Compounding Traumas (Artemis University #6) - Erin R Flynn Page 0,35

normal where you found out something bad about your partner you didn’t like. It’s just what it was, and how much it hurt you, that was so abnormal.”

“I’ll think about it. I will, I promise. I might—he really went on a bender?”

“Yeah, bad. He loves you with his soul, just like you do him. It’s killing him to lose you.”

I glanced at her, not sure I had felt that deeply about him. Yes, I knew I had loved him, but I wasn’t sure it was that deep.

Like it had been with Craftsman. I opened my mouth to ask about that, but I didn’t get the chance, Mel always able to tell where my head was.

“No, I wouldn’t forgive Craftsman.” She frowned. “Yet. I think he can do what he needs to so you can, but right now, I’d push him off a cliff instead of pushing him towards you.”

Okay then. Glad she was clear, as that actually helped.

8

The next morning I headed out for my run to get into my back-on-campus routine… Only to find someone ready to join me.

Besides one of my guards.

The funny part? I had half expected Lucca, since he used to run with me in bear form. It was our thing, and I had wondered if he would try, knowing I found his bear irresistible. But no, it wasn’t Lucca.

It was Craftsman.

He was standing there looking sexy as fuck in a tank top and basketball shorts, stretching as if passing the time. He froze when I came out, Zack walking around the building—since he knew the time I had planned on—and sighed as he realized we had an extra party.

Yeah, I wanted to sigh too, but I went another way.

I glanced down at my iPhone and changed from the playlist I was about to start to Lady A’s “All For Love.” I took off at my warm-up jog and kept his gaze as I sang the first half, the guy’s part where he was saying walking away—no matter the reason—is never about love.

Craftsman flinched, clearly knowing the song, and fell in step with me, even as I kept singing. My warm-up was done after that minute or so, and I picked up the pace to my new routine I’d been on all summer.

Which was way faster than he was used to last year. He had no chance of keeping up and sure enough, he was left in my dust, Zack’s amusement making me feel like I wasn’t being petty.

My phone beeped with a message from a number I didn’t know. I frowned and checked it, wondering how anyone had gotten the number since it was unlisted and protected from all the bullshit robocaller lists.

Curiosity won out when I saw it was a link to YouTube and tapped it. My eyes went wide when it was Lady A’s “Need You Now.”

“Oh, he’s good,” Zack bitched from my left.

I glanced at him and nodded, understanding what was going on. Craftsman had either changed his phone or gotten a burner just to talk to me because I’d blocked his number. Too bad it hadn’t been months and months ago, or when I’d been desperate to hear from him.

Still, I listened to the song, the words gorgeous, but the message not doing a damn thing.

“Two can play this game,” I grumbled. I sent him the link to Kameron Marlowe’s “Giving You Up.” It was perfect, talking about how his partner walked away, and it changed him for the better, making him someone who would never accept her back.

Perfectly applicable.

It was a few minutes later, the next message came, making me think he’d actually listened to the song. I almost smiled when it was a link to Cher’s “If I Could Turn Back Time.” I watched it and burst out laughing.

“What?” Zack asked when I had to stop.

“My mind is a scary place.”

He snorted. “Not just yours, but what’s so funny?”

“I’m having a flash of him in this outfit Cher’s wearing, strutting around on a destroyer in heels with cheering sailors.”

Zack blinked at me, and his loud laugh echoed in the quiet forest.

Yeah, I was special. I responded with Avril Lavigne’s “Let Me Go.”

“Wait, doesn’t she change the words at the end to ‘don’t let me go?’”

“Shit,” I groaned, but then shook my head. “It’s not literal.”

“Still, might be time not to keep playing, as it seems like you’re open to him trying,” he suggested.

Fair enough. Part of me wanted to let Craftsman try. I missed him—all of them. Blocking them,