Page 78 of Beautifully Complicated

Jagger gets quite a bit of NIL money from a few companies that sponsor him in exchange for posting videos about their products, so looking for pointers from other successful influencers makes sense. Still, he’s wrong.

“I’m not giving anything away for free. Kier and I are forming a company together that we’ll both work at after I graduate.”

Jagger whistles approvingly. “Smart. Lock him down. That’s—” Jagger looks at the drink in his hand. “Gotta go.”

He dashes off to the stairs as Damien says, “Ten bucks he’s got Cam tied down up there.”

“I’m not taking a losing bet.”

He nods like he expected that. “So, where’d we land on spilling the tea?”

“I think I liked it better when you and Bennet were rivals and most of our conversations were about how to get along with him,” I mutter.

“I’m just saying you don’t need to be shy about this shit.”

“I’m not being shy, I’m… Okay, fine. I was at Kier’s all weekend, as you know, but what happens between us is just for us. It’s… ours.”

“Fair enough,” Damien agrees. “Wanna see my COC? I’ve been playing it after Bennet passes out post-sex, so I’ve got a ton of gems.” Anticipating my response, he reaches for his phone.

“Yeah, Damien. Show me your clan.”

He’s a fucking handful, but he’s perfect for Bennet. I’m glad they found each other.

Chapter twenty-three

Kier

MARCH

“What’s next?” Aiden asks me as he stirs diced tomato, olive oil and a bunch of seasonings in a bowl while I brown some chicken.

We’re attempting to make chicken bruschetta, one of the twenty-four easiest recipes for beginners, so we don’t have to order in all the time or feed ourselves from a meal kit. Jury’s out on whether this will be better than the meal kits—I prefer when the ingredients come to my door instead of having to get them at the grocery, but so far it smells good.

I check the recipe. “Spoon the topping onto the chicken, sprinkle parmesan on top, and we cook it until the internal temperature reaches one-sixty-five.”

“This isn’t terrible,” Aiden remarks as he covers the chicken with the tomato topping. “When you said we should figure out how to cook I was a little worried, but I don’t hate this. It’s easier than the house mom makes it look.”

“The house mom?”

“Yeah, the woman who cooks for the fraternity. She feeds dozens of us and the kitchen always looks like a war zone when she’s done.” He swivels his head to check out the damage we’ve done, which isn’t much. “We’ve barely even spilled anything.”

“I thought you lived with three other couples?”

“I do, but I grab dinner at the fraternity house most nights. It’s easier than feeding myself. Plus, my roommates are all athletes so they’re uber strict about their diets and I like my food to have flavor.”

“You never told me you were in a fraternity.” I put the pan under the broiler like the recipe instructs to brown the cheese.

Aiden nods absently. “Joined freshman year. My dad was a legacy and wanted me to follow in his footsteps so to speak. Same with Bennet. That’s how we met. Neither of us was interested but felt obligated to make our dads proud. It ended up being a much better experience than I expected though.”

“How so?”

“Well, they’re cool with a gay nerd, for one. They throw some good parties, and the house mom feeds us really well.”

I pull the pan out and add a piece of chicken to the plates Aiden hands me. “When was the last time you went to one of those parties?”

Aiden shrugs and carries the plates to the table while I grab the wine. “Beginning of fall semester maybe?”

Beginning of… That’s close to six months ago. It’s his senior year and instead of living it up he’s playing house with his older boyfriend.

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