Page 18 of One Vow

Mrs. C hadn’t said anything that should’ve made him think I did. “Not that anything I do is your business, but no.” He stared long enough I ran a cautionary hand under my nose then sighed. There was no reason for me to humiliate myself with honesty, to put all my business out there between us, but what brain and mouth each knew were different. Apparently. “I haven’t had a relationship since you packed up and left me. I dated a little, but nothing ever stuck.”

His mouth twitched, and I wanted to punch him. Complicated or not, he had a future in front of him with someone he obviously loved. I had the new prospect of internet dating to look forward to.

Oh yeah. I would be punching him at the next available opportunity.

“I’m sorry.” He looked into my eyes and my heart clenched at the great return of all my loving feelings as if it was trying to protect me.

Thankfully, where my heart failed, my legs took up the cause and carried me toward the courthouse. The last thing I needed was to spurt my feelings for Finn all over the town square.

When he caught up, I didn’t stop walking but there was something we needed to get straight now that my brain had my feelings for him in a chokehold. “I don’t need your pity, Finn. I’m happy with my life.”

And I’d honed my lying skills so much that even I almost believed me. “I have a great job. Some money saved.” A lot of money, actually.

“I can pick up and go whenever I want.” Not that I ever did. “So, I don’t need your pity.”

Saying it a second time made it real. Right?

One Decade Ago

The clickety-clack of her heels on the concrete kept me well-appraised of her proximity, just in case the volume she called out to me didn’t. “Felicity! Felicity Fields! Wait!”

No one on campus willingly stopped for Beth Cooper, the same woman who wore her press pass like jewelry or some sort of all-access badge. It was almost a given that any conversation with her would end up in print or on some digital forum. Not because she was gossipy but because Beth Cooper didn’t have conversations that weren’t purposeful to benefitting her career or her next great story.

And thanks to the Alpha Alpha Phi scandal unfolding right under her nose, she was all over the front pages. She wrote a story picked up by the AP and printed in more newspapers than the Glouster Messenger. Digitally, she’d gone viral. But now that the school was national news, she had to get the story before someone else found something bigger.

Hence the chasing. “Felicity Fields! Stop!”

She had the voice of a screeching falcon, loud and high-pitched.

Because she wasn’t known for giving up, and I had no intention of telling her anything anyway, I stopped. Waited for her to catch up and then catch her breath.

She stared hard at me as if she was trying to gauge the details she would use in her article. Maybe my hair color. How I dressed. My connection to the university’s administration. With Beth Cooper, there was no telling. But there was also no way I was willingly giving her anything to use. “I don’t have a comment, Beth.”

“We’ll see.” Her smug smile said this was not going to be much fun for me. She shuffled books in her left arm to her right then used her free hand to root through a bag slung over her shoulder. After a couple of seconds during which I considered walking off, she pulled out a small notebook, leather-bound, black, long, and slender, the kind cops used in all the best TV dramas. “Do you know Finn Makenzie?”

It was chilly outside. Fall had arrived, spent a day, then left leaving winter to take over. I blew into my closed fist to warm my fingers then rubbed my palms together and started walking again. She fell into step beside me.

Her first question wasn’t quite a firebomb but not something I planned to answer either. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”

I didn’t say anything, just kept right on walking. That didn’t deter her, however. Oh no, not Little Miss Junior Reporter with her nose in everyone’s business.

“Did you know he was making videos? That they planned to put them online and charge money…,” She took a long pause which said to me that she wasn’t just a reporter but might’ve had a more personal connection. A victim’s connection. “For people to look at them?”

I knew now. That counted. I wasn’t going to tell her that, because I wasn’t going to tell her anything. I blinked at her slowly, as if she was very stupid and needed time to catch my point. Which she did.

“Okay.” She whistled a breath in through her nose and let it out through her lips. “Did you know you’re not the only one Finn used as a co-star?”

I wasn’t naïve enough to think he’d only “been with” me. Nor was I dumb enough to think I was the only one he filmed. But I had to focus on breathing now because it didn’t take a genius to know she was ramping up.

“Two years this has been going on. That’s a lot of girls.” She waved the paper at me again.

I could’ve lived without the teeth clenching and the heat of her stare burning my skin.

“Do you care about the other girls? Their humiliation?” She grabbed my sleeve and we both stopped walking. “They’re all giving statements to me, to the police. They want these bastards exposed. This is only going to get bigger.”

Breathe, I reminded myself.

“More details are going in the paper every day. I know you probably think you’re in love with him and he’s in love with you, but this is what he does. He’s charming and beautiful. They all are and it’s hard to believe someone like him would do this, right?” If I hadn’t been certain before, I knew now. Beth Cooper was one of Finn’s…co-stars. She hardened her voice and stared through me. “It’s only a matter of time until the number of girls on this list goes up, the details come out, and Finn gets charged.”