I tuck a flyaway strand of hair behind my ear. “Thanks, but I’m not doing the party tonight. I’m actually waiting for Garrison to get here.”

Tess’s grin lights up her face. “Wait, we’re going to meet the boyfriend tonight!” Her knees bounce in excitement and she claps her hands, even with a beer in one.

“I mean…maybe,” I say.

At this point, I’m not sure what will happen. Garrison could arrive in London and then just hop on a plane back to Philly. He didn’t want me going to the airport to pick him up. His words: I’m already inconveniencing you enough. Please just let me get a cab, Willow.

Normally, I would have argued with him, but his voice was so…broken. I don’t want to push him.

Tess sips her beer. “Well, I’ll be excited to see him even from a distance. I can tell you love him a lot, and I may be biased, but I think you have great taste in people.”

I match her smile.

Sheetal steps over in furry boots and a sleek white jumpsuit. “What are you two grinning about?”

“Tess was just saying that I have great taste in people,” I say.

Sheetal narrows her eyes at her girlfriend. “I love how you find a proper way to compliment yourself inside a compliment to someone else. Bloody brilliant.”

Tess smiles wider. “Say that again, but…” She tugs Sheetal onto her lap. “Now.”

Sheetal’s eyes fall into Tess’s. “You’re bloody brilliant.” Their lips meet in a tender kiss, and I look away as the music changes to an EDM song that I recognize. It’s one of Lo’s favorites.

I let out a tense breath.

Sheetal breaks from Tess and frowns. “What’s wrong, Willow?”

“Nothing, really,” I mutter.

They both exchange concerned glances, and then Sheetal says, “You should be celebratin’ like the boss champ you are. We all made the highest marks on our project. And second semester will be even better. Nowhere to go but up.”

We did very well on our marketing project. It was a strange coincidence that we chose an umbrella for our marketing project, and then a month later Netflix dropped the trailer to their new show The Umbrella Academy. I’d already read the comics that the show’s based on, and it seemed like a great opportunity to capitalize on the timing.

So we tied in some of our marketing around the show—and put in a budget of what it would cost to cross-promote with the studio and the actors. Of course, it was all a theoretical scenario. But I was able to put my old teenage skills in editing fan videos to good use, splicing the trailer into an ad. It was fun.

And it worked. The professor was impressed that we thought about our demographic: the superhero-obsessed generation.

Garrison and I already celebrated over Christmas. We read the comics together side-by-side while drinking champagne straight from the bottle.

Cold slices my exposed cheeks, and I zip my jacket higher, trying to block the wind. I shake my head. “I am excited about school,” I tell Sheetal. “I’m just worried about my boyfriend.”