“Well,” she said, sounding prouder of herself than she should have. “You’re not the only one who can keep a secret. For a little while,” she added.
“Okay, so does everyone know now?” Ransom asked.
“Drew doesn’t,” Sophia said. “I didn’t know how he’d feel about me seeing your…you…like that. Plus, it’s not my business to tell. And I guess Xander doesn’t know either.”
“He knows.” When we all looked to Aniyah, she added, “I texted him as soon as Brody said it.”
Aamee looked around at the group. “Okay, so is that it for the secrets, then? We’re not gonna find out you two fools are dating each other or something, are we?” she asked Carter and Toby.
“Well, if that’s the case, it’s a secret from us too,” Carter joked.
He and Toby laughed awkwardly, and I couldn’t blame them. Aamee really knew how to put people on edge.
“I’m gonna go to the bathroom,” I said. “Soph, you wanna come with me? We can stop at the bar to grab another drink and say hi to Drew on the way back.”
We both got up, and after hitting the restrooms, we made our way through the crowd to the bar where Xander and Drew were working.
“Can you tell Brody to come back when you get a chance?” Drew asked. “We’re swamped here.”
Sophia texted Brody, and he was back in a minute, overly apologetic and mumbling something about Aamee that none of us could decipher.
Drew came back over a couple of minutes later with our drinks, and before we headed back to the group, Sophia asked, “So what’s up with you and Ransom?”
I hadn’t told her about what happened between us, but I knew better than to lie about it. Besides, she already knew something was going on, or she wouldn’t have asked. And she was asking about more than the sweat shirt he’d loaned me or the fact that he’d been rubbing my arm to warm me up. She was asking about feelings. And I didn’t know if I had an answer for that.
So I did the best I could to fill her in on the time we’d spent together, how…domestic, how right all of it had felt. And I told her about the sex, keeping only a few details for myself. She listened to all of it without saying much of anything until I felt like I’d told her all I could.
“Wow. That’s…a lot,” was all she said.
“I know. When I moved here, I had zero intention of getting involved with another guy. Not after Brad.”
After I’d told Ransom about the picture Brad had sent, Sophia was my next stop, and she’d been equally concerned, though she definitely wasn’t as visibly angry. She seemed to understand how much the situation with Brad broke me and that it would take more than a hot ex-football player to make me whole again. I needed to make myself whole before I could share any part of myself with someone else.
Which was why it surprised me when Sophia said, “Well, you don’t have to make any final decisions right now. Just do what feels right and see what happens.”
It seemed like simple enough advice, but the ambiguity of it left too much open for me to fuck up. If I decided to begin something real with Ransom, I risked getting myself in too deep too quickly, and if I decided not to be with him, I risked losing out on something that I felt had the chance to make me happy. Really happy.
And if I just waited to see what happened, like Sophia suggested, I risked dragging both myself and Ransom along until I eventually broke both our hearts.
I took another sip of my drink before suggesting we get back to the rest of the gang. When I arrived, I sat back down in my chair next to Ransom and put my phone on the large armrest.
Somehow, I still managed to knock it over onto the grass. Ransom leaned over to retrieve it, but as he brought it up toward me, the text on the lock screen glowed in the dark like a neon sign on a desolate Las Vegas highway.
Miss you, babe. See you soon.
When he handed it to me, his face fell. There was no doubt he’d seen the text too, even if he hadn’t meant to. And though I was sure he wanted to ask about it, I was also sure he wouldn’t.
Brad.
“That’s not what it looks like,” I offered as an explanation, albeit an extremely poor one.
“What is it, then? Who is it?”
“It’s not…not anyone important,” I settled on, feeling somewhat satisfied that at least I hadn’t lied.
Ransom was quiet for a moment as he focused on his hands, which were clasped in front of him as he leaned forward onto his thighs. “So is that someone you’re talkin’ to or…?” he asked, bringing his gaze up to me.
“No.”
“Taylor, come on. I think I deserve more than that—”
“Deserve? Really? And just what is it you think you deserve from me, Ransom?” Brad had thought he’d deserved things from me—more than I’d ever wanted to give.
Ransom looked around at our friends, obviously wanting to make sure we didn’t garner an audience.
I didn’t want that either, but I kept my eyes on him, waiting for his answer.
“Look, if it’s someone else you’re dating, I just want to know,” he finally said.
“Someone else?” I scoffed. Like I had time or energy for that. This annoying man in front of me had taken up all the mental space I could spare for weeks, and now he was accusing me of dating other people and not giving him what he felt he deserved? Well, screw him. “I’m not even dating you, let alone someone else.”
“Wow,” he said, the word holding more sadness than anger.
He leaned back into the chair, silent. And against my better judgment, my eyes followed his movements.
Rigid.
Detached.
I regretted that my comment had hurt him, and I
