He curled his arm around my waist, a smug smirk playing on his lips.“Let them.”
Heart pounding inside my chest because Frasier was so good at this fake-dating thing and making me feel all these emotions that I really shouldn’t, I forced a confident smile on my face and slid onto a seat next to Cairo.Frasier sat beside me, his hand on my thigh.Cairo took note and looked away.Arch glared at Frasier from across the table, his lip curled up in disgust.
A few moments later, Calix walked into the cafeteria, his gaze cold, just like Rush’s, who hadn’t looked at me since my last encounter with him.He ate his lunch, his phone on the table, face down.Did he hate me that much?
“Hey, Astrid,” Cairo said, acknowledging me before anyone else.
“Hi,” I whispered, looking around at all the students gawking at us.
My gaze locked on to my friends’ table.Ruby smirked at me and pointed down to her phone, and suddenly, my phone was buzzing in my pocket.I tugged it out and stared at the bright screen from under the table, reading texts in our group chat.
Ruby: Shut.Up.
Bella: Someone is busssssy today.
Jade: Frasier though?
Bella: Hey, Frasier is cute!
Jade: He is, but he’s a man-whore.
Bella: I bet he has some good
Jade: Not better than I can give you
Seraphina: Wait, LOL.Frasier?!?!You’re fucking him?Since when?!
Me: No, I’m not fucking him!
Another message came through in a private thread from Ruby.
Ruby: Don’t tell me that you’re sleeping with all of them!!!
Before anyone could see my chat—especially Frasier—I turned my phone upside down and slipped it back into my pocket.I didn’t need him to get a bigger ego than he already had if he saw Bella’s message.
Or maybe I just didn’t want him going after her next.
Jealousy twisted at my insides.Of course I didn’t want that.I liked … his attention.
Not him.
“Everything okay?”Frasier asked, moving his hand further up my thigh.
I pressed my thighs together in an attempt to stop him from doing thisagainin the middle of Redwood.One of these days, someone was bound to see it.It was bad enough that we were sitting together.
“Just my friends,” I murmured, staring at my lunch.“And everyone else …”
The entire table sat in a tense silence, Arch and Calix both glaring at Frasier while Rush continued to stare down at his lunch, jaw clenched tightly.Cairo shifted beside me, playing with the food on his tray.
“So, finally decided to sit with us,” Cairo said, breaking the silence.
“I don’t think I had much of a choice,” I said, taking a peek at him, cheeks warming.
“You always have a choice,” Cairo said, only loud enough for me to hear.
Heat coursed through my body as the memory of this morning flooded through my mind.Cairo had told me that I wouldn’t be able to handle all of him, especially not if he brought me home.
Was this his way of giving me a warning?
