Majesty (American Royals, #2)(107)
“I need time without you, Ethan.”
Nina had some thinking to do—about everything she and Ethan had done, the mistakes they had both made. About how Daphne and Jeff fit into all this.
It sickened her, how painfully tangled the four of them had become.
“I understand,” Ethan told her, his voice surprisingly formal. “Take as much time as you need. I just hope…I just hope that you’ll come find me afterward.”
He took a step back, and the distance stretched out between them. Nina had to fight the urge to step forward and pull him close again.
“I’ll see you around,” she replied, through a tightness in her throat.
She turned and started across the lawn toward the garage, squaring her shoulders. She knew Ethan was watching, but didn’t dare look back at him.
And somehow, as she walked, each step became slightly easier than the last.
Later that afternoon, Samantha headed up the staircase of Nina’s dorm. She was wearing oversized sunglasses and a scarf, though now that the semester had ended, the campus was so empty of students that she almost hadn’t bothered.
The last bewildered guests had finally left the throne room, but the palace was still in an uproar. Sam’s mom had retreated upstairs to her room, stunned and emotionally drained by the day’s events. Meanwhile Robert’s assistant, Jane—who’d been abruptly promoted to Lady Chamberlain—kept telling the press the same thing over and over: “The palace is not prepared to make a statement at this time. We will let you know when we have plans to move forward with the wedding.” Which, of course, only fueled the rumors.
At Nina’s room, Sam tapped out the old one-two-three knock they’d invented when they were children. The door swung open, revealing not Nina, but her mom.
“Oh—hi,” Sam said, surprised. She glanced behind Julie and saw that the whole family was here, all three of them packing up Nina’s things to move her out.
“Samantha. It’s good to see you.” Julie held open the door with a faint smile.
Sam loved that Nina’s parents always called her by her first name—that they didn’t gossip, didn’t even ask what had happened this morning to call off the wedding. They just treated her like any other, ordinary friend of their daughter.
“Sam?” Nina was kneeling on the floor, halfheartedly folding a sweater in her lap. Sam noted with amusement that she and Nina had both changed into the same sweatpants, matching leopard-print ones that they’d bought together last fall.
Nina rose to her feet, letting the sweater crumple to the floor. Her mamá—who stood near the window, wrestling tape over a large cardboard box—watched as she pulled Samantha into a hug.
It was a hug that Sam needed as much as Nina. After everything that had happened today, the strange whirlwind of Beatrice’s almost-wedding and that tumultuous car ride with Marshall, she felt disoriented. As if she was still reeling from emotional whiplash.
When they stepped apart, Sam scoured her friend’s face. Nina looked upset, her eyes wider and glassier than normal, but she attempted an apologetic half smile.
Sam wasn’t sure what had happened to Nina earlier, but whatever it was, she suspected that it had to do with Ethan. Or maybe Jeff. All she knew for certain was that Caleb had seen Nina run off, close to tears, before she’d apparently torn out of the garage in Samantha’s car.
“Sorry I borrowed Albert,” Nina said, reading her mind. “He’s parked in lot twenty-three. I can get him now, if you want.”
“No, I mean…keep Albert. I don’t care.” Sam glanced around the dorm room. It looked oddly forlorn like this, stripped of everything that had given it personality: the colorful photo boards, the vinyl jewelry boxes where Nina had organized her cocktail rings. Now it was all just bare white walls and unflattering fluorescent lighting, a few stray hangers sticking out of the empty closet.
The whole campus felt listless right now. A few people were still here: parents dragging suitcases to cars, students who’d waited until the last minute to clear out their dorm rooms, before university staff reassigned them to summer school. But mostly, King’s College was silent.
“I wanted to check on you,” Sam went on. “Is everything okay?”
“Julie…,” Isabella said meaningfully, exchanging a look with her wife. “We’re going to need a couple more boxes. And packing tape. Why don’t we run out and get some?”
“Good thinking. We’ll be back soon,” Nina’s mom announced, slinging her purse over her shoulder before heading out.
When the door shut behind them, Nina climbed onto the bare mattress, pulling her legs up to sit cross-legged. The ceiling fan clicked overhead, lifting the air of the room and letting it settle back down again.
Tentatively, Sam took the opposite side of the bed. “Did something happen today?”
“It’s Ethan,” Nina admitted, and the pain in those two words set Sam instantly on the defensive.
“Did he hurt you?” she cried out. “Should I have Caleb go beat him up? Or Beatrice could exile him to Canada, or—”
Nina cut her off with a strangled laugh. “Slow down, Sam. Ethan may have hurt me, but I’m not sure I want him gone, either.”
“What happened? Did you break up?”