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I walk to my dorm room lost in thought and jump in surprise when Kate walks up to me before I reach the door. She hugs me tightly.
“Thank you, Milly. God, I’d be so dead if Carter caught me.”
She grabs my hand and drags me into our dorm room, her eyes roaming over my body. “Wait a minute. Why are you still in last night’s clothes?”
I roll my eyes and cross my arms. “I couldn’t get in because I didn’t bring my key card, and you freaking left me. What the hell, Kate?”
She groans and runs a hand through her hair. “Shit, I didn’t know you didn’t have your card. I wouldn’t have left with Asher if I’d known.”
“I don’t get why you left without telling me at all.”
Kate’s eyes flash with mild annoyance. “We really need to find you a boyfriend, or like, a hook-up or something. You’ll get it then.”
I walk to my bed and sit down, ignoring her comment. Kate’s expression turns dreamy and she smiles as she sits down next to me. “Ugh, Asher is amazing. We decided we wouldn’t be together officially. We’re both just having fun, that’s all.”
I bite down on my lip, unsure what to say to her. “He lives with Carter, though. It’s not like you can keep it from him forever.”
Kate purses her lips and looks away. “Yeah, well, we aren’t dating. And to be honest, I don’t think it’d really matter if we did. Carter and Asher’s friendship isn’t really like ours. Asher is never at our house, and our families aren’t friends and all that stuff. Even if we dated, I don’t think it’d be so bad.”
I have no idea what to say to any of this. I don’t understand their relationship at all. I can’t tell who is stringing who along, and for once, I don’t have it in me to care. Even if I warn her, she won’t listen, anyway.
Chapter 10
Carter
I stare at my watch for the thousandth time. Just ten more minutes until Emilia gets here. I look over my living room, pleased with how tidy it is. I’ve felt bad about the way I snapped at her for getting drunk when I was much worse at her age. It’s like I lose all my rationality when it comes to her.
It’s not just my rationality I lose… it’s my willpower too. Most of the time I manage to keep her at a distance, but fuck, I didn’t think it’d be this difficult.
The doorbell rings and I jump up. I open the door far too quickly and Emilia looks up, startled. My heart skips a beat when she looks into my eyes.
She smiles and steps forward, pushing herself against my body and wrapping her arms around me. I hug her back and rest my chin on top of her head. She fits into me so perfectly. I inhale deeply and my heart skips another beat when I catch a whiff of her perfume — the one I bought for her.
“Hey,” she says, pulling away.
“Hey.” I walk into my house, feeling somewhat flustered. No one has ever made me feel the way Emilia does.
She takes a seat on the floor in what has become her usual spot, and I drop down beside her. She takes out her books and gets to work, but I can’t for the life of me focus on my own work.
I sigh and work on autopilot as best as I can, occasionally running a hand through my hair. Coding has always come easy to me. I love the binary part of it.
“Hey, what’re you up to?” Emilia asks, her voice soft. I shake my head and turn to look at her. I’m startled to find her so close and my heart starts to race.
“Wow, this looks so cool. What is this?”
She leans into me as she peers at my laptop, her back against my arm. I move without thinking and wrap my arm around her the way I used to. I rest my chin on her shoulder, and if I wasn’t so close to her, I’d have missed her sharp intake of breath.
“It’s a platform that Asher and I are building. It’s based on blockchain, and if all goes well, we should be able to build an exchange of sorts. Almost like a stock exchange. We’re trying to build a platform that’ll rival banks as we currently know it.”
Emilia turns her head to look at me in awe, and she’s so close that my nose almost brushes against hers. Her eyes widen, and for a second, her gaze drops to my lips.
“Wow, that’s seriously so cool. I have no idea what blockchain is, though.”
She leans her head against my shoulder, and I rest my head against hers. “Blockchain is basically data that’s extremely secure and as far as we’re aware, impossible to hack. If implemented well, it will transform the current banking industry. Can you imagine being at the forefront of that?”
Emilia shakes her head and looks at me, her eyes filled with wonder. “No, I can’t. But I can imagine you being at the forefront of that. I always knew you’d go on to do something amazing. You have so much freaking potential, Carter. I always thought you’d either get drafted into the NFL or you’d do something else really cool.”
My cheeks heat up, and I look away. Emilia has always believed in me. Even when she and I acted like each other’s worst enemies, she always had my back when it came down to it.
