Now both my brows rose. "Natalia?"
"C'mon, Scarlet. You know it doesn't mean anything," he said, lowering his voice. "We have to keep up pretenses. Especially with your stepdad here. That's all this is."
I nodded and looked away from him. "Right. Keeping up pretenses."
The bartender came back with my margarita and Rush's two Cokes.
Taking my glass, I lifted it in a mock toast. "Best run along now. Don't want to keep Natalia waiting." And with that, I pushed off the bar and walked away, making my way through the crowd, needing to be as far away from Rush as possible.
Logically I knew that what he was doing was all for show, but it still didn't take the sting out of it. I hated watching him flirt with beautiful women who were trying to sleep with him. Two months of doing this same song and dance, and I was sick of it. I loved being with Rush and it was easy to forget about all this when we were alone together, but it was wearing on me.
For most of the night, I was able to avoid him. Thankfully there was a group of girls who lived on the same floor in my dorm building whom I knew, and I hung out with them and some of their friends. Olivia came over every once and a while and hung out with us, too. She felt bad that she was spending most of her time with Wilder but understood it was too hard for me to be around Rush.
I danced, I ate, I chatted with the group, and got a few more margaritas. And throughout the whole night, Natalia hadn't left Rush's side. As much as I knew he was pretending, he was doing an awfully good job at it. Almost too good.
What if he started to have an interest in her? What if he realized it would be a lot easier to be openly dating someone instead of hiding his relationship from his friends and hiding out in his apartment?
Was I being insecure and jealous? Yes, totally and completely. But I'd challenge anyone to repeatedly watch their coveted and ridiculously good-looking boyfriend have sexy girl after sexy girl coming up to them, putting their hands all over them, whispering in their ear, and not have it affect them. I think it would be scientifically impossible. Or at least that's what I told myself.
I'd been sitting at a table with the group when we decided to go back to the dance floor before midnight. I'd just stood up when my mom approached. I'd seen her here with Ian but hadn't been in the mood to go talk to them. I was still upset with Ian.
"Hi, sweetie," she said. She wore a tasteful black cocktail dress and looked amazing. "I was trying to stay away and not bother you with your friends, but I had to come over and tell you how beautiful you look, if maybe a little too sexy."
"Hi, Mom," I smiled. "And thank you."
"You look like you've been having fun," she said, almost as if she was hedging to get us to talk about another topic.
"I have been."
"Olivia looks beautiful as well, and that boyfriend of hers is scrumptious." She eyed the group that Olivia and Wilder were with.
"Mom," I exclaimed. "He's way too young for you to be calling him scrumptious."
She waved me off. "Oh, please, just because I can see how handsome those boys are doesn't mean I'm a cougar."
I rolled my eyes at her.
"That dark haired boy with the icy blue eyes is quite the looker. He's massive, so big and muscly. Is that the one you were crushing on?" she asked, still staring at them.
So that was the topic she had wanted to discuss. I should have known.
"That's Slate. He's one of our linebackers. And no, Mom, he and I are just friends. He's Wilder's best friend."
"Hmm, so which one..." She continued looking through the group and I started to panic. My mom was really good at getting things out of people, especially me. You couldn't keep anything from a Southern woman. She could sniff something out as easy as smelling when a peach was ready for the picking.
I'd gotten that same quality from her. I'd used it on Olivia last year to get all the details when she and Wilder were getting together. It came in quite handy when you needed it.
"Mom, I'm not going to have this conversation with you."
"Ooh, that boy in the navy button up is yummy. What about him?" she asked, looking at me to gauge my reaction.
I shook my head and moved to go past her. "I'm going to go dance now. Bye, Mom."
I left her standing there as I went to join the group I'd been with.
We danced and I got into the music, not looking at Rush once during the last three songs. Our group consisted of boys and girls, with one of the guys taking an interest in me. He was nice and cute, but I obviously wasn't interested. But I was kind to him, and when he asked me to slow dance with him, I accepted.
We talked about our upcoming classes for the new semester and how he plays on the men's volleyball team. He mentioned how he'd seen me on the sidelines at some of the games that I'd attended for the paper, which was sweet of him.
