Page 71 of Forever Relentless

Matthews: That hurts

Me: Toughen up, you’ll need thicker skin than that for SM

Matthews: I hate it already

Me: You’ll hate it even more once we start

Me: And stop talking to me, I’m trying to work

Matthews: You shouldn’t have skipped that coffee . . . you obviously need it

“Asshole.”

I looked up when I heard the tapping on the desk. Gaby was watching me.

“What?”

“Who’s the sexter?”

I put my phone down as if it’d burned me. “What? I don’t know what you mean.”

She rolled her eyes at me. “That’s the most color I’ve ever seen on your cheeks, Briar. That flush? That’s a man flush. So . . . who’s the man?”

I swallowed hard. “No man.”

Her face showed her surprise before she quickly schooled it. “Oh, of course, my bad. Who’s the woman?”

I knew I frowned. “Not a woman.”

She looked like she regretted this conversation, and I felt sorry for her and decided to help her out.

“It’s not a man. Yes, I like men. Well, I mean, it is a man, but he’s not a man. I mean, he is. But you know.” That was me helping her out? I needed to stop talking.

“Is he . . . I mean, are they a . . . they?” Gaby was frowning as she tried not to say the wrong thing. “I just don’t want to insult anyone by getting the pronouns wrong.”

This had turned really awkward. And unnecessary.

“No. No they. Their pronouns are he and him. He’s very . . . male. Trust me.”

“But you said—”

I got to my feet. “I think I need the bathroom.” I didn’t wait for her to say anything else before I had to explain my ‘not a man’ was because I was talking about a student and was trying to convince myself he wasn’t right for me because he was a student . . . Instead, I sped along the hallway that led to the bathrooms and locked myself in a cubicle.

“What the fuck was that, Briar?” I dropped my head into my hands and groaned. “That was a car crash. A very bad one.”

Tipping my head back, I looked up at the ceiling. “She’s going to think you’re a weirdo. A homophobic one, at that.”

A giggle escaped me. What a weird day this was. I laughed even harder. Between this morning, Noah punching an assistant coach, the whole library room thing, then the quad, then Gaby . . . I was either laughing with amusement or having the long-awaited breakdown in the toilets I’d been waiting for since high school.

As I sobered myself, flushed the toilet pointlessly, and washed my hands, I realized today was the first time I’d laughed since I came to this campus. Despite it being one of the weirdest days of my otherwise boring life, it had been fun.

And it was because of him.

My smile faded. Well . . . that wasn’t good at all.

I needed to remember who he was, where we were, and everything in between.

Noah Matthews was not a mistake I needed to make.