Page 114 of On His Team

Gianna: She has concerns after yesterday.

I stare at that for another second.

Me: Tell Mara I’m fine.

Gianna: She says that’s not what she meant.

Then I get it.

I put the phone face down again and sit back in my chair, rubbing a hand over my mouth as yesterday comes back with enough clarity that I don’t need Mara helping. Gianna in my bedroom with both knees on either side of me. Her hands in my hair. Her trying to maintain a reasonable bathroom timeline while sitting on my lap. The way she looked at me afterward when she said she wasn’t telling Lucy yet. Not because of Benson. She’d made sure I understood that part. Because she didn’t want everybody else asking me what we were before either of us had figured it out.

I have thought about that more than I expected to.

Gianna had every opportunity to turn what was happening between us into a larger thing. She could have told Lucy. Lucy could have told Benson, even accidentally, and then I would have had Benson watching me across Hawthorne while Stanley asked enough questions for everybody. Instead, she had looked at me and said she didn’t want anybody pressuring me into an answer. Then she’d kissed me again before going downstairs and acted normal. Mostly. Apparently Mara has been given a security clearance.

I pick my phone back up.

Me: Jesus Christ.

She doesn’t answer, and I’m smiling at the screen wondering exactly how much Gianna told Mara.

Me: Give G back her phone, Mara.

Gianna: This isn’t Mara.

Me: Nice try.

Nothing comes back immediately, and for some reason that makes me impatient, so I call. The phone answers with fumbling, and Gianna’s voice comes from somewhere away from it.

“Give me the phone, Mara!”

“No, I’m going to get you laid!”

“Shut up! He’s on the phone!”

A beat of silence follows.

“Shit.”

I laugh quietly enough that the girl at the table across from me looks up from her textbook.

Then Gianna comes onto the line sounding out of breath. “Hello?”

I lower my voice. “Hey, G.”

“Sorry. What was she texting you?” Her voice pulls away from the phone again. “I’m going to fucking kill you.”

Mara screams. There’s a thump, then Gianna tells her to get off her leg, and I sit there smiling into my hand while the two of them apparently fight over a phone somewhere across campus.

Finally Gianna comes back. “Okay. I’m here. Please disregard anything she said. Why are you calling me?”

“You told Mara about last night?”

“Yeah. I had to tell somebody.”

I smile.

“Don’t worry. She’s not going to tell anyone.”