Too many lies. Better to fix it with one small one.
“Oh, you’ve caught me. My sister and I made these sandwiches up. But trust me they’re really good.”
“What on earth,” James said skeptically, “would possess you and your sister to put a clothes iron on a sandwich?”
I rolled my eyes and ignored her. “Just try it.” I set the iron down and opened the foil to reveal a perfectly golden, pressed hot ham and cheese sandwich.
I dropped Odie’s on the hot plate next.
James didn’t wait.
She took a bite of the sandwich and moaned in delight.
“Now what was that you were saying about me and my sister?” I raised my eyebrows.
“Apologies! Your weirdo iron sandwiches are divine.” She moaned again adding, “I’ll eat them any day.”
She took another big bite and had to ha-ha-hah it with her mouth open to avoid burning her tongue in her eagerness.
“That must be some sandwich,” Odie laughed.
A few moments later I pulled hers off the hot plate, slid it onto a waiting plate, and handed it to her.
She took a small bite and her face spit into a grin.
“Daisy, you domestic goddess! You’re a regular Julia Child!”
I put my own sandwich on and then began to break the cookie dough into rough chunks. Odie and James stared, amazed.
I pulled my sandwich off after a few moments and added a little butter to the skillet before returning it to back to the hot plate for the butter to melt. When it was hot, I dropped in a few pieces of the dough while I munched my sandwich.
Odie and James waited for the cookies to be finished like kids on Christmas, asking every thirty seconds if they could eat the dough yet.
The familiar smell of baked goods wafted through my room and I was reminded of my mother. A sudden bout of melancholy threatened to swamp me, but the laughter of my friends and their chatter grounded me.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
There was a knock, or rather several knocks, at the door.
We all stiffened.
If that was a room check I was dead. We were all dead. I couldn’t put the hot plate away; it was too hot. And we couldn’t cover it either.
James saw my wide, panicked expression and jumped into action.
“Yes?” she croaked sounding sleepy and giving me a helpless shrug.
“This is Diana and Ruth from down the hall . . .”
James cracked the door open and we saw the two girls standing there in PJs, slippers, and bonnets.
“Are y’all . . .? Is someone baking cookies? The hall smells amazing and I’m hungry,” Diana said hopefully.
James laughed and opened the door.
“I hope you’ve got enough for two more.”
I smiled, relived and happy.
I had more than enough.
This was more than enough.
Chapter Eleven
Trevor
I awoke on Friday ebullient.
My mind hadn’t had an idle second since departing from Daisy at the mixer four nights prior. It’d been filled to the brim planning how I could walk the delicate tightrope of supporting Elodie while moving forward with Daisy. Because after our kiss—brief and sweet as it may have been—moving forward without her was out of the question.
It had taken two days, but I’d finally figured it out. There was way for everyone to get what they wanted.
Jules had been distant and stonily silent most of the week, but he’d agreed to let me borrow his car all day. He'd left the keys on the countertop and was already gone when I headed out around eleven a.m.
Deciding it would be a day for indulgences—dinner with Daisy being the finest one—I made my way to the barbershop in town treat myself to a professional haircut. I was man enough to admit that I wanted to look my best for her and if that meant spending a few dollars, then so be it. I also wanted to make Daisy smile. We’d passed a particularly pretty flower bed during our campus tour on Monday and she’d oohed and ahhed at the blooms.
I’d been delighted at her joy and couldn’t stop myself from teasing. “I’m sure you’re used to having flowers placed at your feet all the time. The guys back home were probably tripping all over themselves to present you with bouquets.”
She’d rolled those gorgeous eyes and retorted, “Ha! Does my father count? That’s the only man that’s ever given me flowers.”
The guys from her hometown must’ve been blind or idiots. I told her that and she’d laughed. Memory of her smile had me grinning as I made my way into the local florist shop.
I’d cajoled her into telling me her favorite flowers were peonies but to my disappointment they were out of season. Maybe, if things went well between us, I could save up a few dollars and return in the spring to buy her some.
I would definitely need to save up.
I made my way back home a short time later with a dozen long-stemmed roses and my pockets significantly lighter. I shook my head at my antics. I was breaking all my rules for Daisy.
And it didn’t bother me one bit.
I headed into my kitchen to set the flowers in some water. I glanced at the clock on the stove and saw that I had about two hours and forty-five minutes until my date with Daisy. Not that I was counting the seconds or anything. I estimated that I had time to take a brief nap, shower, then dress and head to Harris to meet Daisy.
I headed to my room with sleep on my mind, opened up my door and . . . froze.
My best friend sat atop my bed with his best friend.
“Hello, darling,” Elodie purred without missing a beat, while leveling me with a look.
I took two steps back in surprise.
Jules said nothing. He just squinted at me, eyes narrowed in warning. He stood, gave his cousin a hug, and left the room. He closed the door behind him, presumably to give Elodie and me privacy.
El dropped her act.
“What’s going on?” she demanded quietly. I understood the reason for her hushed tone. Julian had left the room, but who was to say he wasn’t right outside the door?
