Page 67 of Keep Me
“Are you going with Steele?”
Pftt. Am I going with Steele? This lie had blown up in my face so badly.
“Umm. Not sure.”
Was that the right thing to say? Should I have said I was going with Erik? Maybe that would have made Matty back off, but what if Erik had a date already?
“How can you not be sure? I thought you guys were dating?”
I turned to go back to the bathroom. “We are.” I cleared my throat. “But we’re still in the casual phase, you know?”
Was I still talking? The more I talked, the bigger this lie got.
“Right. Well, if it’s just casual between the two of you, then I’d like to take you.”
“Excuse me?”
“Well, things between us are far less casual, don’t you think?”
My brows drew together, and I shook my head. “I don’t think Erik would like that.”
“Do you think I care? I’m talking about me and you and everything that happened in Vegas.”
“There is no me and you.”
“You’d have to be stupid or not paying attention to think that.”
Holding the towel and clothes to my chest, I decided to end this by saying, “Matty. We’ve talked about this already. I don’t have time to keep going over the same thing. I’m going to change.”
When I walked past him, I expected him to try to stop me, but he didn’t. He just sat there. Once in the bathroom, I threw my clothes on as fast as possible. Then I brushed out the knots in my wet hair before stepping back into the room.
Matty was sitting in the same spot but this time, was on his phone looking at something. I breezed past him to open my bedroom door and check that Lydia had moved her antics to the bedroom. She was gone, and when I turned to Matty, his gaze was still glued to his screen.
“Doing anything interesting?” I asked, trying to subtly look.
He shook his head before tucking his phone in his jeans pocket. “Just trying to program something, but it can wait.”
He leaned back against his chair and folded his arms. Then his eyes dragged across my body, taking me in. I was dressed, but the move still sent a shiver up my spine.
“Can I ask you something, B?”
Why did that question make me focus so much on his lips? So perfectly bowed.
“Yeah,” I drawled out, not thinking straight.
“How serious are you and Erik?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s just, you said you were with him before Vegas, and now you’re sitting with him in classes, going to games. It all sounds like you’re dating, but I don’t know. When I’ve actually seen you together, something feels off.”
“Off?”
“Yeah, I mean, if I was him, I’d be making it very clear that you were my date for the Players’ Ball.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood, but I tried to shake off the nerves. He was catching on to my lie, and I didn’t like it.
“Well, we’re very much on.”
