do you need more money? It is too cold for that!”

  “No, Mamá, I didn’t actually mean stripping! I just meant taking off my coat and things! I just got home and it’s warm in here.”

  “Oh. Well, anyway, tell me about this girl as soon as you have stripped.”

  Maria could apparently sense the eye roll that was impending.

  “Do not roll your eyes at me, young lady! I may not be present but I am still your mother!”

  Now Elena had to roll her eyes as she kicked off the wedge heels she’d worn to class. They made a satisfying thunk against the wall and Elena sighed.

  “While I’m getting undressed, why don’t you tell me about your day? What’s going on with you?”

  “Ah, a little bit of this, a little b
it of that. I went grocery shopping today, and the eggs were so expensive! Almost $2 for a dozen! Es ridículo, no?”

  She shook her head. That was significantly more expensive than usual for October.

  “That really is ridiculous. Where were you shopping? Did you go to Whole Foods again?”

  “No! Well, yes, I did go to Whole Foods. They have the lactose-free ice cream your Papi likes. But I was looking at eggs at Aldi on…. Randleman Road, I think? The usual one on the less expensive side of town.”

  “I see,” Elena said, pulling her sweater over her head. The collar caught on her helix piercing and she winced. Her mother continued.

  “And of course I had to buy them! I cannot cook without eggs, now can I? Your Papi needs his breakfast whether it is expensive or not. But why are they expensive? Did all the chickens stop laying or something?”

  “I don’t know, Mamá. But I’m glad you got the eggs for Papi. I’m sure he will appreciate them.”

  “Bah, it is my job. If I sent him to the store, we would come home with all organic foods every time, half of them made of granola. And two of everything!”

  Elena laughed. She knew it was true. If she sent her father to the store for one very specific item, he would come back with two or three “for later” or the organic version, if it existed.