“I—I—you weren’t supposed to come back until Sunday,” I stammered, still trying to get my bearings. I was going to kill Jules. The last thing I needed was Elodie showing up now.
“Trevor. What is going on?” she repeated.
“Did Julian call you? If so, he shouldn’t have. He should’ve minded—”
“Julian shouldn’t have? Let’s maybe pause on what Jules should and shouldn’t do and talk about you—besides it wasn’t just Julian. He was just the last straw.”
I struggled to find the words I’d rehearsed in my head a hundred times this week.
“I met someone,” I blurted.
“So I’ve heard.”
“I was going to tell you.”
Elodie’s voice held a touch of frustration and sadness when she spoke again. “You don’t have to do this you know. You’re standing there like a caught philanderer. I feel like we’re acting now even when there’s no one around but us. Is that what we’ve become? Nothing but an act?”
“No,” I countered immediately. The shock of her sudden appearance wore off upon hearing the hurt her words carried. “How can you say that? You know you’re like a sister to me.”
She shrugged in response. Then added, “Come sit. Let’s talk this out.” She gestured to my desk chair across from the bed.
Elodie and Julian shared more than similar looks as cousins. They both acted like they owned every room they walked in to, even if the room was yours. The irony of Elodie giving me permission to sit down at my desk, in my own room, wasn’t lost on me as I made my way from the door and sat on the edge of the wooden chair.
“Trevor, Jules called me on Wednesday and told me he needed my help with preventing you from doing something colossally stupid. He explained that I needed to get back to campus as soon as possible. He was—is—legitimately worried about you. You know how he feels about women being taken advantage of. He sai
d you’re so far outside your character he feels like he doesn’t even know you.”
I groaned.
“In addition to Jules calling me, I’ve been contacted by no less than four sorority sisters asking if everything is okay between us.”
My eyes bugged out of my head. Did people have nothing better to do?
“Now I am asking you, my oldest and dearest friend, what is going on?”
“I met a girl and I’m crazy about her. I’m taking her on a date tonight. This wasn’t how I intended for you to find out that I wouldn’t be able to keep up my end of the bargain. But I can’t. I need to—if you met her . . . She’s special.” The words poured out on a rush.
She exhaled slowly. “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.”
I hurried to make my case. “I’ve been thinking about it a lot and, El, we were going to end our charade in May anyway. Moving it up a few months won’t hurt anything. Besides the girls that started that rumor about you have all graduated and—”
“I agree,” she said simply.
“You—you agree?”
“Yes, I agree, Trevor. Even if you hadn’t met anyone, I am not May. I know what it’s like to have a ‘relationship’ forced on you just to keep up appearances.”
Shit, she did.
“I would never do that to you. Gracie and I would’ve just been even more cautious whenever we were together. I never asked you to do this in the first place. You volunteered.”
I closed my eyes in relief. I hadn’t given Elodie enough credit. It wasn’t that I thought she would be against my being with Daisy, per se . . . I just hadn’t trusted that she would be okay with prematurely ending our agreement. Before my brief calm could take hold, she pierced my joy.
“There’s just one problem.”
My eyes flew to hers.
“You didn’t tell me about this plan!” Her tone was exasperated and the redness that appeared when she was angry started to show through.
“I was going to tell you on Sunday when you got back.”
“Sunday? Trevor, did it never occur to you that Sunday would be too late?”
I didn’t know what she meant, precisely. It had occurred to me that Sunday would be too late for Elodie to try to pressure me into continuing our arrangement. By that time my date with Daisy would’ve already occurred and falling back into the status quo would have been untenable.
Elodie exhaled a deep breath. “Trevor . . . can you even imagine what it feels like to have your love life scrutinized all the time? Of how many girls are jealous of me because of you? Of how many were waiting for the day they could gleefully call me to inform me that my time with you was up?”
I knew Elodie bore the brunt of the speculation about our relationship. She'd told me once that women got questioned about their love lives in a way no one would dare do to a man. But I did know what it was like to have people sticking their nose in your business.
As evidenced by the fact that we are having this conversation now and not on Sunday. “I’ve been in this thing with you for three years now, haven’t I?” I reminded her.
She snorted. “Then you had to have known that this would get back to me. And you had to have known that I would deny it!”
I knew people talked. I just didn’t think word would have travelled as fast as it did. I honestly couldn’t see why anyone would care enough to call her on . . .
Wait, deny it? My stomach dropped.
“I’ve spent the last couple of days categorically denying that anything—anything—untoward was going on with you and Daisy.” Elodie hissed urgently.
“Why would you do that?” My voice was harsh and laced with panic. I saw where this was going, and it made my heart race and my mouth dry.
“Because I didn’t think there was anything going on between you and Daisy! Trevor, there are three people in the world I trust. My girlfriend Gracie, my cousin Julian, and you. Why on earth would I believe what anyone said about you, knowing what I know about how destructive rumors are?”
Her words were like a sock to the gut, but she wasn’t near finished.
She paused to take a deep breath. When she spoke again her voice was nearly a whisper. “Surely, if my dearest friend had found someone he would’ve told me.”
