The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback (Astra and Zayne) novel Chapter 205

The Girl I Left Behind

ASTRA ISLA

“If you change that figure again, I’m sending the report back,” I told Matthew.

He looked up from the other side of my desk. “It came directly from Finance.”

“And Finance has sent three different projections in two days, so that isn’t exactly reassuring.”

His attention shifted to the spreadsheet open on my monitor. “Use the latest one.”

“I would if it made sense.”

I turned the screen toward him and pointed to the figures that had been irritating me for the better part of an hour.

“They increased projected revenue by eleven percent without making the same adjustment to customer growth or operating costs. Unless your company has discovered a revolutionary new way of making money appear out of thin air, someone forgot to update the assumptions.”

Matthew leaned over the desk to take a closer look.

It took him less than thirty seconds.

“I’ll call Finance.”

“Thank you.”

He straightened and left my office, taking the offending spreadsheet problem with him.

Eight years ago, spreadsheets had intimidated the hell out of me. Now people brought broken ones into my office and expected me to tell them what was wrong.

Life had a strange sense of humor.

I finished the sections that didn’t depend on Finance, highlighted the figures still waiting for correction, and sent the report back. By the time the last dashboard disappeared from my screen, most of the floor had emptied around me.

Beyond the windows, Auckland had settled into early evening. Office lights glowed across the neighboring buildings while traffic crawled through the streets below, familiar enough after all these years that I rarely stopped to look anymore.

My phone vibrated beside the keyboard.

SINCLAIR GROUP

The email had arrived hours ago, and reading it four times should have been enough.

Apparently it wasn’t.

I opened it again.

Dear Ms. Smith,

We are pleased to confirm that all pre-employment requirements have been completed successfully. Your start date remains September 14, and your relocation package has been approved.

The rest covered flight reimbursement, temporary accommodation, and the documents I needed to bring on my first day.

1/6

20

R KIKA

TII

THURAVY EV RIAM

The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

New York.

ree weeks from now.

I locked the screen and leaned back in my chair.

55 voucher

For ten years, America had existed at a comfortable distance. An ocean away, safely contained inside television screens, news articles, and a part of my life I had become very good at leaving alone.

It belonged to a girl with golden hair who worked multiple jobs, worried constantly about her mother, and answered to a name nobody in this building had ever heard.

“Isla?”

I looked toward the doorway.

My manager, Callum Fraser, stood there with his laptop bag slung over one shoulder. His gaze moved from me to the computer.

“You’re still working.”

“I was just finishing.”

His attention drifted toward the resignation paperwork at the edge of my desk. “You’re really going.”

Seeing the papers there made everything feel slightly more real.

“In three weeks.”

“Sinclair got lucky.”

“They offered me more money.”

Callum laughed. “At least you’re honest.”

“I liked working here. That doesn’t mean I’m going to turn down a better opportunity out of loyalty to fluorescent lighting and quarterly reports.”

“I knew we should’ve upgraded the lighting.”

That carned a smile from me.

He adjusted the strap of his bag and glanced around the nearly empty floor. “Don’t stay until midnight trying to make us regret losing you.”

“I make no promises.”

“Goodnight, Isla.”

“Goodnight.”

Once his footsteps disappeared down the corridor, I packed my laptop and headed downstairs.

Cold evening air swept around me outside, and I pulled my coat closer as I crossed toward the parking garage.

For a moment, my reflection moved alongside me in the dark glass of the building.

Sometimes it still made me look twice.

2/6

20

R

KIKA

|||

O

T39 Inu, Aug 20 KVA

-The Nerd Who Stole The Quarterback

$5 voucher

The new color of my hair had started with a box of dye during my second year in Auckland, bought after one particularly bad night when I couldn’t stand seeing Astra Hawthorne every time I looked in the mirror. I’d expected to hate it and wash it

u as soon as I could.

Instead, I’d kept it.

Now it fell almost to my waist.

The glasses were different too, along with my clothes and the way I carried myself. Time had changed plenty without asking permission, but the biggest change had been the one I chose.

Isla Smith.

The name had followed me through university and into every part of the life that came afterward. It was on my degree, my driver’s license, my employment records and the lease to my apartment.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify