Page 47 of Wish You Were Mine
As the color on the test strip darkened, I glanced sideways at Brody. “Hey…are things chill with you and Josh?”
“They’ve been all right.” He looked up from writing in our lab notebook. “No more fights, if that’s what you mean.”
“That’s good.” I placed the strip onto a paper towel to dry. I hadn’t run into Josh yet this semester or heard from him. Hopefully, that meant things were going okay. Hopefully, he was handling the pressure of being team captain better than he’d handled everything last year.
“What was that fight about, anyway?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
“Ah, just something dumb.” Brody rolled a shoulder. “I was giving him a hard time about something, and he didn’t take it well.”
I thought about what Nora had told me. That Brody saidtheir fight started because he’d teased Josh about trying to ask me out.
Which…I still didn’t know how I felt about that. Brody was cute, objectively. Dirty-blond hair. Blue eyes. A little scruff on his jaw. Nice face.
Charming in a way most athletes were.
But hockey players weren’t exactly known for their chill reputations.
And even if he had been serious in considering asking me out, I wasn’t sure what I would’ve said. I didn’t know him well enough to know if his flirting was just for fun or something more.
Brody cleared his throat. “How are things with you and Josh, anyway? Haven’t seen you hanging out as much.”
“We’re okay,” I said, keeping my eyes on the test strip.
He paused, then asked gently, “Mind if I ask why you broke up?”
I hesitated, unsure how to answer. There were so many reasons. Some obvious, some buried under years of pretending things were fine when they weren’t.
Before I could speak, movement caught my attention again.
Owen was back at his desk now, flipping through a folder—but there was a stillness to his movements that made me wonder if he’d heard the question.
If he was…listening.
My eyes flicked to him again.
And just as quickly, he looked down, suddenly far too interested in the papers on his desk.
My heart gave a traitorous little flutter.
I turned back to Brody, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. “It just wasn’t working anymore.”
“Fair enough.” He nodded, like he wasn’t going to press me on it.
Which I appreciated. I didn’t really have the mental bandwidth for unpacking my relationship trauma mid-lab, especially with Owen standing a few feet away.
“Anyway,” he said, lightening the tone, “looks like we didn’t melt anything, so I’d call that a win.”
I smiled. “First lab survived.”
“Barely.”
We clinked our plastic test tubes together like champagne glasses.
Okay. Maybe this whole lab thing wouldn’t be so bad after all.
15
OWEN
