26. Zoey
CHAPTER 26
ZOEY
I’m striding across campus when I hear my name being called repeatedly. I don’t pay attention at first, assuming someone is calling after another Zoey. It’s not a super common name, but it’s not uncommon either.
But as the voice grows closer, louder, and more insistent I finally stop and look around.
When I see the girl trying to flag me down, I nearly throw down the textbook in my arms and haul ass out of there like I’d been trying to do.
The last thing I ever expected in a million years was to see my former best friend on the Aldridge U campus.
I blink and blink again, thinking maybe she’ll disappear like a mirage, but nope she’s still there.
With one hand I tug my beanie down over my ears, protecting myself from the cold and the incoming avalanche of emotions.
She stops in front of me, her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail. Her makeup is done flawlessly, and she’s dressed like she’s just stepped off a runway. She fits in on the posh campus far more than I do.
Now that she’s in front of me she seems unsure. “Hi,” she says awkwardly.
“Liza, what are you doing here?” The words tumble out of my mouth.
“I…” She looks around at the students milling by us. “I wanted to talk to you.”
“You came here, all the way to my school, to talk to me?”
She bites her lips, eyes hesitant. “Yeah.”
I exhale a breath, watching as it fogs the air. Do I want to talk to her? I really don’t, but she was my friend for years and if she came all the way here just to talk to me, I’m not sure I can turn her away.
“Okay. There’s a coffee shop close by.” There’s a hesitancy in my voice, but something is telling me to do this. This conversation is long overdue.
“Are you sure?” she asks. “You don’t have class? I can come back later or?—”
I level her with a glare. “It’s now or not at all.”
I know if I give myself too much time to think I won’t speak to her.
“Okay. Now then.”
Neither of us say a word on the walk over. We place an order for coffee and then take a seat in the back where there are less people.
“So,” she curls her fingers around her cup, “how have you been?”
“You came all this way to ask me how I am?” The snarkiness in my tone is obvious and I try not to cringe. I know I’m not in the wrong here. It’s not like I slept with her fiancé, but I would like to be the bigger person. After all, I’ve moved on.
She winces. “No.”
I take the lid off my coffee, letting it cool down. “I think it’s better if we don’t waste our time on the niceties.”
She looks out the window as snow flurries start to descend from the gray sky. More than likely it won’t even stick. Not yet at least.
Inhaling a breath, her eyes meet mine. There’s a hesitancy there, a worry like she’s afraid I might reach across the table and throttle her. I have news for her, I’ve moved on from her and Todd. I’m not angry. Not even hurt anymore. If anything, all I feel is indifference.
“I wanted to apologize to you. Face to face.” She stares down at her cup. “I can’t even begin to tell you how horrible I’ve felt?—”
“Because I caught you.”
“No,” she shakes her head, “I felt bad as it was happening, but I couldn’t stop it because … I wanted it. You and Todd seemed like the perfect couple and I was jealous. I wanted that. Wanted him . And when he started to pay attention to me, flirt … I went along with it. I liked the way it made me feel wanted. I didn’t think about what I was giving up by being flattered over his flirting. I threw away our friendship. I realize that now and it’s the biggest mistake I’ve ever made.” She wipes tears from her eyes. “Anyway, I know you probably never wanted to see me again, but I wanted you to know that it’s my biggest regret and I’ll forever be sorry.”
It takes me a moment to wrap my brain around everything she’s said. “You were jealous? Why?” I don’t know why I choose this to focus on.
She snorts like it’s unbelievable that I don’t understand. “You’ve always had your shit together, Zoey. You’re smart, beautiful, going places, and then you were engaged. It’s just felt like I was falling behind while you were propelling forward.”
I rub my hands over my face. “I’d lost my mom, hated my dad for no good reason, and I was in a relationship that might’ve looked good on the outside but now I see how incredibly flawed it was. I’m not trying to dismiss your feelings, but Liza you had no reason to be jealous. Not everything is as shiny as it appears on the surface.”
