Page 104 of Forever Relentless

“Um . . .”

And there was the issue. Where could either of us go and not have a chance of being seen?

“Library?” I offered.

“God no. I’ve spent enough time in a library.”

Right.

I heard a door closing. “Where are you?”

“Between the athletics building and the quad.”

“Stay there, I’ll come to you.”

“In the open?” I asked her, hearing my own doubt.

“You asked me to help with your social media, but I can’t do that if I’m sitting somewhere else. While I’m there, you can help me find my car.”

Which was perfectly reasonable. There was no reason why she and I couldn’t be seen together outside of the stadium. No one had any reason to doubt that there wasn’t a perfectly reasonable explanation for us being together. I asked her to help me with social media. She said yes.

It was so innocent and reasonable. It was only my own dark thoughts that were making it weird.

“See you soon, then.”

I walked to the quad, and when I got there, I looked around for a good spot to take a picture. I felt stupid. Was this what Moore did? He looked for ‘prime spots.’ What a waste of time.

“You look constipated.”

I turned to her, and she snapped a picture. She looked down at her camera. “If clueless was the look you were going for, you achieved it.” Briar showed me the picture, and I felt a flicker of amusement.

“You’re not a nice person.”

She grinned. “At last, recognition.”

She pointed to one of the steps beside the monument of William Wrighton, founder of the college.

“Go sit on the steps and look at your phone.”

“Why?”

She rolled her eyes. “So we can get ‘pensive Noah.’”

I walked over to the steps. “Why do I need to be pensive?”

“Just shut up and do it.”

“Bossy for someone so small.”

She heard my grumbling. “Not bossy. Leadership skills.”

“Hmm, is that what they call it?”

I pulled out my phone and looked at the blank screen. I felt like an idiot. When I looked up, she was staring at her camera.

I got up and walked over.

“We done?”