“Okay. See you there.” I hold up a hand in farewell, and she scurries away.
“Oooh,” James says, coming up to my podium. “You and Professor Beaumont?”
“What?” I can hear my voice sounding panicked. This is how rumors get started, and I don’t want to damage her reputation. “No. No way. She’s engaged.”
“To you?”
“Obviously not.”
He shrugs. “Well, from here, it looked like more than that.”
I shake my head. “We’re just good friends.”
“Well, good friends can betangentto romance, am I right?”
I sigh heavily. “James, don’t use calculus against me.”
He just laughs and walks away. “See you Wednesday, Professor.”
Great. Now my students think something is happening between me and Claire. I’ve got to rein it in or things are just going to spiral out of control.
Back at the office,Claire is waiting in front of my cubicle and fiddling with her hands. No, not her hands. Her ring.
“Hey!” she says brightly.
“Hey.” I walk past her and set my backpack down on my chair, then turn to face her. “Conference room?”
“Yeah, that’s probably best.” For someone who just wants to talk about a tutoring center, she’s acting weird. I follow her to the conference room and take a seat at the round table, but Claire closes the door before sitting down. Strange. We usually leave the door open.
I fold my hands on the table. “Have you been able to get a location yet?”
“I didn’t want to talk about the tutoring center,” she says quickly.
I furrow my brow. “Okay,” I say, drawing the word out. “What are we talking about?”
“Us.”
My mouth drops open slightly before I catch myself. Is this the moment? Did she finally realize she shouldn’t be with Zach and should be with me? My heart rate picks up speed. It has to be! Why else would she want to talk to me in private?
I swallow hard. “What exactly about us?”
She sighs and looks up at the ceiling. “This is so awkward. But I feel like something is weird between us. I sent you that picture on Friday night, and you just sent a thumbs up, and you never responded to how your date went. And things have just felt…distant.”
“Distant,” I repeat.
“I feel like we haven’t been able to, you know, beus,” she continues. “Is it because of the engagement? Because I don’t want to lose you as my best friend, even if I’m getting married.”
I need a minute to catch up. So she’snotbreaking up with Zach. She’s just asking what happened to our friendship. A pang hits my chest at the realization.
Use your logical brain, Ryan. You can handle this conversation.
I breathe in deeply through my nose. It is because of her engagement, but I have to be careful not to betray my true feelings. “Yeah, I guess.”
“I know you don’t approve of Zach,” she says softly.
“But if he makes you happy, that’s all that matters,” I reply. The words taste bitter on the way out, and I want to throw up after saying them.
She presses her lips together, pausing before she smiles. “He does.”
