Chapter Twenty-Five
Sophia
“Hey, girly Where are you off to?” Alyssa asked, curled up on the couch with Abena, a gorgeous woman with long, dark braids who I’d recently discovered was the one responsible for all the sounds I’d heard coming from Alyssa’s room over the last few months.
“I’m going to Leo’s. He’ll be here in a minute,” I said, looking down at my clothes.
I’d been working on my manuscript while managing my period cramps all evening so I was wearing comfy yoga leggings and a gray, long-sleeve Joe’s by Kennedy sweatshirt that my stepmother had mailed me a few weeks ago when I was complaining about how cold our suite was this year. “Should I change?”
Alyssa lifted an eyebrow. “Depends. What exactly are you two doing these days?”
“We’re just having fun,” I said.
“So, you’re not a couple?” she asked skeptically.
“No,” I insisted, shaking my head and sitting down across from them in a comfy, blue chair. “We’re still sleeping together. But we’re friends now too.”
Her eyes narrowed, pulling more out of me.
“Okay, and we’re exclusive. I guess. He said he hasn’t been sleeping with anyone else this whole time.”
Alyssa snorted. “Duh. I’m not at all surprised.”
I was taken aback by her brazen dismissal.
“Sophia, I barely know you both and I’m not even surprised,” Abena said, her soft voice and gentle Ghanan accent making me feel like I’d clearly missed something obvious to everyone else around me.
“Seriously, there are a lot of girls on campus who know you by name and hate you. You’ve completely taken Leo’s interest away from anyone else in the female student body.
He doesn’t even look at them anymore,” Alyssa said with a laugh.
“Some freshman named Chelsea practically spits when your name comes up.”
“Am I an idiot?” I asked them.
“No,” Alyssa said. “You just have a hard time letting go of first impressions. But the guy who you saw jump out a window a few months ago is not the same guy who’s picking you up right now.
I don’t think you’re doing anyone any favors by ignoring the obvious change in his behavior. Or the reason for it.”
“You think he’s actually into me, don’t you?” I asked.
Alyssa laughed. “Well, I’m not an expert in dating guys or anything—women are way easier to read.” She smiled at Abena. “But yeah, I’d say this one’s interested in something more, Sophia, even if he has zero experience articulating that.”
I looked between them for a moment before I heard a knock at the door.
With all my self-absorption with my own lack of experience and confidence, I never once considered Leo was lacking the same thing when it came to relationships.
If that was what he wanted, it kind of made sense that he would have no idea how to ask me.
Instead, he would just agree to a ridiculous proposal for sex, agree to keep that up while pushing me to open up to him, be loyal and exclusive without ever discussing it, and insist we were friends, until one day, we were just in a relationship.
A second knock on the door startled me. Am I dating Leo Harrison? And if I am, don’t we owe it to each other to have a real discussion sooner rather than later? I shook off the revelation and stood up. We do need to have that conversation, but we don’t need to have it tonight.