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“You never know. Anything can happen.”
“His girlfriend would have to get hit by a bus, and even then, I’m not sure you’d be next on the list.”
Vanessa pouts. “When I asked if he was coming, he didn’t say no.”
“He’s not coming,” Sloane states, patting the other girl on the arm. “And he’s not for you. You really need to give it up.”
“It would be the cutest story,” Vanessa insists. “We could tell our kids someday.”
Sloane shakes her head, grabbing my arm. “Let’s leave her in delulu-land and I’ll take you up to Addison’s room so you can get ready.”
I smile faintly, walking with Sloane up the stairs. “I take it Vanessa has an unrequited crush.”
“She has a mental condition,” Sloane says lightly, shaking her head. “He’s doing her a favor by not liking her. He’d literally ruin her life.”
Yep, I know how that goes.
“Anyway, do you have a special talent we can highlight? Addison bakes, so she’s making oatmeal raisin cookies for her winner. Another girl is offering ‘laundry services for all of next week.’ We have a weekend movie date. Another girl is making brownies. One’s offering a back rub, but she already knows her boyfriend is bidding. Date at the art museum. Ice cream date. Cooking class, we have a girl who will teach her date how to make homemade pasta.”
“I can sing,” I say almost apologetically.
“That’s perfect,” she says. “A serenade from the lovely Brynn Blakely.”
“I don’t really want to sing to a stranger, though,” she murmurs. “Sounds a bit awkward.”
“You know Ryan McDermott, right?”
That’s Killian’s friend who picked me up the day I ran into Aiden. “Yeah, we’ve met.”
She nods. “He’ll be here. I’ll tell him to bid on you if no one else does. We have backup bidders in the audience to get things started, and so no one has to worry about being embarrassed by not getting a bid, just in case the organic attendees don’t bite for whatever reason. I can tell Ryan to keep bidding on yours if some rando does so you don’t have to actually sing to anyone. I mean, unless you want to,” she teases. “Ryan is cute.”
I smile faintly, but I don’t know how to label what I have going on with Killian right now, so I don’t say anything.
“For your listing, do you want just guys to be able to bid on you, or guys and girls?”
“Since it’s not really romantic in nature, it doesn’t matter. Whoever wants to donate money is fine with me.”
“Okay,” she says with a little nod.
“Are you going to be up for auction?” I ask her.
“God, no,” she answers automatically, but I think it was an accidentally honest response. She laughs a little as if embarrassed, then looks over at me and explains, “I’m already spoken for.”
“What am I thinking? Of course you are,” I say lightly.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Brynn
I’m having another one of those déjà vu moments, but this time, of the life I didn’t lead.
If I had been accepted to the Zeta sorority and I moved in here with Addison.
Addison is a very chill Zeta who buzzed around me doing my hair, my makeup, and then giving me shoes from her closet that she bought but has never worn because they were too tight.
“I love these,” I say, looking down my absurd white babydoll dress at the cute blue flats she let me borrow.
“Keep them,” she says easily. “They don’t fit me anyway, and if you can’t tell, I don’t have the closet space for shoes I can’t wear.” She glances at the empty side of the room. “I mean, I can right now, but once I get a new roomie, I won’t be able to, so I don’t want to get too used to using the extra space.”
