Page 158 of Built to Fall
That makes my stomach flip in a weird, twisted way. I’m not jealous—at least I don’tthinkI am—but the idea of Grant using someone else to forget me makes something tighten in my chest.
I don’t say anything.
I don’t have to.
Kara’s eyes meet mine, just long enough to register the silence.
And then she turns the page in her textbook like she didn’t notice a damn thing.
Savannah catches the shift in my expression immediately. “Hey,” she says, looking down at me with a firm expression while her hair forms a curtain around her face. “That boy would crawl on his knees if you asked him to.”
Kara raises her brow at me. “Maybe you need to test that theory.”
“Hold on!” Meredith holds her hands up. “We haven’t even gotten full details about the first night.”
“She’s right.” Savannah gives me a fake solemn expression. “I’m sorry, Lina, but we can’t exactly make a game plan for where to go from here when we don’t have the full picture of how everything went down last night.”
“Oh whatever.” I roll my eyes. “There’s really nothing to know.”
“There issomuch to know when you come practically skipping back into the apartment with a freshly-fucked glow.” Kara deadpans, snapping her textbook shut with dramatic flair.“You looked like a woman who just discovered the full capacity of her dopamine receptors.”
Andthatis exactly how I get roped into laying out every explicit detail of my night with Grant.
Somehow, some way, being in this situation has never felt so comfortable before. I used to cringe at the idea of talking about the sex I had with Gage when my friends in high school asked.
Now, I’m realizing that maybe it was because I didn’t want to admit that he wasbad.
There’s a huge pressure taken off your shoulders when you can freely tell your friends things about the guy you’re seeing without feeling like you need to cover for them.
I would even go as far as to say it feels like a relief. Because I’m finally experiencing something that doesn’t need justification.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
GRANT
“Ishould have never revealed my talents,” I jokingly groan as I follow Lina through the grocery store a few blocks from campus.
Barely an hour ago, she called me, sounding all innocent while she asked me what I was doing for the rest of the night. I immediately knew she was scheming something from the tone in her voice.
“What do you want?” I had asked.
She laughed lightly, and that was when I heard the three other giggles in the background of the call. It cued me in on the co-conspirators, including all four of the roommates, plus Savannah.
“Do you want ice cream or something?” That’s usually what Meredith calls Braxton for.
After a few seconds where all I could hear was mumbled deliberation, Lina asked, “Will you make us grilled cheeses for dinner?”
And despite the jokes I made complaining about being exploited and becoming their personal chef, the two of us knew all along I couldn’t tell her no.
I grew up with two older sisters, ones who never once hesitated to delegate a chore or two. Most of them involved things they thought would embarrass me, like buying tampons or a very specific type of girly shampoo. I’ve known what it’s like to be handed all types of grunt work. In fact, I’m pretty well-versed in the art of forced errand-running.
That’s how I’ve ended up here, pushing the cart while pointing out the couple of items I would need to make the perfect grilled cheese. I have a strong feeling that this is going to become a common occurrence.
I offered to go to the store by myself to collect what I need, but Lina insisted on coming with me. She wants to know everything I need, probably because it will be easier to con me into late-night grilled cheeses in the future if she already has all the stuff.
“Your talents will be greatly appreciated,” she replies with a smile.
I grin, shaking my head. “You know, I didn’t realize I was signing up to be the unofficial chef of the whole floor.”
