staring at me. I’m not sure. He didn’t hear me because it wasn’t audible, yet my face heats.
“Aw, don’t be sad,” the bosomy brunette murmurs in a sexy voice as she leans into him. Audrey Something. “Besides, I can make it up to you.”
“That’s an invitation if I ever heard one,” I whisper to myself. “Poor wittle football player. Let me rub your shoulders and maybe your tiny little dick—”
He swivels his head and looks at me. I freeze mid-sentence, then cough.
“Allergies,” I murmur.
He moves his eyes off me and looks at Audrey.
Yep.
He’s hooked up with her. I walked in on them upstairs in a bathroom at the Kappa house at the start of the semester. It was a campus-wide mixer, and the line to the bathroom was long, so I slipped up to the top floor where it was quieter. I opened the door, and he had her bent over the vanity, her hair clenched in his fist as he took her from behind—fully clothed with his pants unzipped and hanging around his hips.
Our eyes met in the mirror as he fucked her.
Still as a statue, I stood there entirely too long as our eyes clung. I can recall every nuance of that incident, her yes, yes, yes, the loud roar in my head, the wash of heat that flashed over me. With my chest rising rapidly, I was transfixed as he orgasmed, his eyes low and heavy on my face. Then he had the audacity to smile. Yeah. I’ve seen River Tate’s O-face. He bites his bottom lip.
I shove the unwanted image out of my head.
The elevator stops on the fourth level and the girls get off. Audrey gives River a kiss on his cheek and whispers something in his ear.
No doubt what that was about.
On her way out, Harper’s face is flat as she sniffs at my pink knee socks, black velvet mini skirt, and Eiffel Tower cropped sweater. I push up my glasses in defiance. Try me, sorority girl.
She gives me a sly smile and lifts her hand to push a strand of hair out of her face. My breath hitches as I catch the glimmer of the diamond tennis bracelet Donovan gave her for her birthday. It’s sparkly with two rows of jewels. The total weight is three carats. Not to my taste, but she never misses an opportunity to flash it at every party and have loud conversations about it…
Donovan was the most attentive boyfriend. He buys the best gifts, she’d gush to her Delta sisters as she—once again—flashed her bracelet. I can’t believe he’s dating that girl. Then, she’d smirk, giggle, and walk away.
Just like now.
Whatever.
I mostly ignore them, but today—well, today, my patience is shredding as each minute passes, a tightrope walker about to fall.
Why did I have to see her today?
Dammit. How could he forget my birthday?
The door slides shut. Finally.
River gets his phone out of his skinny jeans. I guess it was on silent. He laughs softly as he answers. “Baby girl, you gotta stop calling me. Get dressed, okay? Alright, alright, wear the one that has sequins on it. I know, baby girl. Soon. I can’t wait to see you. You rock my world too.” Another kiss into the phone.
He hangs up and hums under his breath, not a care in the world, and my tightrope walker says Fuck it and falls off the high wire.
I huff out a laugh. “Wow. Two girls on the hook, one on the phone and one in the elevator, and it’s just a regular day for you—in spite of losing to a cupcake team from nowhere Louisiana this weekend. Your game sucked. Your season sucked. Furthermore, I’m shocked you didn’t call Audrey baby girl. Let me educate you: that term is infantilizing. A baby girl is an actual thing and to use it as a term of endearment is gross. What if I called you baby boy? Not the same, right?”
He turns to me slowly. His lips part as if I’ve sprouted two heads.
I want to stomp my foot. He pretends I’m not here—when I can see myself clearly in the mirrored walls.
“Yeah, you see how that doesn’t work,” I add since he seems speechless. “If you must have a pet name, try dear or love or, I don’t know, honey or darling. Anything less obnoxious, but hey… You. Are. Obnoxious.”
It’s deathly quiet in the elevator.
Oh crap, I’ve crossed a line.
He and I, we don’t address the tension between us.
“Anastasia.” He says my