The compliment mixed with the pride I heard in his voice made me smile, but it slipped quickly when I remembered the auction I’d been trying to forget. Yesterday was easy. It was game day, full of reporters and wrangling the team. But today was Sunday, a day of rest, a day where I didn’t have class or anything with the team to keep me busy.

And so I was drowning in my thoughts.

Clay had rejected me.

There was no way to sugarcoat it, to explain it or make an excuse for the way he’d walked away from me when I was literally stripped bare for him. It was the most vulnerable I’d ever been with him, with anyone, and he’d turned me down.

As much as my stomach curled in on itself with that feeling of dismissal, another emotion battled with it, one that reminded me of the desperation with which I’d launched myself at Clay without warning. I hadn’t told him that was the night, hadn’t prepared him for anything.

But that was exactly what I’d felt — desperation.

I was losing him, losing us, and so I tried to cling to him even as Maliyah slipped her arms around him and pulled him from me. Of course, he wouldn’t want to have sex with me when Maliyah literally paid thousands of dollars to prove she wanted him back now.

This was what was always supposed to happen.

And yet now that it was, I was thrashing.

“Save me a father-daughter dinner when we come?” Dad asked, breaking the silence I’d left him with.

I let out a slow exhale. “I’d love that.”

“Me, too. Until then, promise me you’ll take care of yourself?”

“Promise,” I managed, though my voice was weak.

“I love you, Giana. Remember everything is temporary.”

Those words, though well-intentioned, made my nose sting with another wave of nausea. He meant to assure me that no matter what I was going through, it wouldn’t last forever, that everything would eventually be okay.

But he only reminded me of what was causing the pain in the first place.

Everything is temporary.

First and foremost, whatever relationship I had with Clay.

“Love you, Dad,” I whispered, and then I pulled out my phone, ending the call and tugging my earbuds out of my ears. I tucked them back into my pocket along with my phone before heaving myself onto the nearest bench, one that overlooked a small pond on campus.

The bitter wind swept over my already-chilled face, making my eyes water as a hundred more colorful leaves were swept from tree limbs and blown across the park. It was quiet on campus, between it being a weekend day and the freezing temperature, most students were in their dorms resting or boozing it up in one of the many favorite brunch places.