Page 29 of Begrudgingly Yours
“Jett, have you been…” I couldn’t even say it out loud. Has he been… paying attention to me?
“I think I actually need to be heading out.” Jett stands up abruptly and starts to gather his things.
“What? But you’ve been here less than an hour.” And it’s obvious that he’s lying. This entire interaction has gone from weird to weirder.
“Yeah, I have a… Zoom meeting.” He cringes at himself and I swallow down the laugh that wants to escape. He swings his bag onto his back and then heads for the door, all while avoiding eye contact with me.
“Jett,” I start, but he interrupts me.
“I’ll see you on Friday. Have a good weekend, Rory.” Then the door is shut and I just sit there staring at it like it’ll explain to me what just happened.
Because…what the fuck just happened?
SIXTEEN
Playing: Like Real People Do by Hozier
“Okay,so what is the median of the remaining observations?”
I stare at my paper, but I’m not thinking about math. All I can think about is a certain blue-eyed omega. I wonder if I can conduct a statistical hypothesis on how angry she’ll be with me once she finds out the truth.
My alpha huffs inside of me and I sigh. I wouldn’t need to conduct a study, the probability of her getting mad is highly likely.
“Jett?” Everett’s voice brings me back, his rain scent just as calm today as ever. I’ve been back to tutoring a few times. We’ve even exchanged numbers, but class and rehearsing takes up so much of my time we haven’t spoken much outside of the library.
“Sorry,” I murmur as I pick at a piece of lint on my denim jacket.
“Are you doing okay?” he asks, and I appreciate thesincerity in his voice. There’s nothing I hate more than someone asking if you’re okay just out of politeness and not because they actually care.
“I’m fine, it’s just…” I trail off, but fuck it. I need someone to talk to about this. I almost mentioned it to Harland and Shiloh the other day, but I knew they would just tell me that I needed to confess and tell her the truth. They wouldn’t realize how much this girl—someone who was supposed to bemine—hates me.
“It’s a girl,” I finally say.
The deep sigh I let out following my statement causes him to chuckle. When I look up at him with a playful glare, he’s nodding his head with a smile on his face. “It’s always a girl, isn’t it? Do you want to talk about it?”
There isn’t any hesitation when I say, “She’s my scent match but she doesn’t know.”
I hesitate to look at him. What if he sees me differently? What if he thinks I’m an awful person?
I’m not sure why I even care what this guy thinks, because he’s just my tutor; a frat guy that’s obligated to help me. But my alpha sends this anxiousness through me, like what this guy thinks about us is monumental.
My gaze meets his again, but I don’t see any of the disgust that I was expecting. He looks to be in deep thought, and when he finally speaks his tone is more curious than anything.
“I’m guessing she’s never scented you because of the blockers?” he asks.
I tilt my head at him. “How did you know I was on blockers?”
Everett snorts at me. “Really?”
“Yeah, really! I could have been a beta,” I declare.
He shakes his head, trying to cough down a laugh. “But you’re not. I always knew you were an alpha. Just becauseyou’re in theater doesn’t automatically make you a beta to me.”
I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. I guess I did assume he’d see me as a beta because of my major. Not only that, but I’ve never been very dominant, so to be recognized by another alpha causes my own to preen in my chest.
“So, she’s never scented you but your alpha recognized her. How long have you been keeping it a secret from her?”
My lips flatten into a line.Thisis when he’ll judge me. “Two years,” I say with a wince.