“I know.” She wipes her eyes with a napkin. “Like I said, I see how dumb it was now. I don’t know what happened to make me feel so vindictive. It made me feel powerful, having his attention on me when he was yours.”
I frown. I know I should be mad, hurt even, but as I look at her all I feel is sorry for her.
“I think it’s really sad you felt that way, Liza. You’re all those things you think of me. And we both deserved better than Todd.”
Her lips twitch. “He was a prick, wasn’t he?”
“The worst.”
“You never miss him?”
“Not at all.” I smile, thinking of Cole.
As if my thoughts have conjured him, I see him walk into the shop. He must sense me staring at him, because our eyes connect, and he grins. He strides back to the table, oblivious to Liza and bends down, kissing me in front of everyone. I swear I hear a girl a table over gasp.
“Hey, beautiful. What are you doing here?”
I wave a hand toward Liza. “Catching up with an old friend. What about you?”
“I have a meeting with a scout for Atlanta.”
“Really?” My eyes widen. “Cole, that’s amazing! Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Nerves,” he admits with a shaky smile. Extending a hand to Liza, he says, “Hi, I’m Cole. Zoey’s…” He looks to me, like he’s seeking clarification before he blurts out, “boyfriend.”
I press my lips together, trying to hide my smile, but it makes me happy to hear him say that.
The girl who swore off men, especially basketball players, fell for one.
Oh, the irony.
I suppose fate knew better than me.
After the introductions are done, he gives me another kiss before ordering and sitting at a table to wait for the scout.
“He’s hot.” Liza looks over her shoulder at him.
“Don’t even think about it,” I joke, her jaw dropping.
“I-No-I-I wouldn’t.”
“I’m kidding.” I take a sip of my drink.
“Right.” Her cheeks are bright red. “Anyway, I guess I’ll let you go. I just wanted you to know that I’m sorry.”
“I forgive you.”
She exhales a weighted breath and starts crying again. “You have no idea how badly I needed to hear that.”
Reaching across the table, I take her hand and give it a small squeeze. “Don’t ever let another douchebag like Todd get in your way. You’re worth more than him.”
“Thank you.” She stands, cradling her coffee cup. “Good luck with everything, life, I guess.”
I laugh. “You too.”
I watch her leave and wait for her to disappear from my sight before I get up to go. A man has joined Cole, and as I walk out, I give him a sly thumbs up. His tense shoulders relax, and he gives me a tiny nod.
Pushing the door open, I step out into the cold so I can head to my parked car.
Once again, my name is called after me and I jerk to a stop looking around.
Teddy jogs over from a group of guys, most faces I recognize. Cree lifts his hand in a wave, and I wave back.
“What’s up, T?”
Teddy pushes his shaggy brown hair out of his eyes. “Cole’s birthday is the twelfth—” I jerk my head back at this news, since Cole hasn’t mentioned his birthday is a few days away. “—and I was thinking we could throw him a surprise party.”
“Oh.” I rub my lips together. “Um … sure. What were you thinking?” I can’t believe he didn’t tell me about his birthday.
“Cree’s down to have it at his place. Cole’s not a big partier so we’ll try to keep it small, but you know how it is once word gets out.”
“Right.”
“Any ideas on something he’d like?”
I think for a moment. “Root beer floats.”
“Ah, of course.” He grins. “Thanks for your help, Zoey. Cree and I will handle everything. Just get the birthday boy to his place by eight.”
“O-Okay,” I stutter, still taken by surprise that it’s Cole’s birthday in just a few days.
“See you later.” Teddy throws his arms around me in a hug I barely have time to return before he’s jogging back to join the guys.
I finally make it to my car and drive home. I’m not going to allow myself to obsess over why he might not have told me, but I sure as hell will be asking him as soon as I see him.
An hour or so later I hear the door open, but I don’t move from where I’m lying in my bed, staring at the last sentence I wrote on my paper that’s due Friday. I haven’t written another word in the last twenty minutes. I’m brain dead.
