My cheeks flamed. “A little,” I admitted. “She’s beautiful, I know she thinks you’re gorgeous, and y’all didn’t seem to be working on school at all. It looked like you were just hanging out to me.”
“How do you know she thinks I’m gorgeous?” His eyes were intense on mine, and the uneasy feeling in my stomach grew.
“That’s what you want to focus on?”
“Just tell me.”
“Fine. We cheer together and we’re in the same sorority, remember? She’s mentioned before that I have the best-looking boyfriend. Stuff like that.”
“Hmm,” he said, kicking pebbles.
“Harrison.” I stopped walking, forcing him to stop, too. “What about the other things I said? That she’s beautiful and y’all weren’t working on school tonight.”
“She’s pretty, sure. But she doesn’t have anything on you, Sadie.”
Okay. I knew I was pretty. I also had the kind of curves I happened to know Harrison loved. When we had sex, all he could talk about was my breasts or my ass. He was totally into them.
But Aubrey? She was model-level gorgeous. She was tall and trim and while her curves weren’t like mine, she definitely had sex appeal.
Him saying she had nothing on me didn’t relieve my mind since I knew he thought she was hot.
“Don’t you trust me, Sunshine?” He looked down at me, hurt in his eyes, and I felt like a piece of crap for doubting him.
“Sorry. Of course I trust you. I’m just being jealous, that’s all. You were right. I just think you need to watch out, though.”
He cocked his head to the side as we started walking again. “What do you mean?”
“She’s into you.”
He shook his head. “We’re just friends.”
I looked up at him. “Aubrey Seeks is not the type of girl who is ‘just friends’ with a guy. She’s just not. So be careful. That’s all I’m saying. She sees you as a challenge because she knows how long you and I have been together. I happen to know she enjoys breaking up couples just because she can. I also know she only wants to date someone she thinks is going on to play pro sports.”
He just watched me, listening intently.
“If you meant what you said about wanting to be with me forever, you should watch it when you’re around her.”
He chuckled. “Of course I want to be with you forever. You’re making something out of nothing.”
A few days later, I was walking across campus to meet Harrison for lunch at the athlete’s cafeteria. All campus athletes came here to use their dining cards as often as possible. This was the cafeteria that served the best, healthiest food, and all the coaches encouraged athletes to take advantage of it. Harrison and I met up here to eat together at least once a day.
Today, as I walked up, I was busy talking to Carrie when she stopped short.
I almost ran into her. “Jeez, why’d you stop like that?” Then I followed her eyes and saw that Harrison was eating lunch with Aubrey Seeks. The two of them lookedveryfriendly. She touched his arm as she told him something, and then they both laughed at whatever it was. They were comfortable with each other, I realized. She must’ve introduced herself to him in class last semester like she’d said she was going to. I wondered how long they’d been hanging out like this.
Carrie and I went through the line and then headed over to Harrison’s table.
“Hey, Sunshine.” He stood up and gave me a hug and kiss, pulling me against him with his strong arms.
“Hey,” I smiled up at him, ignoring Aubrey.
“Do y’all remember Aubrey?” he asked as he sat back down. She smiled at us sweetly, which I knew was fake. Aubrey didn’t have a sweet bone in her body.
My stomach sank a little. “Of course we do. She cheers with us, remember?” I hadn’t meant for my tone to come out harshly, but it did. Why did he keep introducing us to someone we knew?
Harrison looked at me with surprise. “Oh, that’s right. I forget about that. Anyway, she and I exchange notes from class sometimes.”
“I missed a class this week, and Harrison was so nice to make sure I got what I needed to catch up.”
