“Bill was a little jealous,” she said after a moment.
“It was nice of him to let us use his car,” I added.
“I made a show of not wanting to sit on that stinky rental bus for three hours, and he handed me the keys without saying a word.”
I glanced at my friend, noticing the soft look in her eyes.
“Do you love him?”
The corners of Jessica’s mouth twitched into a brief smile. “Would it be crazy of me to say yeah?”
“Of course not.”
“It’s only been like, three months, you know.”
“So?”
“So,” she said, drawing out the word. “Bill is a bit older than me. He’s a charmer, loves the chase, you know. I don’t know...” She waved a hand in dismissal and shifted her weight in her seat. “I don’t even know what I’m trying to say right now.”
“You’re worried if you tell him how you really feel, the gig is up and he’ll get bored?”
“Precisely,” she crooned, then chuckled, “Isn’t that stupid? What am I, a love-drunk sixteen-year-old?”
“I think you’re just in love.”
“I know without a doubt I’ve found my person,” she agreed a little sadly. “But we’re so different. He’s so different. I’ve never met anyone like him before.”
“I know. I agree,” I laughed, thinking of Bill and his strange antics and passions. “But I’ve also never met anyone like you before, Jess.”
Her smile lit up the car. “Should I tell him?”
“I think you should.”
She exhaled. “Watch him run when I say those three words. They all do.”
“Bill’s not like all guys—”
“Neither is Rhys, is he?”
I pursed my lips before I could say anything I’d regret. “I don’t know.”
“But you do love him, don’t you?”
“I shouldn’t. I don’t think it goes that deep. Maybe before, I guess. When I was in the thick of those feelings last semester... But I see things more clearly now. I took it too far, got us in too far, and he got out. I should too.”
“I think you’re thinking too far into it,” Jessica replied after a moment. “I think he was just as in love as you were—and still are.”
“I really don’t think so. It’s different now. I’m fine with where we are. It’s all business, that’s it. Come the end of the semester, I can just move on with my life, and he can move on with his, and it’ll be like nothing happened between us.”
It was a bold-faced lie, and Jessica knew it, too, but that didn’t stop me from trying to play it off as the truth.
“I’ll tell Bill if you tell Rhys.”
“No,” I laughed. “I’m not telling him anything.”
“Fine,” she drawled, tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. “Ruin my dreams, Whitney, of us buying houses next to each other and growing old together.”
I rolled my eyes back to the landscape, and we passed the remainder of the drive in companiable silence broken only by the hum of the radio.
