“You know, I meant to ask over the past few days…do you like Vinnie?”
Although my eyes widen, I quickly suppress the urge to hide my face behind my hand.
“If byVinnieyou mean Vince, then yeah, sure, I like him.” Two tiny pink noses peek out from the grate, curious about their new surroundings. Focusing on them makes it much easier to raise and then lower my shoulders in a hopefully casual shrug. Just talking about my new roommate. Nothing happened that mighthave made that meeting especially memorable or awkward, nope!
“Why, did he say anything?” I ask, holding onto casualness with both hands, as I’m leading Olli around the counter and toward the offices.
“Oh, you know, nothing specific,” Olli hums, and my arms nearly fall off with how quickly my shoulders relax. “He just mentioned that hehearda lot more from some of his roommates than from others.”
I choke on thin air, coughing so hard I have to lean against the wall for a moment. Heat rises from under the collar of my T-shirt, creeping up my neck and across my cheeks. “Ohmygod.”
“Olli’s just fine,” he singsongs obnoxiously as he squeezes past into the examination room.
“You’re—ugh!” I follow him, carefully closing the door behind us, and gesture for Olli to put the carrier onto the metal table in the middle of the room.
“Okay, for real, felt like there was some kinda tension happening and I wanted to check in with you, but I never managed to catch you alone.”
The sudden turn to serious conversation takes me by surprise.
“I…no, Vince’s fine.” I sigh, rubbing at my glowing cheeks. Damn my pale complexion. “I just…feel awkward.”
Gently, Olli scoops out one of the kittens and hands it to me. “You’ve nothing to worry about there. But the real question is…”
I focus intensely on taking the little black kitten from Olli’s hands, more so that I don’t have to look at him, but he waits until I do anyway, making me huff when I see his raised brows.
“What went down between you and Micah?”
“What? Nothing! Nothing went down!” Even I can hear that my answer came way too fast, bordering on desperation. I wouldn’t believe myself, which is why I immediately duck myhead, focusing on holding the kitten safely against my chest while I set up a scale.
The tiny squirming furball in my hand opens its little mouth with an indignant squeak. I coo at it, then set it down in the Tupperware container so the kitten won’t wander off prematurely. It still tries to hop over the lip of the tub, squeaking again when it slumps onto its tiny behind.
“Sure, nothing went on; that’s why you both drove off for several weeks together.”
Oh.
“He just…heard my family needed help with the harvest, so he came along. You know, for a…summer job.”
“Uh-huh, Captain Football abandoned his summer to go pick cherries with you.”
“It wasn’t all summer. We’re back now, aren’t we?”
“Lind, c’mon.” Olli has his hands full keeping the other kittens inside the carrier, but he still manages to throw me a look. “I don’t doubt that Micah is a good person at heart, despite being a football player, and way too good-looking—”
I groan when Olli’s sarcasm mixes into his words.
“—but I can’t help feeling like there’s more to his—you have to admit—very sudden decision. So I’m asking,as your friend, who’s not going to judge you one way or another,andwho’s great at keeping secrets.”
“Yeah, right.” I raise my brows at him. It’s hard to keep an entirely serious face while we’re both wrangling kittens, but I do my best.
“Cutie, you wouldn’t even know.” Olli meets my eyes easily. I’m the first to look away, leaning over to put the black kitten back with its siblings and pick up the next one.“So? How bad is it?”
Worry, stubbornness, confusion, the need to protect that sliver of happiness, all of it swirls in my head and stomach, all toomuch to name.“It’s not bad at all! I…we,” I start, but my voice quickly breaks away.
“We?” Olli pounces on the crumb of information.
I ignore him, taking a deep breath and a moment to gently coo at the little calico kitten, setting her down into the Tupperware bowl on the scale.
The kittens keep mewling and trying to escape, while I confess everything. Colin’s ultimatum, how it led to the deal between Micah and me—and what happened before we met Vince.
