Chelly wanted to stop for some food, since we hadn’t eaten since the shrimp way earlier, but I was exhausted and though I was hungry too, I just wanted to get back to campus. And knowing my brother, even though his car was basically a piece of junk, he would not like us driving around in it and he’d specifically told us to go straight back.
Not to mention that we still had to check in with the dean and if she found out we were out driving around, she would be none too pleased.
“Let’s just head back,” I said as we got into Robert’s car.
Chelly gave out a big sigh. “You are no fun. Live a little.”
“Are you kidding?” I said. “I almost killed a man today. And after you told my brother about that, I almost killed you.”
She smirked as she slid the key into the ignition slot. “He didn’t care. He thought it was funny. He’s nice, by the way,” she said and then laughed when she looked at me. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not interested. It was just flirting.”
I wondered why she wasn’t interested, since Robert was (if I was being objective, which I could be, in private, despite what I’d said to my friends before) good looking and definitely charming, but I figured questioning a good thing was a bad idea. Life would be way more complicated if she dated him. It was enough keeping him away from Emmie.
“It wasn’t funny,” I said, getting back to the situation with Dave, although the corner of my mouth kicked up. Maybe it was the exhaustion talking, but all of a sudden it did seem a tiny bit funny. “Fine, okay, it’s a little funny. But you can’t go around blurting out stuff like that. Especially to my brother.”
“Or Emmie,” she said helpfully.
“Exactly.”
Chelly pulled out of the parking garage to the street. That it was already dark out made the day feel even longer. “You’re going to talk to her, though, right?”
“I’m going to have to. But I’m still not a hundred percent on dating him. I told him we’d have to cool it until after Thanksgiving and if we still felt the same after that...”
She glanced over at me, nodding. “That’s a great idea.”
“I don’t want to be his rebound girl. He says he likes me for me, but I have to think the thing with Emmie is still too fresh, right?”
“Absolutely,” Chelly agreed. “And you need to be sure you’re not going to be fooling around with your coach.”
“There is nothing going on with him,” I said.
She glanced over again. “Sure?”
I ticked off the reasons on my fingers, “He’s faculty.”
“Sort of,” Chelly countered.
“He’s training for the Olympics.”
“With a busted leg.”
“He’s the dean’s son.”
“WHAT?” The car swerved, narrowly missing a mailbox before Chelly straightened out.
“Pay attention to the road!” I yelled.
“Don’t drop drama bombs! She hollered back.
“Fine. Yes, he’s her son. No one is supposed to know, though. Can you please maybe keep a secret?”
She exhaled, keeping her eyes on the road and her hands at ten and two. “Fine. But oh my God, Brooklyn.”
“I know. So yeah, there are many reasons why nothing is going on with me and him. And anyway, I like Dave. I’ve liked him from that first day. I couldn’t talk about it for obvious reasons, but I really liked him.”
For about the first time ever, Chelly was quiet for a long time. Long enough that after several minutes I couldn’t stand it anymore. “What?” I finally asked. “What are you thinking about?”
“Honestly?” she said, looking at me. “A steak burrito. I’m starving.”
I rolled my eyes.
“But before that, I was thinking about you and which guy is better for you. I mean, I haven’t known you that long, but you’re a great girl and any guy would be lucky to have you.”
“I...thank you,” I said quietly, a little embarrassed at her compliments, especially when I thought that exact thing about her. “So which guy do you think?”
I held my breath as she tapped her thumbs against the top of the steering wheel. “I really don’t know.”
“That’s helpful.”
She barked out a laugh. “I wasn’t trying to be helpful. Dave and Coach Brady—and Jared for that matter—are great guys. But it’s about who you want. Who turns your crank? That’s who you need to be with. Obviously that’s not Jared, since you broke up with him, so is it Dave or the coach?”
I shook my head. “I can’t be with Brady even if it was him.”
“What if you took away all the obstacles?”
“I really don’t know. I like them both for different reasons.”
“You like them both because they are both smoking hot.” She took her right hand off the wheel to fan herself, making me laugh.
“They are both hot, I’ll give you that. But they’re totally different guys. Brady’s intense and serious and he loves horses and you should see him ride.” It was my turn to fan my face.
“I have seen him in those pants, that boy is a danger to ovaries everywhere.”
I snorted. “But Dave is sweet and funny and also sexy as anything.”
