Slowly We Trust (Fall and Rise #3)(10)
Author: Chelsea M. Cameron

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Audrey! I thought you would have fought harder for her. I guess you didn’t care that much about her after all.” She was trying to push my buttons, and doing a very good job of it.

“Look, when you were with Zan, did I tell you what to do? No offense, Zan.”

“None taken,” he called over the splash of the dishes in the sink.

“Uh yeah, you did. You were always telling me to be careful and I know you beat him up that one time. Don’t even try to deny it.” There was no hiding anything from my sister. Mom might as well have named her Sherlock Holmes.

“Yes, but when you told me you were with him, I said I’d get over my own issues because he made you happy. So there.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Real mature, William.”

“Listen, I think I’m just going to go. I don’t need this right now.” I started to get up from the couch, but Lottie grabbed onto me and wouldn’t let go. She might be little, but she was strong.

“Lot, seriously.” But she wouldn’t release me from her clutches, and if I walked, I was taking her with me.

So I sat back down.

“You were the one talking about being mature, and you just did a really good barnacle imitation to get me to not leave.”

“Desperate times, Will. Desperate times.” Zan was making a lot of extra noise in the kitchen to give the illusion of privacy.

“What do you want me to do, Lot? I tried. I told her I loved her. That’s pretty much the best I can do.” Zan dropped a plate and it clunked in the sink.

“Sorry,” he called.

“I don’t know, Will. Win her over. Show her why she should be with you. Be your lovable charming self. You’ve never had any problems getting a girl before.” No, I hadn’t, but Audrey wasn’t just any girl. She was the girl.

“I can’t force her into a relationship with me if that’s not what she wants. I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.” Lottie waved her hand, brushing the legality aside.

“She does want to be with you, that’s the thing. She just has this crazy idea in her head that it won’t work out. You need to show her that you’re not giving up on the relationship, and thus not giving up on her, and maybe she’ll realize that and you two can live happily ever after, get married and have your honeymoon at Comic Con.” Lottie smiled with satisfaction. She just had everything figured out.

“You can say all those things, but that doesn’t make them true.” Lottie always thought that she could make things be the way she wanted them to be. She was also the most stubborn person I’d ever met in my entire life.

“Have faith in yourself, William. I do.”

And just like that, my sister had gone from driving me crazy to being my best friend and biggest supporter. She held her arms out and I gave her a hug.

“Love you, Will.”

“Love you, Lot.”

If only Audrey had so much faith in me. If only I did.

I knew from the very moment that I’d suggested being friends with Will that it was going to be too hard.

I just didn’t know how difficult it would be until I had to hang out with him and pretend we’d just met and had no history. We’d sort of broken the ice and had fallen back into our habits. I caught him reaching to touch my hair, or I would automatically fall into step beside him, or our eyes would meet and hold from across the room.

Neither of us talked about the fact that he’d said he loved me. Like an unexploded bomb, it was best to tiptoe past it and not poke it or investigate it any further.

We also stopped spending time alone together, and made sure that we had at least one person with us at all times. That was almost always Lottie, and she usually had Zan with her so the four of us spent a lot of time together the next week when we weren’t in class.

I also escaped to the library to do a lot of reading, which wasn’t unusual for me. Will respected my “insane” (his word) study habits like a good friend. It was essential to keep my grades up if I had any hope of getting into law school.

My parents might not know what they wanted to be when they grew up (if they ever did), but I knew I’d wanted to be a lawyer ever since I discovered what a lawyer was. The idea of getting up in front of a roomful of people and persuading them to see what I wanted them to see with my words, to defend people who needed defending, it all appealed to me. So did the money.

Will once told me that I intimidated him with my ambition, but he was as driven too, just in a different direction. He gave off that carefree vibe, but Will was very passionate when he got going on a particular subject, especially sports.

I remembered being stunned by his enthusiasm for football the second time I’d met him, and he’d made me laugh by trying to explain how it made him feel and failing.

Lottie and I had managed to sign up for another English class together, this time it was Women in Fiction, taught by our delicious British professor, Mr. Halloway. I could have sat through any class he taught just to listen to his voice.

I got there first, and made sure there was an empty seat next to me for Lottie. She rushed in, rolling her eyes.

“I couldn’t find a parking spot. You would think, with my car being as tiny as it is, I’d be able to cram it in anywhere, but no. Did I miss anything?” I shook my head because class hadn’t even started. Shocking, it was nearly all female, but there was one lone guy.

“I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you are Tyler Garry,” Mr. Halloway said with a roguish smile. Everything he did was so . . . British.

“You would be correct,” Tyler said with a grin. He reminded me a little bit of Will, even though they didn’t look much alike. Tyler had brown hair and eyes and would have to look up if we stood face-to-face. It was more the attitude that was similar. He didn’t care that he was the only boy in a class about women in a room full of women.

“Well, you are a brave soul, welcome.” Mr. Halloway gave Tyler a few claps of applause and Tyler pretended to tip his hat. I couldn’t help but laugh to myself and so did Lottie. I knew this class was going to be interesting, but now it was going to be even more interesting.

We didn’t do much in the first class, other than go over the syllabus, so we were let out early. Lottie had to rush to her next class, but we set a time to meet so we could have a late lunch.

I headed to my Intro to Political Theory class, which I had also been looking forward to, and then to the library to get started on my reading before I met Lottie.