You Never Can Tell #3
“Okay,” Cori swallows hard. “I’ve been seeing her since last semester, actually. And I should have told you, but I was worried it wouldn’t work and that it would cause problems. But I really, really like her.”
I’m scanning my brain for every candidate, and a hundred faces slide past, none quite right. I try to hold the silence long enough for her to fill it.
She does, in a tiny voice: “It’s Z.”
I blink, then once more as it sinks in. “Z as in Zhenga?”
Cori nods, her eyes locked on the comforter, and hands clasped together so tight I can hear her knuckles creak.
“I know, I know, it’s nuts, but she’s… amazing, D.
She’s funny, and smart, and when we’re together, it’s like the rest of the world is on mute.
She’s so different from what I thought, and—”
“Are you kidding me?” I sit up, bouncing on the mattress and nearly sending Jinx airborne. “That’s awesome! You had me thinking it was, like, the Fae cult leader or something.”
She lets out a shaky laugh, relief rolling off her like ocean spray. “You’re not mad?”
I throw a pillow at her. “Mad? You bagged one of the few women on campus with better hair than yours, and you kept it a secret this long? I am wounded, but also kind of in awe of your mad skills.”
The shadow behind her eyes softens as she gives me a shaky sigh. “I just… I didn’t want to cause drama. Zhenga didn’t want the twins to make it weird, or to think she was going to, I don’t know, use me to get info for the Council, or—”
I wave her off. “Z can handle the twins on her own; I think she has been as it is. I thought for sure she was going to be such an enormous problem at Apex and then… it fizzled once she realized the guys were my mates. I’m more worried about you handling her.
She’s a handful, but, like, a gold-plated, diamond-studded handful, Coco. ”
“She is, but I love it,” Cori whispers, and the look on her face is a combination of awe and affection I’ve never seen before.
For a moment, the air is thick with the aftershocks of the confession, but it’s not a bad thing. In fact, it feels so much lighter than when I first got home, and I’m grateful as hell for that. “Is that why you came in person, then?” I ask. “You wanted to get it off your chest?”
She doesn’t answer right away. Instead, she twists a corner of the comforter between her fingers, then says, “Partly. Z called me last night and said the twins were sniffing around, and she didn’t want them to think she was hiding something.
She said it would be better if you heard it from me before it turned into drama. But also, I just wanted to see you.”
It takes me a second to process all of that, but when I do, I hug her again, this time tighter, and she hugs back. Over her shoulder, I say, “Is there a second secret? Because you still look like you’re holding something.”
She snorts. “Damn you and your developing pred instincts. Okay, yes, there is, but this one’s worse.”
“Just tell me.”
She takes a deep breath. “Z’s family found out, too, so they’re punishing her in surreptitious ways to get her back in line to continue the Leonidas line with her girly bits, as she’s been told.”
“That’s…” I don’t have words, not even the snarky ones. “That’s fucking cruel, Cori. I’m so sorry.”
She shrugs, but the effort of not caring almost breaks her.
“It’s whatever. I’ll live with fighting off two sets of assholes who can’t understand that the old ways are long gone.
At least Z’s not embarrassed to be seen with me, and won’t not show up.
I’m the one who insisted on secrecy so the heat would die off on her. ”
I nudge her. “You have us and the crew and Rufus, Cori. Fuck all those idiots. We’re forming our own extended family and alliance. You know that.”
We sit with that for a while. I hear the clatter of bowls outside my door and the faint, ridiculous sound of Fitz’s voice carrying down the hall—probably still griping about being excluded.
I don’t know how to make it better for her other than to say we will support them both no matter what, and she knows I’m being truthful.
Unfortunately, that’s about as far as we can go right now.
Chess pops in without knocking, a glass of something in each hand, as he smiles. “I brought you refreshments and I have dinner, too, if you’re ready, ladies,” he says, a little awkward but with genuine warmth. “There’s also a dessert in the kitchen for afterward.”
She smiles at him as he walks over to give us the drinks, and he lingers just long enough to see us both smile back, then slips out. I watch him go, and something in my chest unclenches.
“Thank you for telling me,” I say, meaning it more than anything else I’ve said today. “I knew it felt like I was missing something, especially when you guys were working on the uniforms.”
“Thank you for not freaking out,” she says, sipping. “You’re the best friend a polar bear could ask for.”
I smile as we sip our drinks, leaning into her with a sigh. “Besties forever.”
“Forever is right.”
But that doesn’t mean I will not talk to Fitz about how to absolutely fuck the entire world up for the Leonidas dicks and eventually, the Bouviers.
No one hurts Dolly Drew’s chosen family…. no one.