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“Well, I’ll see you around,” Emma whispered and hurried away.
I cringed, hopingthatnever happened. Then I glanced toward Raina, but she was just standing there, avoiding me and looking shell-shocked. The two fifth graders reached us before I could tell her anything about Emma, and she remained standing there as Brey and Kacey piled into the backseat of the truck. She didn’t bother to pop inside when I climbed behind the wheel and started the engine, either.
I glanced at her through the windshield, and when she didn’t take a step toward my truck, I exhaled roughly and geared the engine intodrive.
As I started down the street, I kept glancing toward the passenger seat, waiting for her to appear, but she never did.
A block later, I finally noticed her sitting in the back between Brey and Kacey as they talked and gossiped, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. She had to be sitting on Little’s booster seat, which told me just how displeased she was with me.
Fifteen minutes later, after I dropped my sister and her friend off in the elementary school drop-off lane, the cab of the truck went eerily quiet.
I huffed out a breath and swore, “I didn’t sleep with a married woman.”
Silence greeted me for five seconds before she turned to stare out the window, mumbling a stiff, “It’s none of my business.”
But fuck, she was acting as if I’d cheated onher.
Feeling like shit, I left the elementary school and drove to campus. And I hated every second of silence that passed until I parked near the biology department.
Killing the engine, I just sat there before twisting in my seat to look into the back.
“I’m going to tell you the whole story, but after that, I don’t want to talk about it again. Okay?” I said. “I hate every part of it, and I wish that week of my life never happened, but it did, and I can’t handle you giving me the silent treatment because of it.”
Her expression started to crumble before she caught herself and sent me an annoyed glare. “Foster,really. You don’t have to explain anything to me. It’syourlife.”
“Raina—”
“So what’s your first class of the day?” she asked, refusing to let me talk. “That lab you were geeking out about, right? Great. Let’s go.”
She popped from the truck and started marching determinedly across the parking lot. But I remained sitting behind the wheel, just watching her through the windshield. A few seconds later, she appeared back in the passenger seat, only to growl in frustration.
“Why aren’t you getting out of the truck?”
I just sat there, saying nothing.
Finally, she groaned and gripped her hair. “Okay, fine,” she muttered, twisting in her seat to face me. Pulling her knees up to her chest, she hugged them tight and rested her cheek on them before admitting, “It was disappointing to learn you sleep with married women who are nine years older than you and have children. But you know what, I had you up there on this very high pedestal, so?—”
“Yeah,” I choked out, shaking my head. “I definitely don’t deserve to be on any kind of pedestal. I am the most flawed person I know. But I don’t want you to hate me either.” I swiped a hand over my hair aggressively. “Or if you’re going to hate me, I’d rather you have all thecorrectfacts to back it up, at least.”
“You really don’t have to tell me,” she said primly as she turned her face aside to peer out the front windshield.
I lifted my brows. “Okay. But aren’t you even the tiniest bit curious?” She was curious about everything else. I would’ve thought she’d be frothing at the mouth to know every little detail. “You’d be the absoluteonlyperson I ever told,” I coaxed, sweetening the pot.
She turned her head to send me a suspicious glance. “You didn’t tell any of your seven?”
I shook my head slowly. “Nope. Not a single one of them.”
Her brow furrowed. “Then why would you tell me?”
“Because you figured it out, making you the only person who actuallyknowsnow, and...” I winced before admitting, “I’ve kind of wanted some advice about how I should’ve handled the situation from the beginning, but I couldn’t go to any of my friends without admitting what I’d done.” I motioned toward her helplessly. “Since youdoknow, though, maybe you can at least give me your takeaway.”
“In that case…” Turning back to me, she demanded, “Tell me everything. I’m absolutely dying with questions. Like when, where? How many times? How did it start? How did it end?Didit end? And why?—?”
“Alright! Alright.” I lifted my hands, pausing her there. “I’ll get to that. But I want you to know from the beginning, I didnotsleep with a married woman. Okay?”
“Then what the hell happened?” She rolled her hands to get me to talk faster.
“Right...” I closed my eyes briefly, then exhaled and opened my lashes.
