“Just one night,” Daisy begs her roommate. “Aren’t you a little bit curious?”
Briar is silent in response.
Daisy is quick to crumble. “Fine. You can extend your grilled cheese hours until three. But weekends only!”
Briar thinks on that for a minute. “Deal.”
“The weekends are turning out to be in high demand,” Daisy explains.
“And I can’t make the sandwiches in the hall because running a business out of your dorm is frowned upon,” Briar says nonchalantly.
“I wouldn’t sayfrowned upon,” Daisy says. “It’s a blatant violation of the housing contract.”
Briar pouts. “And our stick-up-his-ass RA has it in for me.”
Daisy winces. “Maybe if you didn’t call him that to his face…”
“I don’t say things behind a person’s back that I won’t say to their face,” Briar calmly explains. “And he started it when he made me get rid of my lava lamp. Fire hazard, my ass.”
“I need to start crafting,” Daisy says as she begins to furiously tap out a to-do list on her phone. “Oh! Is Bennett coming?”
I glance down at the ring on my finger. “Uh, no. I think I need a girls’ night.”
“Well, at least that’s one less costume to make.” Daisy chews on her lower lip, lost in thought. “Now, we just have to figure out a theme.”
CHAPTER 19
Clover
Daisy chauffeurs us around in her cherry-red Mini Cooper Club. We end up going to three different stores to stock up on all the supplies we’ll need.
We’re all plus size in one way or another, which makes it easier to trust that Daisy won’t do me dirty with whatever outfit she puts me in. I’m short, but full of curves—including some that aren’t entirely even. Daisy is all ass with a nipped-in waist, while Briar is tall and soft like a Botticelli—a sharp contrast to her prickly personality.
We stop for burrito bowls at a local place called BOB (Bowl Only Burritos), and the girl behind the counter with pink hair practically pries the debit card from my fingers because I’m so averse to spending money on food when I have to pay for a campus meal plan regardless. However, she is so smitten with Briar that she gives us free chips and guac, so that does ease the pain of an eleven-dollar bowl of beans and rice. When she asks if I’d like a fountain drink, I ask for a cup of water and she gives me a soda cup anyway before winking at Briar.
“You should get her number,” I tell Briar once we sit down.
“Not my type,” she says.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I just—”
“No, no,” she continues. “The girl is cute, butno oneis my type right now. At least not for the next four years. In reality,waytoo many people are my type. That girl for instance is a big yes, but so are the two guys in the kitchen. I just… I’m constantly one step away from being the fourth corner in a polycule, and three significant others require a lot of emotional labor.” She sighs and sets her fork down. “I only have four years to graduate and that’s it. I’m on a timetable.”
“It’s doable,” I tell her. “But what’s with the strict timeline?”
“My grandparents. My dad is estranged, so I hardly know them, but they set aside a college fund for me that I could access if and only if I attended Wexley, their alma mater. I’m allotted four years of tuition because they’re scandalized by the idea that a four-year degree could take longer than four years. It drove my dad batshit when their lawyer contacted us and he found out that there was all this money just sitting there—money that we could have really used and the only thing it’s good for is my education.”
“Sounds like a smart use of funds to me,” I tell her.
“Concur,” Daisy says as she politely shields her mouth as she’s eating.
Briar sips on her cherry Coke. “Yeah, well, I was originally waitlisted, so I took last year off school and assumed I didn’t have a shot in hell until I got the acceptance letter a week before move-in day. Anyway, Daisy’s turn to jump in on this little sharing session.”
“My dad is a pastor,” she says shyly. “Just outside Vegas.”
“No offense,” I tell her. “I’m a scholarship kid myself, but isn’t this place a little rich for a pastor’s salary?”
Briar laughs. “Not if your dad is shelling the gospel like a used-car salesman on live TV every Sunday morning.”
