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“What?” I slammed to a halt and whirled to face her, unable to believe she’d actually said that to me.
“I don’t…That is not…” But I couldn’t outright deny her words. Settling for, “You’re crazy,” I whirled back to the food court and hurried my pace, needing to get rid of her before she really hit a nerve.
“You’re in love with him,” she insisted. “And you were probably so busy denying it to yourself you didn’t give him a proper farewell, so everything feels even worse and miserable now. That pang of longing inside you only grows deeper and wider every day because there was no closure in your last goodbye. You feel as if you’ve deserted the one person who’s come to mean the most to you in his biggest time of need, so you—”
Ugh. Nerve hit, dead center, bullseye.
“Oh, look!” I nearly cried, never so happy to see Tess’s annoying boyfriend in all my life as he sat on a bench by himself, eating a sandwich and reading something on his phone. “There’s Jonah.”
Her attention successfully diverted, Tess snapped her face up. When she spotted him, her entire expression transformed, pleasure and excitement practically sparking from her pores.
“Abbott!” I called loudly and waved big to make sure I had his attention.
He lifted his face, and as soon as he spotted Tess, he pushed to his feet, starting our way.
“Well, it looks like you should keep him company on his lunch break,” I announced, pausing so I could c
hange directions. I began to back away from my best friend. “My boss has really been needing me to work overtime a lot lately, so I’m going to head in early.” I waved my fingers in farewell. “Don’t you two have too much fun between classes.”
Indecision warred across her face as she realized I was retreating and her boyfriend was closing in. “Bailey,” she growled from between clenched teeth. “We’re not done with this conversation until you have a freaking epiphany.”
“Oh, I did,” I assured her, backing away even faster now. “I realized my bestie was certifiably insane.”
She frowned. Before she could respond though, Jonah was there, sweeping her into his arms.
I turned away, relieved, and started off. But I didn’t get far before Tess hollered after me. “You’ll have to accept the truth one of these days, Bailey Rae.”
“But not today,” I muttered under my breath as I waved over my shoulder, letting her know I’d heard her.
My hands were shaking and breathing was erratic by the time I reached my car. I unlocked it and climbed inside. Then I just sat there, not starting the engine and trying to pull myself back together. I’m not even sure why I was freaking out.
I’d walked out in the middle of class—a first ever for me.
I’d probably pissed off my best friend and would never hear the end of it when she caught up with me again.
But neither of those felt like the source of my panic.
I slid my phone from my backpack and opened up my texts to Beck. We’d last talked this morning about my dad’s mare they were talking about breeding.
Yeah, we’d talked about horse sex, and it’d felt like the most real conversation I’d had all day. I ran my thumb over the screen, touching his words.
Needing to talk to him now, I typed.
“My roommate is crazy,” I wrote before pushing Send.
He read my message almost immediately, making my chest expand with this indescribable joy, because he always made time to reply to me as soon as I wrote to him. No matter the hour.
“Tess?” He knew exactly which friend I was referring to. I loved that. “What’d she do?”
Right, like I could tell him anything about her insane claims. “She’s just talking crazy talk.”
He sent a laughing emoji before replying, “About me?”
“Now why would you think that?” I wondered, blushing because he’d guessed it right.
“No idea, but my guess certainly has nothing to do with your evasion of my answer,” he teased. The brat.
A second later, he wrote more. “Must’ve been something bad about me. I don’t think she likes me.”
