Jordan rolls over and beholds the peaceful, sleeping face of Ellie Wagner. A bar of pale winter light falls across her cheekbone. Her full lips are parted, and he overcomes the urge to kiss them. He barely slept at all last night—it’s a single bed, and Ellie kept stealing the covers—but he should let her get her rest. Because when she wakes up, he has a favor to ask, and she isn’t going to like it.
He sits up and rubs his eyes. Beside him, Ellie moans a little and snuggles deeper into the covers. He slips out of bed and pads over to the window. It’s another gray March day.
Will Ellie do it? That’s what matters.
He pulls on clothes, shoes, and a coat, and slips out the door. He’ll surprise her with Starbucks. Then he’ll ask.
When he gets back to his dorm room half an hour later, Ellie is sitting at his desk, wearing his tattered robe. He bends down to give her a kiss as he hands her the coffee. “That looks good on you,” he says.
She holds up a floppy, pilled sleeve. “Please. Try ridiculous.”
“You pull it off,” he insists. Ellie looks pretty in anything. But as he learned last night, she looks best naked.
She takes a grateful sip of coffee. “Thank you.” Then she narrows her eyes at him. “Why are you staring at me like that?”
“I have a favor to ask you,” he says.
“Okay. Yes,” she says. “Sure.”
“Don’t you want to know what it is first?”
She shrugs. “I’m assuming it’s not, like, to write your Abnormal Psych paper.”
“Not that,” he says. When he tells her what he wants her to do, though, her entire demeanor changes.
“You want me to impersonate a doctor on the phone to try to get access to someone’s medical records? Jordan, that’s wrong on so many levels I don’t even know what to say.” Her voice is shocked. Incredulous. Angry.
“I know it’s illegal,” he pleads. “But remember what you said the night we met? The laws of physics aren’t like human laws, because human laws are decisions. I’m telling you that while this might not be legal, it’s the morally and ethically correct thing to do,” he says. “I wouldn’t ask it otherwise.”
Ellie shakes her head at him as she pulls on her clothing. “I honestly can’t believe you’re trying to use that argument on me.”
“But human laws aren’t perfect—”
“But you still get in trouble for breaking them! And I happen to think that a person’s right to the privacy of their medical records is an excellent law.”
“Ellie, I’m just trying to help her.”
“Because you’re clearly obsessed with that girl,” she says. “And honestly, Jordan, it’s more than weird. It’s kind of crazy.”
Then the door slams, and Jordan is alone. We don’t say crazy, he thinks.