6

I had dated him for seven days. It embarrassed me that it had taken even that long to discover how vain he was.

“I’m not here for you.” I took the bottle back.

Mason laughed. “You expect me to believe you came to watch basketball? You hate sports.”

“I do.” I pointed at the opposite bench. “I’m here to cheer for your opponent.”

Adrian stood there in a black jersey, rolling one shoulder while he listened to his coach.

Mason’s smile tightened.

“You don’t have to play games. When you’re ready to admit you still like me, maybe I’ll take you back.”

He pinched my cheek as if I were a child and walked away.

I scrubbed my face with my sleeve until my skin hurt.

The game began.

Adrian was impossible to ignore on the court. He moved through defenders as if he saw openings before they existed. Every time Mason’s team adjusted, Adrian changed his pace and broke through again.

The score gap widened.

Mason signaled his teammates. Four players closed around Adrian, cutting off every obvious lane.

My hands tightened around the bottle.

Adrian glanced at the clock and smiled.

With one second left, he slipped past Mason and sent the ball cleanly through the hoop from beyond the arc.

The buzzer sounded. The gym erupted.

Mason looked ready to bite through his mouth guard.

Adrian looked into the stands.

He found me among hundreds of people and smiled.

The omegas in front of me screamed.

“He smiled at me!”

“In your dreams. He was looking at me.”

Their friend twisted around. “Neither of you. He was looking behind us.”

They all turned to search.

I kept my face blank and stared at the court while my ears burned.

After the game, Adrian skipped the team dinner and came straight to me. He carried an empty plastic bottle.

It was the cheap water I had bought.

“Trash cans are by the exit,” I said helpfully.

His smile faltered. “I’m taking it back to the room.”

“Oh. Recycling. I have some cardboard boxes you can add to the pile.”

He stared at me for a long moment.

“Please stop talking.” He flicked my forehead. “Let’s go.”

We walked across campus under yellow streetlights. I dropped two steps behind him and started hopping from one long shadow to the next.

Adrian turned without warning. I walked straight into his chest.

His hands settled on my shoulders.

“How are you this hopeless?”

He ruffled my hair, but there was no mockery in it. In the soft night, the hard edges of him seemed to disappear.

“Fall break starts next week,” he said. “Come home with me.”

I blinked. “That would be weird.”

“My parents won’t mind. They’ll like you.”

“That’s not the point. Break is for family. I’m just your roommate. What am I supposed to be doing at your parents’ house?”

The warmth left his face.

He drew a slow breath. “Sometimes I can’t tell whether you’re genuinely clueless or pretending.”

“What does that mean?”

“Forget it.” He dropped his hands. “Go back without me.”

He walked away before I could finish my question.

It was the first time Adrian had ever refused to hear me out.