What exactly does she mean by that? Did she see me up there with Reid? Or am I just being overly sensitive and feeling guilty? And why isn’t Keegan looking at me?
Should I be a little honest or totally honest?
“Yeah, I ran into a friend from w-work.”
Keegan finally meets my gaze. “A friend from work?”
He says the word friend like he knows it was Reid and he’s asking if the “friend” is more than a friend. Which is pretty ballsy of him, given the whole Selah situation.
Some petty small part of me wishes I could taunt him with the idea that Reid is more than a friend or might someday be more than a friend. But I’m not that petty, and if I realized anything tonight, it’s that I don’t want Reid to be more than a friend.
So I’m able to say, with complete and unreserved honesty. “Yep. Just a friend. We’ve got a big presentation due on Monday, and the breeze up there was great.”
“Oh? Is that why you went up there?” Selah asks, with the air of a person annoyed at being excluded from the conversation. “Was it too hot for you down here?”
What is that supposed to mean?
Is that a dig at my weight? Is she implying that I was hot just because I have the padding of a healthy adult woman and not an underfed supermodel? Or that I couldn’t take the pressure of competing against her for Keegan’s attention?
I don’t know which is worse.
Either way, I don’t have the energy or desire to play her verbal reindeer games.
“Keegan, I do feel a little overheated.” I make a show of fanning myself with the flier again. “I think I might leave early. I can call a ride share if you plan on staying longer.”
“No,” he says, his tone resigned. Finally he looks at me, but when his gaze meets mine, there’s a flicker of surprise, before his expression settles into something unreadable. “I think we’re done here, anyway. I’ll get you home.”
Selah balks. Clearly, she was hoping I’d leave so she could have Keegan all to herself. She collects herself quickly and coos at him, “Are you sure? There are some amazing vacations up for auction.”
“Yes.” He moves to put even a centimeter of distance between them.
For a second, she clings even tighter to his arm, before releasing her hold on him with a long stroke down to his hand. Then she kisses him on the cheek ... barely, since her lips almost land on his mouth. “Okay, then. I guess I’ll see you around the building.”
She doesn’t bother to say goodbye to me, even though she was just plastered against my date like he was her life preserver. Then she turns and saunters off without so much as a backwards glance. Which leaves me watching Keegan watch her walk away.
Why is he watching her walk away?
And why does she look that good doing it? Did she take some sort of class on how to be mesmerizing?
Probably. It’s probably the kind of thing Loretta teaches when she’s coaching to-be beauty queens.
I started this evening feeling pampered and gorgeous. Now I just feel like a hot troll. And not hot in the sexy sense of the word. Hot in the overheated sense of the word.
God, this sucks.
I turn back to Keegan to see that his attention has shifted back to me, and I wish I could read his expression, but I can’t.
Does he regret inviting me?
Now that he’s seen Selah look so gorgeous and so at ease in this crowd, now that he’s reminded of how she fits into his world, he probably wishes he was with her.
Part of me wants to just ask him, but I’m not brave enough. If I ask him, I have to hear his answer.
So instead, I ask an easier question.
“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?”
He makes a huffing noise that I might mistake for a chuckle if I didn't know him so well. But to me it sounds like annoyance. “No. We’re done here.”
