Robert laughed. “He’s not the real one.”

I furrowed my brow. “There is no real one. He’s a movie character.”

Amelia elbowed me. “We were just wondering if you knew who he really was,” she said.

Robert met my eyes then and held my stare for a three count, my cheeks completing their transformation to red, before Amelia interrupted by asking again, “So? Do you know him?”

“Yes . . . sort of. He goes here.”

“That’s what we’d heard.”

“Who is he?” I asked.

“I can’t tell you. You have to figure that out on your own.”

“Figure it out?” I asked.

“Yes.” But that’s all he said.

I wondered if he would’ve told Amelia had she asked the question, if he was holding back the info because it was me who wanted to know. It wasn’t the best breakup. Even though he was the breaker-upper, it had been obvious that night that he thought I’d tell him that he was more important than swimming. That I’d beg him not to go, promise not to practice as much or that I’d spend more time with him or something. But I hadn’t. Because it wasn’t true. “Why is his identity some secret?”

A loud voice called from across the parking lot, “Robert!”

He whirled toward the sound, then let out a yodel. And without even a backward glance at us to say goodbye, he bounded over to his friend and they bumped chests.

I took in a deep breath and willed my body to return to its normal state.

Amelia ran the toe of her shoe along a crack in the asphalt and then, as if it was the one withholding information from us, looked up with a scowl. “That was useless. He only told us information we already knew.” She studied my face. “Your cheeks are red.”

I tugged at the neck of my hoodie. “I’m hot.”

She squinted her eyes and focused on something over my shoulder, probably Robert. Then her eyes lit up. “Do you still like Robert? Is that why you’re so flustered?”

“Can we walk away from his car before he comes back?”

“Of course.” We headed for her car, the only one left in the back row of the parking lot. “So tell me, what’s going on? If you still like him, I can come up with another good excuse to talk to him. Should I ask if he wants to go get hot wings with us?”

“Hot wings?”

“I’m hungry. Can we go get something to eat? I’ll ask him if he wants to eat with us.”

I grabbed her arm before she could go through with this plan. “He broke up with me. It wasn’t mutual. He said I had a one-track mind.”

“What? Hadley! Why didn’t you tell me?”