3

Emma found Adrian and Ryan outside the engineering building after lunch.

Ryan was complaining about Nora’s schedule. Adrian was pretending not to listen.

Emma approached with her phone pressed to her ear.

“Yes,” she said brightly to nobody. “Tall, blond, blue eyes. Exactly my type.”

Adrian looked up.

Emma turned slightly away, hiding her screen. “I know. I think he likes me too.”

Ryan frowned. “Who are you talking to?”

She ended the fake call. “You.”

“No, you were not.”

“Fine. I wanted your opinion. There’s a guy in my robotics lab.”

Adrian’s expression remained calm, but the paper cup in his hand made a small cracking sound.

Ryan brightened at once. “You like someone?”

“Maybe.”

“Name.”

“No.”

“Major.”

“Also no.”

“Does he have a criminal record?”

“He has blond hair.”

Ryan looked offended. “That’s not better.”

Emma risked a glance at Adrian. His jaw was tight.

“What do you think?” she asked him. “Do blond guys make good boyfriends?”

“Hair color has no relationship to character.”

“So I should give him a chance?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“You didn’t say I shouldn’t.”

“You know nothing about him.”

“I know he’s cute.”

“A weak foundation.”

“It’s enough for coffee.”

Adrian looked at Ryan as if expecting him to intervene. Ryan was already interrogating Emma about where she had met the mystery man.

Emma walked away before her smile exposed her.

She checked the thread from the stairwell.

The latest post had appeared less than a minute earlier.

Emergency. There is a third man.

Commenter: Weren’t you already the third person?

Poster: This is not the time for semantics.

Commenter: What happened to “the transition has begun”?

Poster: I may have misread the situation.

Commenter: The one-second foot touch?

Poster: Stop mentioning that.

Emma pressed a fist to her mouth.

There was no longer any doubt.

Adrian Hayes—the coldest, most composed man Ryan knew—was anonymously asking strangers how to steal her from her own brother.

For one sensible moment, Emma opened their group chat and typed:

Adrian, Ryan is my brother.

Her thumb hovered over Send.

Then she remembered his voice from the apartment.

I would never volunteer to be the other man.

I will never make a spectacle of myself over a woman.

Emma deleted the message.

It was a terrible decision.

It was also irresistible.

She did not want to hurt him. She only wanted to see how far the perfect Adrian Hayes would go before admitting that he wanted her.

At the time, she assumed the answer would be one embarrassing conversation.

She underestimated him.