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“Christian!” she sang, bouncing on her toes as she waved. I turned around again, seeing Christian and his posse of thick-headed jocks walking our way through the courtyard.
But I also saw Professor Ellis look up from his book. His eyes met mine, and he gave me a quick nod.
My heart skipped a beat while his gaze lingered. I could almost feel his eyes leave mine and travel down my neck to my breasts, which were squeezed into the sports bra I wore, before flicking back down to his book.
I found it hard to swallow all of a sudden.
“Look at you,” Christian cooed somewhere to my side right before his heavy arm roped over my shoulders. “I like to see my girl keeping nice and fit.”
A squirming feeling shot down my spine and settled in my stomach, twisting into a knot.
“Whitney and I are going to run together every morning,” Nicole said proudly as if she hadn’t been complaining about it the entire time.
“Whit,” Christian said, ignoring Nicole completely. “I need to talk to you about something. I’ll meet up with you at the coffee shop before class.”
“I don’t have time today—”
His arm left my shoulder, and he turned to his friends, saying something about catching a game later at a bar in town before he started walking away again.
“Bye, Christian!” Nicole called out, waving enthusiastically. Her spirited expression began to fade to sheer disappointment when he didn’t so much as turn around to acknowledge she’d been standing there.
Odd. Nicole had always been a huge fan of Christian and had dated through his friend group, but she’d never been this happy to see him or looked this disappointed when he ignored her presence.
I rolled my eyes and started walking down the trail, giving up on my run. Nicole followed.
“What do you think he wants to talk to you about?” she asked. “Is everything okay?”
“He’s probably going to propose again,” I sighed.
Nicole gasped. “Again? What do you mean?”
Well, the cat was out of the bag now. “He proposed this summer, and I turned him down.”
“Why the hell would you turn down Christian Brockford?” She said his name like he was the salt of the earth, and I the stupid fool.
“I don’t want to get married right now.”
“And you’re still together?”
Greek Row came into view through the trees as we walked. I wanted nothing more than to start running again, away from this conversation. “Uh, yeah, we are.” I laughed, unable to help myself. “Maybe he’s going to break up with me today.”
“Why do you sound so casual about that?”
I arched my brows. In truth, I found Nicole’s utterly shocked—practically horrified—expression amusing. I shrugged, reaching up to pull free the scrunchie holding my hair. “Look, Nicole. I love you, but I’ve been telling you for years now that I want more than just to get married and be a housewife. I’m not here for a Mrs. degree, okay? Christian doesn’t really get that, but when he proposed to me this summer, I told him he needed to wait until I was done with college.”
“But that’s three years from now.”
“I know.”
I thought saying no to his grandmother’s diamond ring this summer meant we were over, but he kept showing up, talking to my dad and making plans with my mom like we were just as happy as we used to be.
He kept them busy, so I’d just let it be.
I walked up the steps to our sorority house and held the door open for a dumbfounded Nicole.
“Was it the ring? Was it super ugly? Is that really why you said no?”
“Nicole,” I laughed, shaking my head. “No.”
