“No, not nothing. What did you mean by that?”
She exhales sharply, frustrated. “It's stupid. I'm being stupid.”
“Try me.”
Her jaw tightens. “It’s…Brianna. She was asking if you were coming to some Alpha party. With a kissy face emoji. And there were other messages too. Flirty ones.”
I look at her blank, still not understanding the issue.
“I get messages all the time, Delilah. I barely even notice them.”
“You reacted to her Instagram story,” she continues, voice clipped. “With a fire emoji.”
I take a breath and look at the ceiling. “I don't even remember doing that. I react to shit on my phone all the time without thinking. It doesn't mean anything.”
“Yeah, well, it meant something to me,” she adds.
“Wait,” I say, sitting forward. “You think... what? That I'm interested in Brianna?”
She finally meets my eyes, defiant but hurt. “I don't know what to think. That's the problem. I can't…I can't be in something where I'm not sure.”
“Let me get this straight,” I say slowly. “You've been avoiding me for a week because Brianna sent me some messages that I barely responded to?”
She crosses her arms. “When you say it like that, it sounds ridiculous. And you did respond. Well, you didn't shut it down. That's one of my friends, Troy, flirting with you!”
“Because it kind of is! I don't even know what messages you're talking about. Like, specifically. I get DMs all the time. I have a lot of people I know. Sometimes I respond, sometimes I don't. It doesn't mean anything.”
“It's not just that,” she argues, but her voice has lost some of its edge. “It's... everything. It's how easy this all seems for you. How many people want your attention. It's...”
“It's what?”
“It's that I can't compete with that,” she admits, the words rushing out like she's been holding them in. “And I hate that I even care. I hate that I'm this person who gets jealous over stupid messages. This isn't me. I don't do this.”
I stare at her. “You're jealous.”
She winces. “Can you not sound so pleased about it?”
“I'm not pleased,” I say, though maybe there's a tiny part of me that is. “I'm just... surprised. I didn't think you cared that much.”
“Well, I do,” she says, voice small. “And it's freaking me out.”
I lean back, processing this. “You know, if it bothers you, I can just block Brianna. I can block anyone. It's not a big deal.”
Her head snaps up. “That's not the point. The point is you will always have options. Why would you stay with me? And besides, I don’t want to be that controlling girlfriend who makes you cut people off. That’s not?—”
“Girlfriend?” I repeat, unable to keep the smile from my face.
She flushes. “You know what I mean.”
“Do I? Because from my point of view, I confessed that I was falling for you, I invited you to meet my family, I do everything I fucking can for you and you’ve not given me one crumb to show me that you feel the same way.”
The words hang in the air between us. Her expression hardens.
“That’s not fair,” she says, voice low.
“Isn’t it? You’ve been pulling away for a week over some Instagram messages, but you couldn’t even talk to me about it. Instead, you just disappeared.”
“Because I’m trying to protect myself!” Her voice rises. “You have no idea what it’s like to constantly wonder if you’re just another conquest, another girl who fell for your bullshit charm!”
