Page 45 of Us in Ruins
That couldn’t be right.
The quicksand pit in Margot’s stomach, which was threatening to swallow her whole, begged to differ. She was supposed to be lectured about how foolish it was for her to run off or how irresponsible it was to let her emotions carry her away.
Astrid’s jaw sank halfway to the floor. “You’re joking.”
“Why would I be joking?” Dr. Hunt asked. Every drop of levity in her voice ran dry. “Margot and Chad could have been seriously injured with that statue in such a state of disrepair. They’ll be investigating the structural integrity of all the statues in the gallery so that no one gets hurt.”
Dr. Hunt turned to leave, but Astrid stopped her. “That’s it? Margot broke a Michelangelo.”
“No,” Dr. Hunt said. “The head curator assured me that the statue of Felix was in line for refurbishment and shouldn’t have been on display.”
A thrill ran through Margot. She tried to imagine it from an outsider’s perspective—the head had toppled off the soldier’s head, courtesy of an unnoticed split in the marble, and crashed into the glass case holding the lance on the way down. She hadn’t noticed any security cameras, and no one was going to believe the sole account of the scared-to-death researcher who witnessed the statue’s spree.
For all anyone else knew, Margot and Van had simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
“Thank you, Dr. Hunt,” Margot said. “A few scratches, but we’re fine.”
“She shouldn’t have been there in the first place.” Astrid’s voice pitched higher. Her arms tugged across her chest in a defensive shield. “She was supposed to be helping me with our assignment. I’d like to request a new partner.”
Suki perched on her toes, leaning around Van’s shoulder. “Ooh, if we’re getting new partners, then maybe I could—”
Dr. Hunt cut her off. Her words were a sickle, slicing and definitive. “Okay, Astrid. You want a new partner? You’ll join Mr. Vanderson for the duration of the afternoon.”
Astrid’s face fell into a shade of despair Margot previously believed had been reserved for souls carted across the Styx. “No.”
“Yes.” Dr. Hunt nodded. She rapped a nail against her trusty clipboard. What did she even have clipped to it? “Margot, you can work with Suki. I’ll adjust everyone’s partners, but only for today. Tomorrow, I want the two of you to figure out how to work together. Understood, Miss Ashby?”
“Understood,” Astrid said, but the word came out thin.
Dr. Hunt and her clipboard clapped once and said, “Back to work!”
Van’s hand grazed the skin of Margot’s arm as he slipped something into her palm. Every nerve in her body went on code red. She gulped down the butterflies and unfurled her fingers. The ledger.
He nodded, just once, and Margot knew it meant keep searching.
The audience of prying eyes they’d gathered turned back to their worksheets. Except for Suki, whose forlorn stare followed Van to the other side of the exhibit. It bordered on creepy.
“Snap out of it,” Margot said, waving her hand in front of Suki’s eyes.
“Okay, okay.” Suki had braided her hair in one long stripe, and she toyed with the end of it now. “I just don’t understand why Chad wouldn’t want to be partners with me.”
Margot said, “He prefers to work alone, that’s all.”
In Suki’s defense, Van had a gravitational pull to him, like he was the sun, and everything orbited him. As they paced through the exhibits, with Suki jotting down answers on her worksheet and Margot frantically looking up museums, Margot couldn’t help but register Van’s proximity.
She swore she was trying to focus, but her cell service was painstakingly slow.
And, yeah, maybe there was a twinge of jealousy in her chest when Astrid faced him and whispered something only he could hear. Van stared down at his new partner, hard and long, wearing an expression Margot had never seen on him before.
He pushed his hand through his hair, the gold streaks glinting in the museum’s soft light. Margot’s stomach twisted into knots like a soft pretzel. His eyes cut across the gallery to hers, and she one-eightied so fast, she nearly flattened Suki against the glass.
“Sorry,” she said, flushed and distracted.
Suki glanced down at Margot’s phone. “What have you been working on? Reading more Relics of the Heart fan fiction?”
Like a porcupine, Margot’s spikes went up. “I’m not—”
Suki smiled, and Margot believed it. “It’s cool. My mom loves that book. I’m pretty sure she owns everything Catherine Avery Hannigan has, like, ever written.”