She blinked at me, then at what was left of the flowers in my hand. She swallowed when she saw them, then held her chin higher, and I swore I saw her slip on a mask of indifference right in front of me.

“I was just about to text you once I got home,” she said, plastering on a smile as she shimmied past me and unlocked the door. We both ushered inside, the warmth welcome after being in the blistering wind. “You’re never going to believe what happened.”

I followed her up the stairs to her apartment as she peeled off her scarf and coat, and my heart hammered harder and harder in my chest with every step knowing the words I would say once we were inside her apartment.

“So, I was walking around campus, just…” She paused, eyeing me over her shoulder before she hit the top stair and unlocked her apartment door. “Enjoying the weather,” she finally said. “And who do I run into?”

She pushed the door open, slipping in first before I followed and shut the door behind us.

“Shawn.”

She whipped around as she said the name, her turquoise eyes catching mine just as her rosy cheeks lifted with the wide spread of her lips.

That blooming smile formed a knot in my throat, one I couldn’t swallow past as Giana hung up her coat and scarf before reaching for the flowers in my hand.

“Oh, yeah, I… I got these for you,” I said lamely, cringing a bit when she took them and surveyed the broken stems and ragged petals still holding on. “They looked a lot better before my walk.”

Giana smiled, though it was weak, a flash of something in her eyes as she looked at the flowers, then at me, then turned for her kitchen. She pulled a small vase from under the sink and began snipping the flower stems and arranging the ones that had survived.

“Anyway, so we talked a bit and…” She bit her lip, doing a little bounce when she looked up at me again. “He asked me on a date!”

Rage simmered in my chest. “He what?”

“I know, right?!” Giana mistook my question for pleasant surprise rather than the anger that it was. “It’s crazy. You really know what you’re doing,” she added with a wink.

“That motherfucker asked you on a date when you have a boyfriend?”

“Well, technically he just asked to hang out. As friends,” she said with a knowing grin. “To watch a movie.”

My hands curled into fists at my side, and I gritted my teeth together to keep from roaring at the bastard’s audacity. “What a disrespectful creep.”