Page 49 of True Blue

“I told Mira last night we are going to grab coffee and talk today. She’s been acting weird a lot lately. I’m checking to make sure she hasn’t been texting me.” His phone buzzes in his hand and he looks down. “She’s up and getting ready.” He looks at Janette again. “We have like twenty minutes until she’s going to show up here.”

“Fuck.” Janette jumps out of the bed, rushing around the room to grab her clothes and get dressed. Bentley texts Mira back, glancing up at me when he’s done.

“You can’t be in my bed when she gets here,” he says, gesturing at me relaxing under his covers.

I sit up, stretching my arms back behind me. “Why not?” I challenge.

Bentley walks forward, leaning down to kiss me quick. “Because this is way too new for me to be explaining why you’re naked in my bed while Janette walks out in her clothes from last night.” He kisses me again, pulling the comforter away from me. “Get dressed.”

Janette stands by the door, looking around the room in a panic. “I can’t find my underwear so if you find it, give it back.” She points at Bentley as he walks up to her, still naked.

“Sure, sunshine.” He leans down and kisses her too, turning her around when he pulls away and pushing her toward the front door to the suite. “We’ll text you later.”

He turns back to me as I hear the front door open and close. “I’m going to go shower quick. Please be dressed when Mira gets here.”

I waggle my eyebrows, smirking. “Trying to hide the goods, sweetheart?”

He rolls his eyes. “More like trying not to scare my best friend. It’d be easier if she wasn’t scarred by you greeting her naked before I tell her we’re together.” I laugh as he walks out of the room, taking my time to collect my clothes and make my way over to my room to get dressed.

22

“What’d you get up to last night?” I run my hand through my still damp hair, shoving the other into my pocket so Mira doesn’t notice it clench.

“It’s a whole thing. I’ll tell you all about it when we sit down.” Mira nods, looking down at her feet as we walk through campus. She’s been fidgety since we left West Tower and I keep biting my tongue. I want to ask her what happened with her and Harley last night after they left the bar, but then I also want to tell her all about the amazing night I had with Axel and Janette and fill her in on the whole thing that has been happening all semester.

When I told her I was paired with them for the history project, she’d said at least I had Axel and at the time, I hadn’t corrected her. As things progressed the way they did with the three of us, I never got the chance to tell Mira about any of it since she was going through her own shit with Harley. His fault, in my opinion, but I know Mira doesn’t see it that way. When they left together last night, I wanted to stop her, to go toe to toe with Harley and snap some sense into him, but Mira held me off. I’d gone to the bar with a purpose and overstepping in Mira’s love life wasn’t it. But now I needed to know what the fuck isgoing on with them, because there’s no way I'm letting Mira go through whatever it is without someone to talk to about it.

I hold the door to the coffee shop open for Mira, chewing the inside of my cheek. I don’t know which of us should go first when we finally sit down, and I don’t know how Mira will feel about me and Janette, not to mention Axel in the mix.

We order our drinks and wait off to the side in silence. They come out together and I grab them, heading over to a free table in the corner of the cramped shop.

“So, what happened with Harley after you left?” I start, needing to just jump into things.

“Guess I’m going first,” Mira mumbles, wrapping her hands around her drink and staring down at it. I try to smile at her, feeling my stomach churn as my coffee meets it. “Do me a favor, please? Don’t say anything until I’m done.” I nod, knowing whatever she says is going to piss me off now. I grip my coffee a little tighter, hoping to mitigate my reaction so I don’t upset her, but I can tell she sees right through me when she rushes to explain. “It’s just a friends with benefits thing that we started a little bit after he started training me. I got followed home from the birthday party at the Ravens’ place and I wanted to learn how to defend myself after. I accidentally ended up at his gym and he offered to train me personally when one of his trainers started hitting on me. We started hooking up a bit after that because it became too hard to be around each other and not have little mishaps after the kissing incidents.”

All the new information settles over me, wiping everything else from my mind. I look around the shop, trying to figure out what to pinpoint in all that as the most important thing. Someone followed her home from the party. She’d been in danger because I stayed behind with Janette and let Mira walk home alone. I grit my teeth, knowing that if I had gone withMira, Janette would have been unsafe with how drunk she was getting. My chest tightens as I try to accept the decision I made.

Mira mistakes my anger at myself for anger toward her. “I wanted to tell you so badly, but you didn’t want me going around him anymore after that day I cried at the gym. It was hard though. He came by and apologized, and we started this whole thing. I know it’s not going to end well but I can deal with the fallout when that comes. I haven’t been able to start anything serious with anyone else so might as well try purging him from my system while I have the opportunity.”

I think back to the day I picked Mira up from Harley’s gym and found her crying outside. I immediately went inside and yelled at Harley, knowing he was the reason for it. But Ramsey walked up, wanting to know what was going on and I let Mira drag me out with some excuse. Her brother would get pissed if he found out something was going on between them and I’m not sure which of them his anger would land on.

I look back at Mira, finding her watching me nervously. “Say something, Bent.”

I sigh, wishing I could go shake Harley. Mira doesn’t deserve to be someone’s dirty little secret. “I’m not mad you didn’t tell me. I get why you didn’t. But, Mir, I don’t think it’s healthy.” I lean forward, placing my elbows on the table. “You’re not just hiding from me; you’re hiding from Ramsey and he’s going to find out eventually. And when that happens, Harley will pull back again, the way he did after whatever happened at your birthday.”

“I know,” she says, leaning back and heaving a sigh. “I know this ends badly, Bent. I’m preparing for that. Harley doesn’t want anything more and I have killed any hope that he will.” She says it so confidently, but I can see the lie when she twists her hands together in her lap and scrunches up her nose.

So, I try killing her hope, so that she won’t have to. “He won’t choose you over Ramsey, Mir.”

“I know,” she whispers.

“And his friendship with Ramsey will be ruined.”

She sits up. “We would end it before that could happen.”

I shake my head. “You might not have a say in that, Mir. What if he finds out?”

She leans forward, jaw clenches. “He won’t find out Bentley.”

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