Page 33 of The Odds of Happily Ever After
“Eh, the usual. Kriz told me you ditched Shawn.”
“I didn’t ditch him. We were just chatting?—”
“And he sent you a thirst trap,” she said, shrugging. “At least he’s upfront. You should go for it. Getting laid does wonders for your stress.”
My mouth fell open. What the hell did I say to that?
She glanced at me and snorted. “God, you should see your face. You definitely need that di?—”
“I’m good,” I blurted out.
Chloe burst out into laughter. “You are such a prude, Luna. Haven’t Kriz and I cured you of that yet?”
Trust her to leave me speechless twice in as many minutes. Honestly, her going out of her way to talk to me when Kriz wasn’t around was a shocker on its own. If it weren’t for Kriz, I doubted Chloe would even notice me.
She sighed loudly. “Whatever. You heading home?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t have a car, right?” Before I could answer, she barreled along. “Come on.”
“Oh, no, it’s okay. It’s just a quick walk,” I said.
“Your place is on the way. Besides, I need to talk to you.”
Chloe veered to the left, and I had no choice but to follow her to the parking area. She unlocked her white convertible and dropped her bag in the back seat.
“Get in,” she ordered, sounding like Gabe had that one time.
The sad bit was I did exactly what she said without arguing because as different as we were, I still wanted to win her over somehow. Part of it was that I didn’t want to give Kriz a hard time managing two friends who didn’t get along. But there was also that part of me that admired Chloe for being exactly who she wanted to be and not caring what other people thought.
I aspired to reach that level of self-assurance.
We’d passed the main gate to the university when I broke the silence and asked, “What did you want to talk to me about?”
“Oh. That. So you sure you’re not into Shawn?”
“Definitely not,” I said.
“Okay, then you’re okay with me hitting him up? Kriz told me to clear it up with you.”
I did a double-take, not expecting that at all. “I didn’t know you liked him.”
Chloe snorted. “Hell, no. Not inthatway. But I need to blow off some steam, so why not take him for a ride? He looks like he has stamina. And the abs on that guy . . .”
“Yeah, go ahead. Enjoy?”
“That’s the plan.” Her eyes slid over to me. “You’re not in some secret relationship, are you?”
I reared back and stared at her. “What? No.”
“Cause I don’t think you’ve hooked up with anyone since Theo. Don’t tell me you’re still hung up on him.”
“Not even a bit. I told you guys, I need to focus on school and work right now.”
“Boring. You’re gonna regret not having fun while you can.”
“Tell that to my parents.” When I sent them a copy of my grades from last semester, Papa immediately zeroed in on the single C+ I’d gotten even though my overall average had improved from a B- to a solid B. He’d brought up the idea of me going home again, and it felt like nothing I did would ever be good enough.
