Gold (All that Glitters #2)(44)

She hurried out of the hallway, bounded back up the stairs, and leaned against the wall. Her breathing was ragged. She was struggling to keep from letting tears fall. She hadn’t even cried when he left her. Tears didn’t exist in her life. She didn’t cry. She hated crying. Whenever she had thought about the moment she might meet Jude again, whenever she had allowed herself that moment of self-sabotage, she had thought she would be smooth and cool. But she wasn’t.

She couldn’t have gotten out of there fast enough. Seeing him felt as if she had shrapnel under her skin. No matter which way she moved, it kept digging deeper, trying to pierce her heart.

She knew she shouldn’t feel anything for Jude, but she couldn’t seem to help it. She couldn’t get it together. He was everything. He had been everything when they were together, and he occupied her thoughts even now. She still wore his motherf*cking necklace. But he had deceived her and left her powerless. Now, she craved the control he had stolen from her.

Jude shouldn’t be able to shatter all of that control so easily.

“Goddamn it,” she muttered.

At that moment, Eric appeared at the top of the stairs. “Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah. Fine.” Her voice was shaky. She knew she didn’t look fine. She turned her face away from him. God, she probably looked like shit.

“Bryna,” he said softly, “what’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “I really don’t want to talk about it. Let’s just go.”

She shouldered her bag and rushed toward the exit without giving him an opportunity to object. Eric followed her because he had no other option. As they walked to his Jeep, he looked like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t. For that, she was grateful. She needed a little more time to get herself together.

They found his car in the parking garage a couple of minutes later, and she took a deep breath before taking the passenger seat. He revved the engine but didn’t leave.

“So, are you going to tell me what that was all about?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

“Are you sure? Usually, when your upset, you go into a drunken rage. Do we need liquor?”

Bryna looked him squarely in eyes. “No, I’m fine. No liquor necessary.”

He sighed disbelievingly. “All right. What do you want for lunch?”

“I’m suddenly not hungry. Let’s go…somewhere else.”

“I can make something at my place,” he offered.

“Sure.”

Eric rented out a house on the east side of campus. It looked nice from the outside. She hadn’t known what to expect, but the inside was nice, too.

“Do you live by yourself?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’m on a stipend from the university after my injury, and they cover everything,” he explained.

She glanced out the back glass door and saw he even had an in-ground swimming pool. “They hooked you up.”

“I know. I’m pretty lucky.” He grabbed things out of the fridge. “You said you weren’t hungry, but I’m grilling hamburgers. Should I make you one?”

She shrugged. “I guess.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and followed him outside. She sat on a cushioned bench and tried to return to her normal state of being. She felt as if she had been drugged.

Eric started up the grill and surreptitiously glanced at her. “So, are you okay? You seem kind of…”

“What?”

“Emotional.”

Bryna bit her lip. If she didn’t stop overanalyzing everything, she was going to break down in tears.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but I know something happened back at school. I just don’t know what.”

Maybe she should tell him. No one else knew, and it was her burden to carry. She was worried about what Eric would think of her when he found out everything. It was weird to worry about that. He didn’t seem as if he would judge her. Their friendship was such a tenuous new thing though, and she didn’t want to f*ck it up.

“So, you remember that guy I told you about?” she asked. “The one I went away with for Christmas last year?”

“Yeah?”

“He was a real *,” she admitted. “We dated for a couple of months when I was a senior. We spent so much time together, but it was a secret relationship. No one knew we were together. I thought we were so in love. I couldn’t see that the fun mystery of it all was from him holding on to a lie and keeping me at arm’s length. Turned out, he was married and still seeing his wife when he had told me he was separated…and he had a kid to boot.”

Eric looked disgusted. She shouldn’t care what he thought, but she did.

“Jesus,” Eric said. “He was married with a kid, and you never knew? Shit! What a f*cking *!”

Bryna steeled herself for what she was about to say next. “Yeah, well, you were meeting with that * today.”

Eric turned to stone. “What?”

“His name is Jude Rose, and he’s the best sports agent in the industry. I’m guessing Blaine is signing with him, and that’s why he was on campus.”

Eric’s mouth dropped open. “That * was Jude Rose?”

“Yeah.” Bryna looked away, uncertain. “I didn’t know he was a sports agent either at the time. It was a whirl of lust and luxury. He seemed to get me, but he was really playing me.”