Page 80 of Unloved

We talk quietly for what feels like minutes, but it’s actually hours before she heads back into the kitchen and returns with a full breakfast spread of her favorites for me to try.

We’re only halfway through our shared meal when I realize my cheeks hurt from smiling so much, and not one of them has been for show.

Just like everything else when it comes to Ro, it’s soreal.

After we finish eating and the cafe is mostly cleared out, she orders us another drink from the girls behind the counter—Sadie isn’t here today, otherwise I’m betting she wouldn’t have met me here since our connection, ourfriendship, is still somewhat secret.

But I don’t mind it. It feels like for now, it’s just ours. Nothing our friends can taint as long as it’s just ours. They’re all so busy, too wrapped up in their own dramas to pay any real attention to us anyway.

She’s still laughing at the story I’ve just told her—involving costumes from the sophomore year Halloween party and an accidentally naked drunk Bennett, who had to sprint to the bathroom covering himself with a torn toga, ass on display—when I finally work up the nerve to ask her about Tyler.

“So… can I ask about Donaldson? You guys still together or—”

“No.” She cuts me off, emphatically.

“He broke up with you and he’s being mean to you about it? Why?” As soon as I ask, I shake my head and put my hands up like a surrender. “You don’t need to answer that. Just… let me know if I can help, like, get him off your back or something. If he’s bothering you and you want my help, I could keep him away from you. Like, maybe play up the flirting with you? Or threaten him? Sic one of the guys on the team on him. Or multiple—”

I’m rambling but I can’t seem to stop, so instead I take one of the forks and swirl it in the leftover sauce, drawing an infinity symbol and tracing it over and over.

“Actually… yeah. Tyler is bothering me. He’s—” She stops, bitingher lip and shaking her head a little so the springy curls surrounding her heart-shaped face sway. “He already thinks we are sleeping together.” She barely manages to say the words with a deep blush. “So, maybe you could… I, um…”

She looks at me pleadingly, as if begging me to fill in the gaps here.

“Sooo.” I drag out the word, leaning on my forearms on the table. “You want me to…?”

Even though I think I know what she’s hinting at, I won’t say it for her.She has to be the one to ask.

“Not, like, go out of your way. But maybe, at least before or after class, you could just flirt with me. Like you usually do, but—”

“Like, kiss you?” I say a little too excitedly.

Her nose wrinkles like what I’ve said disgusts her, and for some reason the reaction makes me laugh.

“No, Tyler knows I don’t move that fast.”

“That fast?” I ask, smirking. “Are you a virgin?”

“No!” she nearly shouts before glancing around as if anyone could hear us in our secluded spot. She wraps her arms around herself protectively even as she lengthens her spine and neck haughtily. A contradiction of anxiety and bravery that I can’t quite figure out. The silence hangs heavily between us before she slumps and bites down on her lip.

“Why?” she asks, her voice softer, quieter than it was before. “Do I seem like a virgin?”

I have to hold my breath to keep from laughing because her expression is devastatingly serious.

“I’m not a baby.”

My eyes widen, hips hitting the table hard as I scramble uncoordinatedly to stand, my hands gently grasping her upper arms. Gentle, yes, but enough to get her attention. Because her expression and the tone of her voice are hurt.

“Ro, no. I didn’t mean it to sound that way.”

She shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. I mean—I’m not. I’ve had sex. With Tyler.”

I am unfortunately aware of that, as per my snooping. But I’d rather not hear another word about it. My hand shoots up between us as I settle back into my seat. “Please, spare me the details.”

At least when it comes to Tyler Donaldson.Inadvertently, I have thought about what she might be like beneath the right touches. How quickly she’d break apart under my hands, tawny skin flushing red, hazel eyes sparkling.

Stop. Stop. Stop.

She’s your friend.

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