“Hey, I’m sorry,” he says — even though it’s me who should be apologizing. His brown eyes search mine. “Are you okay? Did something happen?”
I sigh, shaking my head and leaning my forehead against his. “I’m just a little stressed with the new workload, I think.”
It’s a lie. A blatant lie. And I can’t figure out why I’m making it. I should just tell him what happened, tell him Grayson is in my class and it freaked me out to see him after everything.
But Adam and I are finally happy. We’re finally together — really together. We’ve spent the whole summer falling in love and getting even closer than we ever were before. And for the first time since we met, there’s no one and nothing between us.
And I don’t want to ruin it.
Adam kisses my forehead, pulling me in for a long hug with his chin balanced on the crown of my head. “That’s understandable, Red.”
I pinch his side and he makes an oaf! sound before chucking and hugging me tighter.
“How about we grab lunch, I’ll walk you to your next class, and then when you’re done we can go get Moon Pie pizza and hide away in my bed for the rest of the night?”
I pull back and peer up at him. “I thought we were going to work out after class?”
He shrugs, a smirk on his too-hot-for-his-own-good face. “We can work extra hard tomorrow. Tonight, I want to hold my beautiful, amazing, smart, incredible girlfriend and make all her stress go away.” He leans in, grabbing my ass as he whispers in my ear. “And I know many ways to do it.”
I shove him away with a roll of my eyes, pretending to be annoyed, but as soon as he’s away from me I’m grabbing his hand and holding it tight. I lean up to kiss his cheek. “You’re perfect.”
“That’s you, baby girl. Now,” he says, opening the door to the boisterous student union. “What’s for lunch?”“ALRIGHT, LADIES,” ERIN SAYS, highlighting something on her clipboard before smiling at the group of our sorority sisters gathered in her bedroom. “I think that’s it for today. Thank you for meeting with me. I think it’s important that we’re all on the same page heading into our first Sunday Chapter of the semester tomorrow — especially since we’ll have the most fantastic group of new members this sorority has ever seen, thanks to J-Love.”
I smile and pretend like I’m blushing, waving off the little round of applause from the other executive board members.
“Oh, stop. You’re too kind.”
“Don’t play modest,” Ashlei teases. “We all know you’re not.”
I toss one of Erin’s pillows at her, and then everyone is dismissed.
Ashlei kisses both me and Erin on the cheek before being one of the first to bolt out of the room. It’s Saturday, which is about the only day she and her sexy, suit-wearing CEO can get in some hump time nowadays, and she doesn’t play coy when she lets us know that’s exactly where she’s heading. But I hang around until everyone else is gone and it’s just me and Erin.
“Great first meeting, Prez,” I say, reaching into her secret stash of snacks in her bedside table drawer. I crack open a bag of white cheddar popcorn and shove a handful in my mouth. “On a scale of one to ten, how ready are you for this semester to be over?”
She smiles, still jotting something down in her planner. “You know I love being president, and I’m in no rush to graduate, either. But, I’ll admit,” she says with a sigh, finally looking at me. “It’s been a rough few months, and I’m not excited to be back in the full swing of things.”
I frown, wiping my hands together to dust off the cheese powder before I hop off her bed. I lean against the foot of it right in front of where she’s seated in her desk chair. “How are you, Ex?” I ask. “I mean, really.”
Erin sighs, capping her highlighter and shutting her planner. “I’m okay. I actually have group therapy in about an hour, so I need to get ready for that.”
“Group therapy?” I ask. “I know you were seeing a therapist over the summer, but I didn’t realize it was a group thing.”
“This is part of my overall recovery plan,” she explains. “Something my therapist recommended. It’s been good,” she adds quickly, and I don’t miss something curious in her eyes as she smiles. “Strange… but good.”
I smile in return, but my heart aches for my best friend. She hasn’t been herself in what feels like at least a year, and I hardly noticed because I’d been caught up in my own shit. I was caught up in Jarrett, in Greg, in Kade. I had no idea what Erin had been through, or why she hadn’t told any of us, but I was glad she was getting help.