Page 45 of Love Me Not
Then we did agree on something. “Good. You want a burger?”
“Are you buying?”
“I think you get yours for free.”
With a gentle touch to the small of my back, he pressed me forward. “Then I’ll pretend you bought it.”
Maybe I should have gone in first.
The moment we entered the cafeteria, the entire crowd rose to their feet, giving Trey Collins a standing ovation as if he’d singlehandedly saved the universe. All of this over a game that the team didn’t even win.
Giving him his moment, I hung back to let him bask in the adoration alone. Instead, Trey held up a hand in acknowledgement and gestured for me to walk in front of him. Happy to cut through before they closed in around him, I hurried back to our table several rows down. As I approached, the girls stared, mouths agape, and I turned to see what they were gawking at.
Trey was still with me. In fact, he was closer than expected and I nearly stuck my nose in his chest. “What are you doing?” I said above the loud cheers.
“Coming over to say hello.”
“What about all these people?”
“What about them?”
“They want to talk to you.”
He gave a quick shrug. “Friends come first.”
So we agreed on two things now. How about that? I returned to my seat and ignored the girls watching me. This wasn’t the place to share my conversation with Trey, and in all honesty, there wasn’t much to share. Yes, he was interested in me, but that wasn’t news to them. The only real development was that I didn’t tell him that we would never happen.
Why didn’t I tell him that? I had to assume it was the gut thing. As I told Becca before, the man was growing on me.
“Is everything good?” Donna asked.
“Yeah, I’m good. Are you good?”
She was not amused. “You know what I’m talking about.”
“Okay, fine.” Leaning in close, I lowered my voice. “We’re madly in love and will be running off to a Vegas wedding chapel the first chance we get.”
Leaning back, she rolled her eyes. “You aren’t funny.”
“What’s going on?” Megan asked. “What happened out there?”
“Nothing happened.” Not entirely true. Something did happen but I hadn’t figured out what yet. A truce was probably the best word for it. “I asked if he knew about the rumors and he didn’t. That’s all I wanted to know.”
“Was he surprised?” she asked.
“He was.” I almost mentioned Trey’s encounter with Pepper in the teachers’ lounge, but changed my mind. I couldn’t know her motives that day and if I didn’t want people making assumptions about me, I wasn’t going to make them about someone else. “At least we both know now.”
Donna and Megan exchanged an uncertain glance. “That’s it?” Donna said. “You just told him about the rumors and nothing else?”
“What else is there to tell?”
“That you’ll go out with him.”
Now I knew how Becca felt when we’d sent her on all of those blind dates. And when we’d harassed Donna to give her hunky contractor a shot. We really were a pushy bunch.
“He hasn’t asked me out, because unlike everyone else I know, he respects my choice not to date.”
Both women sat back in silence. What could they say? Their intentions were in the right place, which was the only reason I wasn’t more annoyed. I’d fought like hell to convince Becca to go out with Jacob because I truly believed he was perfect for her.