“The truth,” I uttered. Hating that, I felt a twinge of jealousy. Unsure if the foreign emotion was about the possibility of Grey and Chelsea or that he was probably seeing someone. Pretending he was mine made me more possessive of him, though I had no right. And it’d only been a day.
Grey’s forehead furrowed, though he answered. “Not sure yet. Met her last week. Kicked it a couple of times.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I moved to the edge of my bed, looking down at him. “I get the third degree about Carter, and you’ve been seeing someone?”
He placed his feet on the carpet and sat up. “That wasn’t the third degree. And I usually don’t tell you about every girl I see.” Grey then looked at Chelsea. “Rule one. Our sex lives are off-limits. We only discuss if and when we want to. No, using our code word unless it’s serious. I haven’t had to explain myself since I left Beaumont. Not about to do that now.”
“Fine.” I folded my arms. “I won’t tell you shit else about Carter.”
“Trust, there’ll be nothing to tell.” He rose from the bed. “He’s toying with you...but go ahead and take a risk. Can’t wait for you to tell me I was right.”
“I can’t wait to say you were wrong,” I retorted while we glared at each other.
“Hey...can we chill on all this? I don’t want to fight on our first night together. We won’t discuss our sex lives with each other. Got it.” Chelsea moved to the door. “I thought that Darren would be mediating between you and me. Guess I was wrong. Now apologize to each other, and let’s toast.”
“Not apologizing,” Grey grumbled as he walked behind Chelsea.
“I’m not either,” I agreed and popped him on the back of the neck.
He grabbed the spot I hit and howled, “Hey.”
“Sorry,” I quickly said and moved his hand to rub it myself. “You just promised to be nice about Carter, and a day later, you take it back.”
“I already agreed to be your fake man, which means I can’t have women over until whatever you’re doing with him is done. That’s all you get from me. No promises on not telling you my opinion of him.”
Chelsea gasped, “You agreed? I just knew you would call her crazy or desperate or some mean name for lying on you.”
“I silently called her desperate and crazy in my mind.” He picked up a glass pitcher with his Sprite Floatie, a concoction of lime sherbert, Sprite, and grenadine, making the drink pinkish and delicious.
“Hello, I’m right here... and I have no shame in admitting I'm desperate and might be a little crazy if that means I get Carter.” I raised my hand before grabbing three wine glasses from the cabinet.
We held the glasses up once we all had our drinks until all three touched. Chelsea led the toast. “To our last amazing year. May we have all the fun, sex, and love we want.”
“And that we all pass our classes. We’re still in school, Chelsea,” Grey added.
She rolled her eyes. “That goes without saying.”
I smiled at Grey. “That you make the Olympic team. Win or lose, I’m so proud of you.”
Chelsea chimed in. “Me too. Can’t wait to see you in Brazil, cheering you on from the stands.”
Grey beamed and held his glass higher. “To our best year yet, and whatever dream we have comes true. Even if it’s with people who don’t deserve us,” he said, looking at me.
We cheered, clicked our glasses, and drank the sweet drink. The brief tension that flared between Grey and me had dissipated. If only we’d known that our friendship would betested over the next few months, we would’ve added a special request that we would never let anything or anyone interfere with our friendship.
