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“Mom?”
She didn’t complain about me cutting her off, probably able to hear in my voice that I wasn’t doing great. “What is it, Ella Rae?”
I heaved out a great sigh. “Why didn’t I see the signs? I finished my first year at Penn with a 4.0 GPA. I’m a smart woman. Yet… I really thought Billy loved me. I moved here for him. How could I have been so stupid?”
She matched my sigh. “You weren’t stupid, Ella. You trusted the person you were supposed to be able to trust. He was your first boyfriend. Your first everything. You followed your heart and I don’t want you to lose that, baby. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to trust. It’s just also a very dangerous thing at times.”
“Don’t talk about my first anything. I can’t handle that.” I groaned and let out a frustrated scream. “I hate feeling like this. This isn’t a productive emotion.”
“Funnel it into finding a new place to live because I’m not going to be able to sleep if you don’t get out of that motel room. It feels like I’ve already lost my only kid to the seedier side of life. I’m not cut out for mothering a high-risk child, Ella. We each have our limits and we need to respect that.”
Dropping my head forward on my steering wheel, I couldn’t help agreeing with her. “You’re right. I’ll figure it out. Just because campus housing is full doesn’t mean there aren’t a hundred other great options, just like the one I’m going to see now. I’m sure it’ll be amazing.”
“I hope so. I’m minutes from flying there to live with you.”
She was just crazy enough to do it, too. With a shudder, I sat up straight and locked eyes with a guy jogging down the sidewalk next to my car. I momentarily lost track of what I was thinking as he came closer to my car and I noticed the way his bare chest muscles flexed. “Wow.”
“Wow? Wow, what?”
Tall, muscular, and tan, the guy jogging towards me was stunning. He had bone structure that would’ve made Captain America jealous and a knowing smirk loaded and ready just for the moment he caught a woman gawking at him, I was assuming. As soon as he passed me, I let out a breath I hadn’t even realized I was holding.
“Ella Rae Daughton? What is it?” Mom sounded like she was getting frantic on the other end of the call. “Answer me, child, or I’m seriously booking a flight right now!”
I shook my head at myself. “Sorry, Mom. I just… I got distracted.”
“By what?”
“By nothing. I’ve got to go, Mom. I think this neighborhood might be okay, after all.” If the guy who just jogged by lived there, it was a nicer neighborhood than I’d thought. He looked like he was captain of the rowing team. “I love you. Don’t come here! Okay?”
“Rude.” She blew a raspberry. “I love you, too. Call me later and update me.”
I hung up and looked in the rearview mirror to see Mr. Rowing but he was already gone. Not that it mattered. He could’ve jumped on the hood of my car and flexed his impressive pectoral muscles in my face and I still wouldn’t have been interested. Not after Billy and his public cunnilingus.
I took a deep breath and prepared myself for being on. I needed a place to live. Fast. The last thing I wanted, besides living with Billy, was Mom showing up on campus and screaming my name to find me. That was the only thing that could embarrass me more than Billy’s cheating.
I got out of my car and life smacked me again as I stepped onto the sidewalk. I heard a deep shout a split second before I got hit by what felt like a train. I waited to hit the ground but found myself clinging to sweaty muscles mid-air instead.
“Whoa, there.” Mr. Rowing grinned down at me, white teeth on full display with deep green eyes sparkling in the sunlight. “You okay?”
“Where did you come from?” I looked around, belatedly realizing that I was still clinging to him. Forcing myself to let him go, I took a step back and looked around. He really had appeared out of nowhere.
“Right now or in general?” He put his hands on his hips and his stomach muscles flexed.
Taking a step backwards, I cleared my throat and forced a smile. I had to get away from his muscles and his pretty eyes. My brain scrambled to find a witty reply, but the moment his smirk deepened, every clever thought I had evaporated. I was officially fluent in gibberish. “I’m, uh… really late. Bye!”
Turns out, I didn’t need Mom’s help to embarrass myself—I had that covered. As I bolted away like a raccoon on meth, I mentally added ‘Learn how to run like a normal person’ to my to-do list. Because clearly, life wasn’t going to give me a break any time soon.
2
***Ella***
“And this is where you’d sleep.” Jamie, the forty-two-year-old woman wearing hot pink Uggs and her hair in pigtails, grinned as she whipped back a fabric curtain to reveal a bed shoved into the closet of her room. “It’s cute, right?!”
My mouth opened like I had something to say but I had nothing. I felt like I could’ve stood there a thousand years and still nothing would’ve come to me. The house was a shrine to 2000’s pop and Jamie was looking for someone to have sleepovers with. She wanted a friend to pillow fight with and play Dream Date on a fake plastic telephone from the late 90s. Most of those things I learned directly from the things she was saying to me.
“My parents live in the back of the house but they know not to come out when I’m hanging with my friends.” She blew a bubble with her bubble gum and it popped over the tip of her nose. She casually stuck her tongue out to work the gum back into her mouth. “It’s totally cool. You won’t even notice them. And we’re only a little ways away from frat row. The parties are great there and if we get blitzed, my parents will come and pick us up. Can you say personal uber?”
I shut my mouth and opened it again. “I…can?”
