“I don’t think you want to know,” Warren swore.
“Why won’t you tell me who she was kissing?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes!” I exclaimed before slumping back into my leather seat. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
“It won’t make you feel better.”
“Just say it.”
“It was this hulking dark, brooding guy. He looked like something off the cover of one of my sister’s romance novels, like some kind of wolfish Fabio-type. Millie called him Vladimir. I think she said Vlad at one point too.”
My eyebrows knitted together. For a moment, I sat there confused, but then I made the connection. The frayed wires of my tired brain connected and lit my face up in realization and chagrin.
“I know that guy,” I said aloud.
“How?”
“He was at a fundraising event. He’s Vladimir Pechenko, a poster boy over at the business school. They had him talking up some alumni hoping they would donate to the scholarship programs.”
Warren chuckled. “He sure as hell isn’t a ‘boy’. That ten-foot frame of his looked ready to devour Millie on the sidewalk, even though she swore they weren’t a thing.”
“She only asked for his name a few days ago,” I recalled. “I think he was nice to her on her first day, something about a broken box.”
“Great, so he’s stupidly handsome and chivalrous,” my old friend muttered.
It wasn’t a long drive from my apartment to campus, but as we arrived at the staff parking garage, I realized it was going to take just as long getting to Warren’s assigned spot. I was going to be trapped in this oversized Fiat for at least fifteen minutes, ruminating over this new development.
It really was none of my business. Millie was perfectly free to pursue romantic relationships that didn’t involve me. Just because I was falling for her didn’t mean she was falling for me. I had to be realistic. Still, that didn’t change how I’d packed a spare thermos of coffee thinking of her. It didn’t change how her sugar-sweet smile followed me into my dreams and made me want things I should never have considered.
I had found myself haunted by Millie so many times that it was almost becoming shameful. Still, I didn’t stop. I welcomed every dream and every unintentional temptation she created because I liked having her close. She really did make my days feel a little less painful.
“Why did Millie bother to tell you they weren’t exclusive?” I realized, the thought passing through my brain and out my mouth in an instant.
That’s when Warren grew silent again.
“That’s the real reason I came over,” he confessed. “Millie made a comment that struck me. She seemed to feel bad that I caught her, not guilty about what she’d done, though. She wanted me to know that just because she went out with him didn’t mean she wasn’t interested in other people. She insisted she wasn’t ‘beholden’ to any guy whatsoever.”
“That’s a hell of word.”
Warren cracked a smile as he rolled his window down. “I know. It was kind of attractive to hear her say it.”
“Wow, you’re such a lit nerd,” I muttered.
“And you’re a freak for stars,” he teased back.
Swiping his staff badge, we were finally allowed inside and heading up the deck where Warren could park. He whipped his hatchback into his numbered spot and turned the car off.
“All I’m saying is that I think our bargain is null and void,” he told me. “We definitely have bodice-ripper Vlad to deal with, but I think…”
“What?”
“I think Millie might not choose,” Warren confessed, his voice going quiet like it was some secret prying ears couldn’t hear. “If she doesn’t, if she wants you and me, and even that Vlad guy, what should we do? I mean, would you even be willing…?”
“To date her at the same time?” I finished for him.
He nodded. “Yeah.”