I knew it would happen eventually, that Blane would find out. I’d just hoped it would be after I transferred and he had won the championship.
“Catie, is that you?” a voice called from behind me.
I froze in place for a second, wanting to escape, to disappear, but I turned around.
“Shelby, it’s not a good time.” Frowning, I brushed the back of my hand over my face and sniffed back snot. I probably looked like a mental patient.
She gave me a concerned look. “What’s going on? I haven’t seen you in forever. Tess said you texted that you were working on a paper and busy dating the basketball player. Did he hurt you?”
“Shelby, really, I’m fine, but I have to get out of here.” I straightened my posture and attempted to look like I had my shit together.
I’m anything but that. And what’s it to her, anyway?
“Can we chat later?” I asked, pleading with my eyes as well.
Shelby wasn’t taking the hint. Wrapping her arm around me, she said, “Why don’t you come back to my room?” She steered us toward the dorms, whispering something about hot cocoa, and we both startled when a car pulled up to a screeching stop just ahead of us.
Not a car, but a truck. Blane’s pickup.
“Cate, wait. I’m sorry I blew you off. I needed time to process,” he yelled, jumping out of the truck and running back toward us.
“Leave me alone,” I spat back. “Please don’t make a scene.”
Out of breath, Blane skidded to a halt in front of me. “Sonny texted me and told me it was minutes away from spreading all through campus. He’s sending it viral. I had to find you.”
“What’s going on?” Shelby stood next to me, holding my arm protectively as Blane and I squared off.
“You could have come to me,” I muttered, “had the decency to say you saw it to my face.”
“I didn’t know what to say,” he said, his voice contrite. “And I was mad.”
“I had my reasons for doing it, and this is exactly why I didn’t want to reunite with you. Or whatever we’re doing.” I sounded like an idiot, blubbering and using words that didn’t even work with the context. Reunite?
“Cate, I realized you must’ve had your reasons, and I want to hear them.”
He reached for my hand as he approached slowly but I backed up, taking Shelby with me.
“Let’s go,” she whispered in my hair. It was blowing wildly in the wind, reflecting my manic mood. “We’re making a scene.”
“Let me take her,” Blane insisted to Shelby, coming closer.
I shook my head. “The jig is up. We’re done. Go do what you need to do. Buy your mom a house, sign a deal, forget me.”
I tugged on Shelby’s coat sleeve and forced her to walk away with me. Her arm wrapped around my shoulders, and she glared back at Blane before tightening her grip on me.
Once we got back to her dorm, I spilled it all. What I had been up to and why, my plans to write a tell-all, and how Sarina had taken me under her wing to help me.
Shelby held true to her promise and made cocoa, rubbing my back while I took sips and defended my position. Once I was done, she shook her head.
“To me,” she said, “it sounds like you gave up your personal happiness to prove these women’s plight.”
I cocked my head and stared her down. Really? She was going to go there?
“I don’t know. Sounds pretty selfless, babe, a sign of a true feminist. Putting other women’s rights and needs first,” Shelby said, finishing her thought.
“Yeah?” I asked through tears. I seemed to have an endless supply of them.
“Yeah.” She gave me a small smile as she swiped a thumb over my cheek, and then ran her finger over my shoulder where she knew my tattoo rested. “Why are you shutting out Steele?”
I shrugged, looking away. “He doesn’t need this, and you saw his face. He’s disgusted with me.”
“It looked more like disappointment from where I was standing. Maybe he genuinely cares?”
Shelby lay back on the bed and pulled me into her arms, running a soothing hand over my back as if I were a small child. If one good thing came out of this whole debacle, it was that I’d developed a sisterhood.
“He’s going to play professional basketball,” I mumbled. “He doesn’t need to have his reputation tarnished by a girlfriend who made a few pornos. I know I had to do it. It makes my stance stronger, but still. He needs to move on, and really . . . what were we? Friends who messed around a few times?”
“Is that all you were?”
I sighed. “We made each other laugh, and he was so sweet despite that rep he has. I don’t know, we’d become very good friends, I guess.”
She smoothed my hair behind my ear. “That’s it?”
“There was a definite attraction.” My throat tightened. “But that was all before he knew. Why would he want to touch me now?”
“Maybe we should call him and hear him out. It’s private here.”