Chapter 31 Anna
Anna
Itake in the stunned look on my best friend’s face.
My brain struggles to figure out how to explain this secret I’ve been hiding from her for the past couple of months.
Poppy starts to walk backwards into the house. “Sorry, I…I’ll go.”
She spins around and walks off. I run after her.
“Poppy, wait!”
She stops. I pull her into the bathroom and shut the door behind me. Her eyes look like they’re about to pop out of her head.
“I can explain,” I say.
“Anna! You and Travis? Are you serious?” she shrieks.
I grab her arms and shush her. “Not so loud! I don’t want Nick to hear.”
Her mouth hangs open. “I just…how did you…I thought you…” She presses her eyes shut and shakes her head. “You hate Travis.”
“I did. I don’t anymore,” I say.
She stares at me for a long moment, her expression unreadable. My nerves are going haywire. Is she mad that I didn’t tell her? Is she upset that I’m trying to keep a secret from my brother, who’s her boyfriend?
But then, a second later, she lets out a crazed laugh. “Please explain.”
I sit her down on the closed toilet, then stand in front of her.
“Remember Travis’s birthday party a few months ago? Remember when Nick said he overheard people hooking up in the garage?”
She gasps, and her hazel eyes get even bigger. “That was you and Travis?”
I nod.
“But how? You said you went after Kyle that night?”
“I did. Or, I mean, I tried to, but I was mistaken. I thought it was Kyle who was in the garage. It was dark. I couldn’t see who I grabbed and kissed.”
“Oh my gosh…”
I let out a breath. “We were making out. We were grabbing each other, pulling at our clothes. It was getting pretty hot. I moaned Kyle’s name, and then that’s when it all stopped. He flipped the light on, and that’s when I saw the person I was making out with. It wasn’t Kyle. It was Travis.”
She cups her hand over her mouth. “No way,” she says, her voice muffled.
“We were both pretty upset. And in shock. I stormed out.” I swallow. “But, um, it was really hot. Like, the hottest kiss and the hottest makeout I’ve ever had in my life.”
She blinks at me, slowly lowering her hand into her lap. “So that’s why you left abruptly that night.”
“Yeah. I was so embarrassed and confused. And turned on. I didn’t know what to do or what to think. I tried to forget it. But I couldn’t stop thinking about him.” I gnaw at my bottom lip. “He couldn’t either. And um, well…we hooked up shortly after that.”
Poppy’s eyes are huge as she looks up at me. “Seriously?”
I nod. “Remember that night at the diner when Nick and Travis joined us for dinner? And then I walked out all of a sudden?”
Her eyes somehow get even bigger. “You hooked up at the diner?”
“Technically it was in the alley behind the diner,” I say quietly.
She’s quiet for a long minute. I can practically hear the gears in her brain grinding together as she processes everything I’m saying.
“So you’ve been seeing each other since then?” she asks.
“Not quite. After we fooled around at the diner, we swore we’d never do it again. But then one day Colin cornered me in the hallway after lab.”
Her brow furrows in concern. “What?”
I sigh, feeling guilty for not telling her. But I didn’t want to worry her. I know how much she can’t stand Colin. I just wanted to forget about the whole thing.
“I found out he was engaged,” I say. I tell her about running into Colin at the fitness center and seeing his fiancée…and realizing that I was the other woman. I explain how, when he was the substitute TA for my lab, he threatened me, but Travis stopped him.
“Travis saved me. He threw Colin into a wall and told him to never bother me again.”
“Oh, wow,” Poppy says.
I play with the hem of my tank top. “I don’t know what came over me. I had to have him in that moment.” My cheeks heat at the memory of Travis going down on me in that empty classroom
Poppy’s quiet again. I am too as I figure out how to explain what exactly Travis and I are doing.
I tell her about what happened in Vegas when he saved me from that creepy rideshare driver. How we started spending time together as friends. How we’ve been getting closer and opening up to each other. How we apologized for being jerks to each other when we were kids.
She blinks at me. “So you guys are, like, dating?”
I shake my head, but I stop myself. “We’re not putting a label on anything. We’re just hanging out and fooling around. But we both admitted that we like each other. That we have feelings for each other. And we’re not seeing anyone else.”
My best friend starts to smile.“So what’s it like ‘hanging out’ with Travis?”
“Easy. Fun. He took me out for ice cream. And dinner at the diner. He wouldn’t let me pay.”