“Which one is the better kisser?”
“Hmm,” I said, thinking about it.
“So you have kissed your coach.”
“What? You...how? Aw crap,” I stuttered out, realizing way too late that she’d just totally baited me into admitting I’d kissed Brady.
“Busted. So, who was better?”
“That’s hard to say. One was interrupted by Celia at the dance and the other was interrupted by anaphylaxis. Neither were ideal situations.”
Suddenly, Chelly pulled the car into the parking lot of a 7-11. “I need a corn dog or I’m going to die,” she said in explanation. “But first, I need a high-five because I love that you kissed your coach at the dance.”
I declined the high five at first, but it was obvious we would be going nowhere if I didn’t give in, so I did. “Technically, he kissed me,” I said. “Same with Dave today.”
“Right. And you hated it both times and got out your rape whistle.”
“Er...not exactly.”
“So, you need to kiss both of them again. Without seafood in Dave’s case and without interruption in Coach Brady’s.”
“I can’t be with Brady; it’s a moot point.”
She held up her hand and ticked off her fingers just as I had done only a few minutes before. “He’s going to be out of training for a while. He may be your coach, but he’s still just an eighteen year old guy. He’s not a professor. And you’ll hide if from his mom. If he’s into you, he’ll be all for that. And he’s hot; don’t forget he’s totally hot.”
Like I could ever forget that? I opened my mouth to protest, but she held her hand up. “Kiss him again. You have to, or you’ll never know and will always wonder. And if you do it before Thanksgiving and it sucks, you’re done with him and you’ll know Dave is the guy for you.”
“But what if it doesn’t suck?”
“We’ll reevaluate. Trust me, Brooklyn. I’ll help you through this.”
It made sense, I guess, though a little part of my brain whispered that her strategy would do nothing other than make it more confusing. Although I would get to kiss Brady again and secretly I did like that part of her plan.
I nodded. “Okay, fine. Maybe I’ll try that.”
She grinned and took the keys out of the car. “It’s the best way to know for sure. Now come on, let’s get some corn dogs.”
~ ♥ ~
We ate our corn dogs on our way back to campus (Robert’s car already smelled gross, so I couldn’t imagine the smell of fried cornbread could make it any worse) and Chelly parked in the staff dorm parking lot, as my brother had instructed. She gave me the keys and we headed across campus to the main building. It was barely seven p.m. but all I wanted was to have a hot bath and climb into bed.
“Movie night?” I asked Chelly as we climbed the stairs to the third floor.
“Yeah. You?”
“I’m pretty tired.”
“It’s a movie, Brooklyn, not a triathlon.”
I chuckled. “Good point. But I need to shower the hospital off me first.”
We stopped at her dorm room door. “Thanks for today,” I said. “Even though you spilled to my brother and tricked me into admitting secrets. Really. Thanks for coming to the hospital.”
She threw her arms around me and as we hugged, said into my ear. “That’s what friends do. Those secrets are safe with me, but make sure you talk to Emmie before she hears it from someone else.”
We pulled out of the hug. “I will. In a few days when I get my head sorted.”
She nodded. “Okay. See you in the lounge in a bit.”
I left her and continued down the hall to my own room, taking my key card out of my pocket. I slid it into the slot and only then realized I had no idea if Emmie was home or where she’d been all day. It was weird for us to spend a whole day apart and not even know where the other was, but she was probably in the library researching a paper on human trafficking or something like that.
The door beeped and I pushed it open to find her sitting on her bed, a shiny guitar on her lap.
“Hey,” I said.
She looked up. “Oh hi. I was wondering when you’d get home. How did it go?”
Obviously she hadn’t spoken to anyone. I searched her face; she looked a bit sad, but not mad or even concerned and if she knew about Dave, she would have opened with asking how he was doing.
“It was a crazy day,” I said, letting the door close behind me as I came into the room and sat down on my bed. “I didn’t know you played,” I said, nodding at the guitar.
“I don’t,” she said, tracing her fingers along the curve of the instrument. “I bought this for Dave for his birthday; it’s next week.”
My heart began to race in my chest, dread turning the corn dog in my stomach into a ball of lead. “What are you going to do with it?”
She looked up at me. “I think I made the biggest mistake of my life, Brooklyn,” she said, as though she hadn’t heard my question. “I never should have broken up with him.”