I winced at the hurt in her voice.
“Unless he didn’t trust me.” Her eyes met mine and I could see all the hurt and accusation in them.
I hung my head, ashamed, as silence fell between us. She was right. I hadn’t trusted her not to put my own interest over her own; in my experience people rarely did that.
“I thought, if nothing else, we had trust between us. Especially since I’ve given you all my secrets.”
I fucked up.
“I messed up.” I was only beginning to realize just how badly I’d messed up. Not just with Elodie but with Daisy. “I’m sorry. You’re right, I should’ve told you.”
My heart rate had begun to tick up as the size of my miscalculation sank in. My mistrust had backed us into a corner where my original plan—to simply pretend that we’d broken up over the summer and both moved on to other people—wouldn’t work.
Oh my God. What if someone tells Daisy Elodie is my girlfriend? I flinched, physically recoiling at the idea.
She exhaled wearily. “So now what are we going do?”
My mind spun trying to figure out a way to save the situation.
Elodie’s words reverberated through my entire being.
What was I going to do?
How would I fix this? I either had to make Daisy look like a fool, or Elodie a liar.
Or . . .
There was a third option.
My head snapped up and I looked at Elodie, whose posture was suddenly ramrod straight. Her eyes were narrowed at me as if she was preparing for a battle and I was a target she needed to annihilate.
“Let me tell her the truth, Elodie. The whole truth.”
Chapter Twelve
Daisy
On Friday morning I awoke for the first time ever with breathless anticipation.
I don’t think I really even knew what the term meant before this week.
Because, Lord, Lord, did Trevor ever make me breathless.
The term breathless was invented for Trevor and the word anticipation was created for when one has been waiting a whole week for a date with Trevor.
True to his word, Trevor hadn’t been around all week.
I’d seen a few glimpses of figures from afar that could have been him, but I couldn’t tell. I hadn’t seen him and we hadn’t spoken since the night of the kiss.
The kiss.
Just a touch of lips really, but that didn’t stop it from being on constant replay in my mind.
And the way he’d kissed my forehead at the end? Sigh. Somehow that kiss had been even more intimate than the one on the lips.
That kiss felt like a confession.
Like he wanted me to be his, like he was saying he was mine.
You want him to be yours.
I rolled my eyes at how far I’d travelled mentally in a week. Because Dolly had been wrong; Trevor was definitely the right sort. And there was nothing wrong with getting to know a wonderful gentleman in addition to mastering my schoolwork. In Trevor’s case the two things wouldn’t even be in competition since he was my mentor. Even with all those positives I reminded myself to take it slowly. There was no rush. We had all semester; all year, really.
And tonight? Well I wasn’t going to overthink tonight.
Correction, I wasn’t going to overthink tonight anymore. I’d spent all week going through every possible scenario for how the evening could play out.
I’d fretted myself out.
Therefore, I’d just go with it.
James and Odie would meet me in my room at 4:45 when they got back from dinner. I would be skipping dinner as I would be eating later. On my date. With Trevor.
I couldn’t help it. Breathless.
I didn’t know who was more excite
d about this date: me or my friends.
Definitely me. But still, it was great to have friends that were excited with me. James because I trusted her fashion sense even though I had insisted on final veto power over wardrobe choices. Odie was over the moon because I was finally relenting and letting her try her hand at my makeup.
“I prefer understated,” I’d stressed.
She’d rolled her eyes then retorted, “You prefer beautiful and you’ll look that either way.”
Distracted by thoughts of tonight, it took me a moment to realize that something was going on outside.
I peeked out my bedroom window and witnessed a miracle. Where freshman move in day had been chaos, this was a waltz.
I heard folks yelling for their friends to “Hurry the hell up,” or “Slow down for a second!”
I saw ABC boxes, moving boxes, and bankers’ boxes being handed from friend to friend and carried into Crosthwaite Hall. I saw folks unloading duffel bags, dragging over-stuffed clothes hampers that over, carrying lamps, and struggling with steamer trunks all on their own.
Students were balancing boxes on their shoulders or setting them briefly on the ground, pausing to dap their friends up or hug them in greeting.
What I didn’t see during this move in?
Confusion.
There were no fretting parents, no children running free, and no students wandering around lost and overwhelmed.
Everyone moved with purpose and surety.
I was wrong on my first day.
We’re not the adults; they’re the adults. There were probably four times as many upperclassmen moving in and half the support staff roaming around.
I turned at the sound of my door opening and saw Odie fly in excitedly.
“Lucy’s here! Lucy’s here! Come on, you’ve gotta come meet her.”
I smiled at her enthusiasm. “All right. Who is Lucy?”
She stared at me blankly. “I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned her. She’s only my very best friend from back home.”
James was conspicuously absent as we headed over to Crosthwaite to meet Lucy.
Odie shrugged when I mentioned it to her. “Checked her room earlier. Her roommate said she wasn’t there and she did not know where she’d gone or when she’d return.”
Upsy Daisy: A First Love College Romance Page 15