Page 24 of No One Else
Morgan purses her lips and grabs her computer, settling herself on the bed again, shooting a nasty look my way.
Geez, what’d I ever do to her?
Natalie shrugs out of my jacket and hands it back to me. “Sorry about that.”
“Not your fault.”
She gathers up her stuff and shoots past me into the hallway. I close the door behind me and Natalie sags against the opposite wall, hugging her Marketing book and folder tightly to her chest. “I don’t bring guys to my room,” she says abruptly.
A tiny part of me eases in relief. “Okay.”
“She just never liked Carter.”
“Well, we have that in common at least.”
A smile tugs at the corner of her mouth. “Oh!” She slaps her forehead, wincing. “I forgot my coat.” She braces herself to head back inside, but I stop her.
“We passed by a common area down the hall, right? Why don’t we just study there?”
Her shoulders drop in relief. “Oh, good. I didn’t want to walk out again in this cold.”
She leads me over to an alcove with a table opposite two couches. “Would you mind if we actually study for the quiz tomorrow instead? I haven’t had a chance to yet.”
“Yeah, of course.” That just means more opportunity to get together for the project.
We spend an hour reviewing everything that could possibly be on the test until we know it forwards and back. By the end, we’re back to joking and talking like normal, like it was before I fucked it all up.
“How’s your charity stuff going? You still involved in that?”
“Yeah,” she says brightly. “I’m actually working on planning an upcoming fundraiser. Suncoast Serves is partnering with one of the sorority houses to raise money for the American Heart Association. It’ll be on Valentine’s Day.”
“Oh, the connection’s like love and hearts to a physical heart?”
“Yes,” she exclaims, leaning forward and grabbing my arm briefly in excitement. “See, someone gets it. A few of the girls didn’t, even after I explained it.”
I chuckle, glad she’s comfortable enough to touch casually, to laugh and joke with me. Maybe I can start the next phase of my plan.
“There will be all these stations that people can go around to, and I’ll have the kissing booth.”
My eyebrows raise in surprise. “You’re going to kiss a bunch of guys?”
“God, no,” she says, laughing. “I’m just in charge of it. Another girl from Suncoast Serves volunteered to actually do the kissing. She’s crazy gorgeous so it’ll be great. And the Kappa Delta Phi girls already picked out a guy, someone from their brother fraternity.”
“That doesn’t really seem like the type of thing you’d come up with.”
“Again, God, no. The co-chairs pushed for it, though. And on the plus side, the costs are minimal. We just have to paint and build the booths and decorate them.”
“Well, they’re lucky to have someone so talented helping them.”
“Not really,” she rolls her eyes. “They keep vetoing my ideas. I wanted to get one of the football players to sit in the guy’s booth. That would generate some publicity, pull people in. But they said no. Same with adding a photo booth or props or-”
She stops herself, glancing down shyly. “Sorry, you don’t want to hear about any of this.”
“Of course I do.” I briefly run my hand down her arm. “It’s obviously important to you.”
She huffs out a laugh, bringing her fingers up to her temples. “I just- I keep remembering Carter. He was always so bored when I talked about my Suncoast Serves group. And he never liked how much time I spent doing it. And... here I am mentioning him again. Sorry.”
I fold my hands in my lap, unsure what to say. “Do you still think about him a lot?”
