I stood and nervously wiped my hands across the far-too expensive denim pants I’d purchased for the dinner we had to attend. “I really do have to get my studying in before tomorrow, and I’m running out of time and energy. So, if you have anything else, it would be great if we could curtail the rest of our talk until next weekend when I’m not pressed for time and exhausted already.” I didn’t wait for his response and instead made my way to the bedroom I’d commandeered for myself.

Chapter 9

I bombed the stupid quiz. I felt like none of the material had ever been covered in the history of forever. How was that possible? Well, it probably had something to do with the fact that I couldn’t concentrate to save my life and no studying ever got done. Every time I flipped a page in my textbook, light would glint on my ring. Now that I’d broken the seal and actually looked at that damn thing, I couldn’t seem to stop staring at it.

I left my class, and the miserable quiz behind, in search of sustenance since I’d skipped breakfast after oversleeping. Yes, that meant I stayed up most of the night – not studying – while trying to figure out what every little nuance of shit going on in my life meant. Tucker was confusing at best. Wes seemed to be hiding from me, though to be honest, he was Tucker’s best friend and probably only spoke to me out of regard to that relationship. Then there was that post-nup business Mr. Brighton had sprung on me during dinner. It was completely ridiculous. I was so lost in my thoughts about all those things that I didn’t even hear someone shouting my name until he was right up next to me.

“Mina!” An exasperated tone finally caught my attention and I startled before spinning to see Carlos standing there. “I get that you’ve been ignoring my messages, but you’ll seriously pretend you didn’t hear me calling out to you in public too?”

I glanced around to see that there weren’t that many people about to witness this. I tipped my head toward the little café across the street that I’d been headed to. “I was focused on getting to Louis’ and lost in thought. Can we put this on hold until I get some food in me?”

“Oh, you’re just hangry then,” he joked while backing it up with a knowing smirk. Sure, he knew that about me, but so did everyone I had ever spent more than 24-hours around. I rolled my eyes and continued with my quest for food. It just so happened that now, someone was trailing along beside me. I thought briefly about how it might look if someone saw me out with Carlos, but then realized I didn’t care. I was allowed to have friends, even if I didn’t necessarily want them.