Page 67 of Even Exchange

Folding my arms over my chest, I snap, “I don’t have to answer to you.”

Good. Vague.

“It’s Noah, isn’t it?” he asks through gritted teeth, and my muscles freeze.

How did we get here?

“Who. Cares?” Kendra says louder, tugging on him, but she may as well be the invisible woman now.

“Iknewyou slept with Noah on Halloween!” His tone grows louder. Andi takes a step forward, but I put my arm out, holding her back.

“First of all, the only cheater in our relationship was you,” I say through gritted teeth, flicking a look towards Kendra. “And yes. Iamdating him.” A mischievous smile spreads across my face as I say the one thing I know will piss him off more than anything. “And he fucks better than you ever did.”

I spin around, bolting for the cafeteria before he can respond. Pretty sure he shouts something about me being a stupid slut, but I choose to ignore him, pushing through the double doors and holding my head high all the way to the cafeteria.

“Damn.” Andi catches up and falls into stride. “I always knew there was some molten lava inside that chocolate cake.”

I let out a shaky laugh. My smile falls. “Holy shit.”

“What?”

“Did I tell him I was dating Noah?”

“Yep.”

“And implied we’ve fucked?”

“Implied? Girl, you made it real clear what you’ve been doing with that Italian sausage.”

“Oh my…” Placing a hand on my pounding chest, I suck in a breath. My stomach is heavy, like a dense batch of dough too overworked to rise. Andi grabs my arm, shoving me through a door. “Oww!”

She drops my arm, quickly scans under the stalls in the women’s bathroom, and turns, placing her hands on my shoulders. “Get a grip. If you’re gonna sell this, you need to be confident.”

My eyes widen. “Sell what?”

“That you and Noah aredating!”

Thump. Thump. Thump.There goes my heart. “But we’re not!”

“Shhh,” she says, motioning her hands down. “Damn, baby cakes. Be cool. No one needs to know that.”

“Noah’s gonna know when one of his friends calls asking when our relationship status changed!” If I thought asking him to fuck me was embarrassing, wait till he finds out I pimped him out as my fake boyfriend because I was too shitty of a lay to keep one.How mortifying.

“Then call him first and explain what happened. Iguaranteehe’ll have no problem with it.” She cocks a brow, and a bit of the bricklike batter dissipates in my stomach. “The only person who hates Jonathan more than you is Noah.”

I shift in place, allowing her words to surround me. “That’s probably not true.”

“Seriously?” she deadpans.

My mind wanders to how concerned Noah was after I destroyed his favorite cappuccino cup post shitty ex talk. He was upset, but maybe it didn’t have anything to do with the broken memory.

Gripping the sink, I take in my appearance in the mirror. My makeup is flawless, hair tied back and a pink bow perfectly in place. How can I look so put together when my life is falling apart?

“Char,” Andi says, pulling me back to the conversation.

“How do I even bring this up to him?”

“Just try.”

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