The things we gossips do to make sure newcomers feel welcome in a community.
And to psychologically and food-logically sway them to reconsider what they’re doing to the community.
The worst part of all of the questions about Grey though?
I don’t want them to like him.
Because he’s mine.
Dammit.
Even when I know he’s pissed at me, and rightfully so,I want him to be mine.
I want him to be the friend thatDukewas in Hawaii.
It just felt so right. Soeasy. And even with our differences, I feel like I can trust him.
He’s trusted me with some hard things about himself. He thinksI’mworth it.
Or he did.
Until this morning.
“Are you participating, Sabrina?” Kayla asks.
The question takes me by surprise—she’s the first to ask all night—but worse?
Worse, it makes me want to turn around and see if he’s watching me.
He’s been pissed at me for four solid hours now.
And I’ve been successfully avoiding him for those four solid hours, despite spending half of them here at Bean & Nugget, getting the café set up for speed dating.
Jitter is like a paperweight, but for people. He was a Grey-weight today.
That helped keep Grey from hunting me down.
“I know you usually do,” Kayla adds in a whisper, “but I heard you have a boyfriend you’re not talking about, so I didn’t know…”
I have awhat?
I absolutely do not have—oh my god.
I burst out laughing, then clamp a hand over my own mouth.
Grey gossiped about me.
She leans closer. “Who did you tell you had a boyfriend and why? Youneverhave a boyfriend.Ever. But Yolanda swore Fiona claimed her source was impeccable, even if she couldn’t say who it was.”
Grey’s watching me.
I can see his reflection in the window, thanks to the darkness outside, and he is definitely watching me. A shiver slinks down my spine.
“People change,” I tell her. “But that particular relationship didn’t work out.”
“You had a boyfriend?”
“I was in a very short-term relationship.” With myself. I’d still be in it, but I’m taking a short break from myself while I deal with the fact that I don’t like that I’m attracted to a man whom I need to not be attracted to.
