“That’s not true.”
“C’mon, Tal.” I cocked my head to the side. “You were miserable today.”
“See also the quicksand analogy.” Her shoulders hunched and a look of guilt swept over her face. “But also, I panicked, for other reasons.”
“Other reasons?”
In a surprise turn of events, she pulled out her phone and clicked on the TikTok app.
“I thought you despised social media.”
“I do. I joined to follow one account.” She tapped on a video that I assumed had been posted by the one account she followed. Then she stepped over so I could see. And there, staring back at me, was a grid full of…
Me.
What the?
My gaze narrowed and I wished I had my readers with me. She tapped on the first video. Pinned with seventy-four thousand views. Seventy-four thousand? As it played, there were close-ups of my butt—and my shoulders and my eyes—but mostly my butt. I yanked the phone from her hand and started the next video. That one was all eyes. The one after that was my hands. My hands?Do I have nice hands?Who obsesses over a man’s hands? Whoever ran PeerReviewedHottie that’s who. By the time I gave the phone back, I felt completely violated and objectified.
“Who posted those?” I growled.
Her face was ashen and her mouth pinched closed like she’d crossed her heart and hoped to die. It only took a few seconds to think about where in the classroom they’d been taken from.
“Ashley.” I spat her name like a swear word.
“You can’t say anything to her.”
“Oh, I’m saying something all right. If she takes it down immediately, I’ll be nice and consider not suing.” My molars ground together. “I’m sure Holden would be happy to represent me pro bono.”
Tally put my elbow in a death grip. “No. You can’t.” When she realized she was touching me, she dropped my arm like it was covered in poison ivy. “Ashley will never speak to me again. She just thinks you’re nice looking.” She let out a laugh that sounded like a strangled hyena. “And apparently a hundred thousand people agree.”
But I didn’t find this funny at all. “I still don’t get how this has anything to do with why you wanted to go out.”
She cowered against my truck. “Because,” she said so low I almost couldn’t hear. “Ashley has a countdown timer of how many days until graduation. She says she’s going to beall overthat…” she waved a hand over the length of my body “…as soon as the diploma is in her hand.”
I shivered in disgust. Some women.
Hot anger rolled over me. “Soyoudon’t want me, but you don’t want anyone else to have me?”
“No, that’s not…” Her hands pressed against her cheeks but she didn’t finish.
I threw my hands up. “I’ve loved you for ni-nine years,” my voice cracked. “Nine. Do you have any idea what that was like?” She looked so ashamed. “It was hell, Tally. I tell you that I love you—that I can’t stop no matter how hard I try—and this is what you do with it?”
She was curling in on herself.
I clamped down on my jaw so I wouldn’t say what else was going through my head. That she’d hurt me. That I felt used. That I was rethinkingeverything. But I didn’t want to hurt her anymore than I had.
She crossed her arms and looked at the ground. “Are you mad? About your nose? Because it feels like you’re mad.”
I propped my hands on my hips as I breathed it out, trying to ignore the ache in my face and answer objectively. “No. Bones heal. And I guess that’s what I get for startling you. And honestly, karma, for going on a date with one of my students.” She reached out to give me a conciliatory hug but I held my hand up to stop her. “Lesson learned.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. But that was it. No, ‘I love you too.’ Not even an, ‘I like you a lot. Let’s try again after graduation.’
I held my hand in a wave. “Just…let me know if you ever want to go out for the right reasons.”
I pulled my key fob out of my pocket. She sniffled and I glanced at her. She looked gutted and like she felt helpless.
I shook my head. “You know how to escape quicksand?”
