Page 4 of The Confidant
Maybe the dating scene at Yale just wasn’t everything I’d imagined it would be, and he was desperate for a date?
That was honestly hard to believe because Xander was gorgeous, wealthy, smart, and charming—things most people wanted in the those they dated.
But perhaps his family was like mine and had rules about only dating people with similar life goals—one of those being to marry someone who was a strong member of our church.
It made sense. You marry who you date. And things were a lot easier if you married someone whom you shared similar values with. Someone on the same path. Someone who’d want to raise your future children in therightway.
It was why I’d never really looked at anyone besides Hunter, since he was the only guy in our whole school who had all the qualities I needed in a future husband.
But while I’d had tunnel vision on my best friend this past year, my dad had apparently sought out Xander to be that someone for me instead.
Someone he deemed more worthy of his only daughter.
Someone who wouldn’t break my dad’s rules and try to steady date or kiss me before I graduated from high school.
Yes, I’m not perfect and only made it to spring of my junior year before I fell to the temptation of the beautiful boy with turquoise-green eyes and the kind of body that had maybe made me think slightly impure thoughts the couple of times I’d caught him doing pushups without his shirt on.
But it wasn’t like we’ddoneanything wrong. Surely a few make-out sessions on the common room’s couch, and a few more hours of kissing in Hunter’s car, weren’t high enough on my dad’s list of sins that it made any future relationship with Hunter impossible.
You know…if Hunter was even interested in trying again after graduation—after the threat of my dad pulling me out of the school and bringing me back home because I’d broken his rules was gone.
But my dad had been touchy every time I talked about hanging out or studying with Hunter lately—as if he suddenly had something against Hunter after eighteen years of treating him like he was part of the family.
Maybe my dad had somehow found out that Hunter hadn’t been watching the sermons with me anymore? Maybe the same person who’d told my dad that Hunter and I had started dating last spring had also informed him about that, too?
“Do you know if anyone else has asked Hunter then?” Addison asked, interrupting my thoughts.
“Oh, um...” I hesitated. “I-I don’t think so.”
He would have told me if someone had, right?
I might not have told him about Xander, but Hunter would have mentioned anyone asking him out, wouldn’t he? We’d never kept secrets from each other before.
Addison chewed on her bottom lip as if still trying to get up the nerve to say something.
And the feeling of dread took hold of me again.
Because this was the moment I’d been dreading ever since last spring. The moment when someone else saw a door in the invisible bubble I’d kept Hunter in with me and was about to pull it wide open.
Addison pressed her lips together. I had the urge to bolt away before she could ask permission to do something I knew I had no right to control. But before I could run away, she asked, “Would you be okay if I asked him to the dance?”
Silence fell between us, a silence that I did not want to fill with the answer that I knew I should give.
Addison just stared at me with wide eyes, like she was scared of how I might react.
And I knew I must have looked jealous since I wasn’t the actor my other friends were. But after a few heart-pounding seconds, I forced a smile on my face and said, “Of course.” I patted her hand gently and smiled even wider. “Of course you should ask Hunter. He’d be so fun to go to the dance with.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, like she knew I was internally screaming right now.
“You guys would be so cute together,” I said, trying to sound enthusiastic even though I did not mean it.
“Okay, cool.” She let out a long sigh, like she’d been holding her breath. “I just… He’s been so nice, and I thought he would be a fun guy to go with.”
“He is a great guy,” I said. One of the best that I knew.
“Do you think he’ll say yes?” she asked, a cautious look on her face.
“Probably.” He’d gone to dances with other girls when they asked him last year. But those dates had happenedbeforewe’d dated. So this time would feel different.
