Page 55 of More To Us

I need an excuse. One she'll believe. "I'm going walking. You know how my mom and I used to do those early morning walks? I kind of miss those, so I thought I'd start doing them again."

"Then I'll go with you. What time are you leaving?"

"Around six, but I'd kind of like to go alone so I can listen to music. Besides, you hate getting up early."

"True. Then I guess I'll see you when you get back. We can have breakfast together. When are you seeing Austin again?"

"I'm not sure." I stop at the door to my room. "He has to practice with the band tomorrow night so—"

"You didn't tell him about me, did you?"

"Tell him what?"

"About Dylan and me. Because you can't tell him. Promise me you won't."

"I won't. But you need to stop worrying about this. Like you said, Dylan's probably moved on and so have you. By the way, why isn't Matt over here?"

"He had to work tonight."

"The store closed an hour ago. He could've stopped here on his way home."

"He has to be up early for work and we're going out tomorrow night so we just decided not to see each other tonight."

"You're not avoiding having him over because of me, are you?"

"No. Why?"

"Because he's your boyfriend, so I kind of expected him to be over here more. I thought maybe you told him not to come over because you didn't want me to feel uncomfortable."

"No, but now that you mention it, would it make you uncomfortable?"

"If you two are having sex on the couch while I'm trying to watch TV, then yeah," I laugh, "that would bother me. But just having him here? That doesn't bother me. And if you want him to spend the night, I'm fine with that too. Just try to keep the noise down."

"Same goes for you and Austin." She smiles. "He can spend the night, but if the headboard starts banging against the wall, I AM going to complain."

I roll my eyes. "That's not gonna happen. Now I really do need to get to bed."

"Okay. See you tomorrow."

I go in my room and close the door and check my phone. There's a text from Austin.

Talked to my dad. He likes you. Told you. Goodnight.

I smile and put my phone down.

The next morning, I get to the gym at six-fifteen. After dropping my stuff off in the locker room, I go out to the gym to warm up on the treadmill, but first I need to say hi to Austin. It's pathetic how excited I am to see him again. I've never been this hung up on a guy, especially after only knowing him a few days.

I don't see him by the free weights or the machines. I turn the corner that leads to the line of cardio machines and there he is, talking to some girl. She has bright blond hair pulled back in a ponytail and looks a couple years older than me. She's wearing tight black shorts that barely cover her ass and a bright pink sports bra.

The girl is on the elliptical machine and Austin's resting his arm on the support bar, leaning toward her and smiling as he talks.

What the hell? Is he flirting with her? Because it sure as hell looks like it. The girl is smiling back, then she laughs at whatever he said.

I march over there, stopping right next to the machine, directly across from Austin.

"Hi," I say, forcing out a smile.

"Hey." He smiles back, and it's not a guilty smile, but just his usual friendly smile. So maybe he wasn't flirting with her, or maybe he's just good at hiding his cheating.

Why am I acting this way? We just started dating. I can't be getting jealous like this. So he talked to a girl. Big deal. He can talk to girls, just like I can talk to guys. So why do I have this sick, nervous feeling just seeing him talk to her?

Maybe I'm not cut out to date a Wheeler. Or the lead guitarist in a band. Or any guy that attracts this much attention from girls. I knew I shouldn't have agreed to be his girlfriend.

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