My lips curled into a smile, but I tried to play it off as casual. “Something like that,” I said.
“Oh, come on,” she coaxed. “You never tell us about you! You’re all about work and school.”
I laughed. “That’s pretty much my whole life,” I said just as my phone went off again.
Amy scoffed and picked up a highlighter. “Obviously not,” she said pointedly.
“It’s just... new,” I said, though that felt like a lie. “I’m not sure what to do with it all, you know?”
She was interested again, which wasn’t what I wanted, but... I hadn’t talked to anyone about my men, and while I wasn’t usually the gossiping type, I wanted to tell someone about them. I’d talk to Tinsley, but since I was dating her husband’s father, it seemed like a bad idea. “Where’d you meet?”
“At a wedding,” I said. It was the truth since I was talking to Jake. “He’s a little older.”
One of Amy’s perfectly groomed eyebrows rose. “How much older?”
I leaned in so that my words wouldn’t carry. “He was the father of the groom, okay?”
“Oh, my God!” she squealed, and our entire study group turned our way. I swatted at her, shushing her all the while. Amy shrank back. “Sorry! Sorry.” Then, she turned to me. “You’re dating a guy twice your age? How does that work?”
I was datingthreeguys who were twice my age, but that was entirely beside the point. “It’s like dating a guy our age, I guess,” I said, “but he has ambition and knows what he’s doing.”
“But he’s got a whole family that he raised before you. What about if you want kids?”
I shrugged. “I’m not worried about that right now,” I said honestly. “I’ve got school and work, and he has a lot going on too. We’re just getting to know each other. It’s not serious.”
Even as I said it, I knew it wasn’t true. If things weren’t getting serious between us, my heart wouldn’t try to fly out of my body anytime they looked at me. Lying in bed with Thomas and Jake, having them hold me like I was made of something precious and rare, wouldn’t have felt like the most magical moment in my entire life.You just enjoyed taking them both at once, my mind whispered to me viciously.It was the orgasm high.
I shook my head. I could be cynical about the whole thing if I worked myself up enough, but I wanted to be able to enjoy what I was feeling.
My phone started ringing, loud in the quiet of the university library, and I snatched it up. It was a group FaceTime call. “I’msosorry,” I muttered to my group, who was beginning to look decidedly less amused now, and jogged out of the private study room. I pressed the green button to pick up the call, and my men’s faces appeared on the screen. They were all grinning, each clearly still at work. “What are you three doing?” I hissed.
Jake’s smile dimmed. “We wanted to check on you,” he said.
“You’ve been doing that for hours,” I argued. “Dozens of messages back and forth, actually, while I’m trying to study.”
“We’re sorry,” Zach said contritely. “We didn’t mean to upset you.”
“We just missed you today, sweetheart,” Thomas broke in, and the other two men nodded. “We’re not used to spending an entire day without your smiles.”
Well, shit. I didn’t want them to feel bad. “I missed you guys too,” I said softly. “I’m sorry that I’ve been so busy at school.”
Zach shook his head. “It’s our fault for being pushy,” he insisted. “We’ll wait for you to let us know that you’re done for the day.”
He and Thomas both said their goodbyes and rushed off the call, and my heart ached a little at that. “I didn’t mean to chase them off,” I said.
“Don’t worry about us, baby,” Jake assured me. “School is tough, and we want to check on you, but we also have to let you work. I’m sorry for bothering you.”
“You’re not!” Even though... they kind of were bothering me. I just couldn’t stand the look on his face. He gave me a flat look, and I sighed. “Okay, so yes, I do need some time to study, but I don’t want you guys to be sad.”
Jake grinned. “You are the cutest person I’ve ever met,” he said. “We’re not sad, baby. I promise. Go get your work done, and I’ll see you later.”
“Later,” I intoned, and the connection dropped. I went back into the study room. “I am so sorry, guys,” I said. “He won’t call again.”
The group was irritated, but things soon settled down when my phone didn’t go off after twenty minutes. “Did you break his heart when you told him to leave you alone?” Amy asked, peeking at me from her textbook. She’d highlighted most of a page, which I pointed out wouldn’t help her when she studied. She scoffed. “You’re changing the subject,” she said.
“I might be,” I agreed, “but it doesn’t mean that I’m wrong.” She hissed something and went back to viciously highlighting her textbook, and I tried not to think about the stiff smile on Jake’s face when he hung up.I’ll make it up to him tonight, I thought.
* * *