“What a gentleman.”
I bite my lip. “He’s really thoughtful too. After I took the MCAT, he surprised me with pizza and ice cream because he knew I would be too exhausted to go grocery shopping and cook.”
“Oh my god. Cute!”
I try and fail to hold back a grin. “He, um, is really sweet. Like, surprisingly sweet. When I was too nervous to look at my MCAT score, he dropped everything and came to my apartment so he could look at it with me.”
She’s still smiling as her mouth parts open in surprise. “Anna. Are you kidding?”
I shake my head, blushing.
“And how’s the ‘fooling around’ part of things?” She wiggles her eyebrows.
My face is on fire as I fight a smile. “Insanely hot. He’s really good with his mouth. And his hands.”
My best friend lets out a soft squeal. “Anna. This is serious. He is serious about you.”
I shake my head. “We haven’t even had sex yet. We’re just having fun, going with the flow, no pressure.”
Poppy reaches out and grabs my hand. “Anna, I’m gonna hold your hand when I say this: it sounds like you’re in a relationship.”
I shake my head. “We’re not. We both agreed that we’re not interested in anything serious or long-term. My priority is getting into Stanford for medical school. His priority is hockey. Neither of us has time to be in a relationship.”
She quirks an eyebrow at me, still smiling. “Okay. But I’m just saying, as an observer, it sounds like you have a boyfriend.”
My tummy does a flip hearing her call Travis my boyfriend.
“I don’t want a boyfriend.” The words feel weird on my tongue. Wrong, almost. I try to ignore it.
Poppy smiles even wider. “Whatever you say.” She gives my hand a squeeze. “I’m happy for you.”
“Really? You’re not mad that I didn’t tell you?”
She shakes her head. “I get it. It sounds like things were really confusing for you and Travis for a while. You needed time in your own to figure it out.”
I lean down and hug her. “Thank you for understanding. You’re the best.”
She squeezes her small arms around me. “I’m happy you’re happy.”
When we break apart, her expression is amused. “I should have known something was up. You usually text me every day when I’m gone, but I didn’t hear from you much at all while I was with my cousins. And now I know it’s because you were busy with the hot goalie.”
I roll my eyes at her teasing, even though I’m smiling. A second later, I’m serious. “Please don’t tell my brother about us, okay? I know it’s shitty of me to ask you to keep a secret from your boyfriend, but I don’t want to upset him.”
Poppy’s expression turns thoughtful. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell him.”
She stands up, and I hug her. We walk out of the bathroom, and she heads to the living room.
“I’ll catch up with you in a sec,” I say, then I head to the garage.
Travis is still standing there, staring at his phone. He looks up at me. “How’d it go with Poppy?”
I walk up to him. He slides his arms around me.
“Good. I explained everything. She promised she wouldn’t tell Nick.”
“Was she mad?”
I shake my head. “She understands why we’re being private about this.”
He exhales. “I need to tell her thanks for being so cool about this.”
I cradle his face in my hands. “Wanna go back out there?” I ask.
“Not yet.”
He kisses me, slow and teasing. I’m panting when he pulls away.
“Let’s do something just you and me,” he says. “You free tomorrow?”
I bite my lip, giddy at the soft growl in his voice. At the way he doesn’t beat around the bush like other guys when he wants to spend time with me.
“I’m free.”
He kisses me again, harder this time. I tug on the hem of his shirt, pulling him closer. He’s already against me, but I want more. More of his body on me.
When we break apart, I’m dizzy.
“Now I’m ready,” he says in a low, soft growl. “You go first.”
He pats my ass, and I stumble out of the garage back into the living room and rejoin everyone as they celebrate.
Poppy walks up to me and hands me a glass of water.
“What’s this for?” I ask.
“You look flushed and dazed from whatever you and Travis were up to in the garage,” she teases.
I fight a smile and down the water. My phone buzzes with a text. When I see it’s Travis, I bite my lip, but I can’t hide the way my smile grows. I look up and see him across the room, standing next to Blake and his friend Briar.
I read his message.
Travis: Only sixteen hours until I get to see you.
My tummy tumbles around. God, he’s so sweet and cute.
Me: Wow, you’re starting a countdown? If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you like me.
Travis: I really, really like you, sweet thing.
I put my phone back in my pocket, and for the rest of the day, I can’t stop smiling.