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“I can’t get you a meeting or anything like that,” I say a touch awkwardly.
“I know,” he says. “It’s not about that.” Then, a touch more playfully, he says, “Believe it or not, I am capable of doing things without ulterior motives.”
I crack a smile. “Are you though?”
He smirks, his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Guess you’ll just have to trust me and see how it pans out.”
“In the interest of mutual trust, I should probably also tell you Killian was planning to buy me a new car, and I don’t think he will appreciate you helping me gain independence from him.”
He shrugs. “I’m not afraid of Killian.” He cocks his head in consideration. “I guess the guy did try to kill me, so maybe I should be. I don’t know, the fear center in my brain’s all fucked up. In any case, I don’t care.”
“Well… watch your back.”
He starts down the stairs, then turns back to face me when he gets on the sidewalk. “Don’t worry. I always do.”
___
While I did have to give in and shower in the shared bathroom this morning before classes, I have vehemently refused to go downstairs for anything.
There is a mini fridge full of bottled water on this floor with a fabric basket full of packets of salted almonds on top for emergency snacks, so I grab some and come back to the room to have those and a granola bar for dinner.
But, well, that’s depressing, and life is depressing enough right now.
Addison told me I was free to go downstairs and help myself to food if I wanted to. I’m not on their dining plan right now, but she assured me they won’t say anything about it. I haven’t wanted to because I’m worried girls will feel weird about me being here or I could bump into Sloane, but… well, I don’t want this to be my dinner, either.
So I make the walk downstairs.
I try to keep my head down and avoid notice as I enter the kitchen.
There’s a line in front of a buffet area where girls are getting food with workers on the other side, but I’m feeling too self-conscious about getting in the line, so I wander over to the counter where you can get food without talking to anyone. I grab a snack bag of pretzels, then I go over to the tower of fresh fruit and grab a tangelo. Then I grab a little pre-packed bowl of grapes and cheese, and since they have a coffee machine, I make myself a French vanilla coffee.
More satisfied with my makeshift dinner, I grab a couple of napkins and start to make my way out to the dining area, but I freeze when I hear Sloane Whitley’s voice on the other side.
“Why should it bother me that she’s here? They had a fling, and now it’s over. The end,” she says lightly.
“I just think it’s weird. He took her to Paris after the date auction, right? Doesn’t that piss you off?”
“No,” she says, her tone blasé. “We weren’t together then. Now we are. We’re moving forward, not looking back. We’ll make plenty of our own memories. We’ve already talked about going to the Alps with my family for Christmas this year and then visiting Paris in spring—and when we go, we’ll certainly stay longer than one night.”
“Has he met your family already? Do they like him?”
“Oh, yeah. My dad loves Killian. He’s coming to town this weekend and we’re all going to have dinner. I think it’ll be fun.”
“I don’t know,” her one friend says. “That whole situation would piss me off.”
“He is gorgeous though,” the other girl says. “Like, I’d be mad, but not mad enough that I wouldn’t still jump into bed with—er, I mean, obviously he’s yours, so not… but if…”
“I know what you mean,” Sloane says coolly. Then, her tone warming and turning sly, she says, “And he’s a fantastic kisser, so… it is hard to stay mad at him.”
Ouch.
I grimace, only fighting the urge to physically clutch my heart because my hands are full.
I don’t want to hear any more of this, so I go back the way I came, hoping I can sneak that way without any of them seeing me, but I don’t look in their direction to see whether I’ve been spotted.
I don’t care.
I’m not hungry anymore, either.