Cole strolls down the hallway and walks into my bedroom. He moves my laptop off my bed to my desk and then lies on top of me, hugging me.
“Cole,” I giggle, shoving at his muscular shoulder, “you’re squishing me.”
“Needed to hold you,” he murmurs into my chest.
“How’d your meeting go?” I massage the back of his neck.
“Good. I think. There’s no really knowing.” He looks at me, hesitating, before he says, “You didn’t freak out when I called myself your boyfriend.”
My fingers still. “No. I didn’t.”
“Are you okay with that? With being my girlfriend?”
“Yeah, I am.”
“Even if I get drafted somewhere like Atlanta?”
I shrug. “I’m not afraid of long distance and after I graduate in another year, I’ll be applying for a DPT program and I don’t have to do that here.” I trace the shape of his lips.
“You’re really okay with this?”
“Do you want me to run away screaming from us?”
“God no.”
“Good, because I don’t plan on going anywhere.” Being with Cole is the most natural thing in the world and I refuse to ruin it with unnecessary overthinking and obsessing. “Now,” I hold his chin, “why didn’t you tell me your birthday is in a few days ?”
“It’s just a birthday.”
I shake my head. “It’s not just a birthday. It’s yours. I want to do something for you, get you something special.”
His hold on me tightens and he lays the side of his head on my chest. “All I want is you.”
I close my eyes. It’s not an I love you , it’s too soon for that, but it sounds pretty damn perfect.
“All I want is you, too.”
He places his hands on the bed, holding his weight above me. He kisses me and I sink further into the mattress, a moan rumbling in my throat from the pressure of his body above mine. I tug at his shirt, wanting it gone, and he sits up getting rid of the offending piece of clothing. With it out of the way I trace my fingers over his smooth warm skin as he kisses me.
“I want to make love to you,” he murmurs, into my neck before pressing his lips there.
I gasp at the feel of his erection pressing into my center. I wish I could dissolve my clothes so I could feel him all over right this second.
“Then do it.” I sound breathless as he peppers kisses over my collarbone and between my breasts. I changed into a tank top and shorts when I got to the apartment. We keep it nice and warm, and I hate wearing layers.
He chuckles, the sound vibrating against my skin. “Oh, I’m going to baby. Tonight. Tomorrow. The rest of our lives.”
I gulp at the teasing promise in his voice.
His fingers skate beneath my tank and he hisses when he finds me not wearing a bra. He cups my left breast, playing with the nipple.
“Cole,” I practically beg, writhing beneath him.
His brown eyes sparkle in the light of my room. “Beg,” he challenges. “Beg all you want but I’m taking this slow.”
I whimper when his hot wet mouth closes over my breast through the cotton fabric. My core pulses with its own heartbeat.
My breaths are shaky, and I squeeze my eyes shut as he gives my other breast the same treatment.
My body wiggles beneath him and I can tell from his self-satisfied smirk that he loves knowing he’s driving me insane.
He undresses me slowly, like I’m his very own present he’s unwrapping.
He kisses every inch of my body, ignoring my pleas, and when he finally sinks into my body I nearly orgasm then and there. He rocks into me leisurely, like we have all the time in the world. I suppose we do. My nails rake down his chest to the base of his cock and he shudders, gritting his teeth.
“Zoey,” he pants my name, our hips meeting stroke for stroke. “Fuck, yes, baby. That’s it. Yes. You feel so good.” He rubs my clit, and I was already so close that I go off, my body shaking. I bite my lip, trying to keep my noises quiet but Cole plucks my lip from between my teeth. “Let me hear you, baby.”
He spreads my legs open wider, laying his body on top of mine. Our chests are plastered together, damp with perspiration. I wrap my arm around his back, holding us together as I rock my hips.
He speeds up his thrusts, unable to hold back a second longer, and comes, shuddering against me. His orgasm triggers another for me and we come down from our high together.
He smooths my hair back from my forehead. Our eyes locked.
He doesn’t say those three words. He knows I’m not ready.
But I see them.
I feel them.