Chapter 65: Having A “Nice” Talk With Two Beauties
He would have preferred literally any other café.
There were many other cafés between his apartment and Northgate. He’d picked this one because it was close, and apparently that had been enough to get him into trouble.
He sat back down with Rose beside him and Jenna across from him.
Great.
Rose set her tray down, then slipped right back into the pleasant smile she’d been wearing before she took Adrian away.
"Sorry about that. You were saying?" Rose smiled at Jenna. She pulled her chair in.
"So, Jenna..." She hesitated for a moment. "You don’t sound like you’re from here."
"For real?"
"Yeah." Rose replied. "Or did I get it wrong?"
"Not really." Jenna took a sip of her drink. "I’m not. I’ve lived here about three years now. What about you?"
Adrian didn’t register that. He glanced at his plate, his mind searching for a possible explanation to why Rose hadn’t asked him a single question since sitting down.
That was incredibly weird. She listened a little too carefully to every answer Jenna gave, he could see it from how sharp her attention remained.
Jenna didn’t look remotely uncomfortable. If anything, she looked more entertained than nervous. Was he missing something?
"Me? I’m an Econ major." Rose muttered, cutting through Adrian’s thoughts. "What about you?"
"Business management."
"Oh." Rose nodded. "That makes sense."
Adrian looked at her. How the heck does that make sense. Jenna seemed to have the same question.
"Does it?"
Rose smiled. "You seem like someone who’d be good at talking people into things."
Jenna laughed. "I’ll take that as a compliment."
"It was."
Adrian forced himself to keep eating. So far, everything sounded normal. That was the problem.
Jenna asked Rose about school in return, where she’d lived before, and how she’d ended up knowing Adrian.
’How did we get here?’
That last one got his attention.
"Sorry. I forgot. How did you two actually meet again?" Jenna asked, an innocent smile curving across her face.
Adrian paused.
Wait. How did they even get here?
Rose looked at him briefly.
"A few weeks ago." She turned back to Jenna. "We were neighbors first."
"Really? That’s so cute."
Jenna looked at Adrian, then back at Rose.
"So when did the neighbor thing become..." She glanced at him again. "...this?"
Rose smiled. "It sort of happened naturally."
Adrian said nothing.
"That’s vague." Jenna tilted her head. "And a bit off too."
"Hm." Rose raised a brow. "How so?"
Jenna looked at Adrian.
"It’s just..." She paused, as though trying to remember. "You said you two met a few months ago, right?"
"Yeah, I did." Rose nodded. "Why does that matter?"
Adrian looked between them.
"Well, maybe it’s my memory," Jenna said. "But when we met, I vividly remember you saying you guys met two weeks ago. Or do I have my numbers wrong?"
Adrian stopped chewing.
’Shit.’
He looked at Rose.
Her smile stayed in place, but she paused. It wasn’t long. Maybe a second.
Still, Adrian noticed.
Jenna had cornered her.
And judging by the way Rose’s eyes shifted for that brief moment, she knew it too.
Rose took another sip of her drink.
"Yeah. I did say that." She forced another smile. "You’ve got quite the memory."
Jenna’s expression didn’t change.
"Not everyone has a bad memory like you."
Jenna. Please just stop.
At this point, Jenna was practically handing Rose a reason to bring up the apartment.
Whether she did or not, Adrian was still fucked.
Neither of them spoke. The silence stretched long enough that Adrian started wishing he’d simply stayed home.
Then Jenna’s alarm went off. She checked her phone.
"Shit. Would you look at that." She looked at Rose. "I have class in about twenty minutes."
Adrian remained still, but some of the tension left his shoulders. He looked at Jenna. She shoved her phone into her bag, stood, then looked at Adrian.
"Don’t you have class?"
"Yeah." Adrian blinked. "Yeah, I do."
She looked at Rose.
"Anyway, it was nice meeting you. Again."
Rose kept her gaze. "You too."
Adrian stood. "I should get going too."
He breathed a little easier.
Rose was already looking at him as she leaned back in her chair. He didn’t like that look.
"You’re still meeting Daniel around one?"
Adrian checked his phone almost automatically.
"Yeah."
"Okay then. We’ll talk after, babe."
"Yeah."
There it was.
She called him babe again.
For some reason, it sounded less affectionate than it had five minutes ago. Not like it was affectionate at all before.
Adrian gave Rose a quick goodbye before heading out with Jenna.
Jenna was already saying something to him as they walked through the door, but Adrian barely caught the words.
The cool breeze outside was enough to make him realize how tense he’d been sitting.
He’d survived breakfast.
Unfortunately, that didn’t mean he’d survived the problem.
The actual conversation was apparently scheduled for later.
Adrian checked the time as they walked away from the café.
Twelve minutes until his first lecture.
Compared to Rose’s "later," it sounded almost relaxing.
===
The lecture hall was already filling up when Adrian walked in.
He found a seat somewhere in the middle and dropped into it. He pulled out his notebook and pen, then looked toward the board, willing to give his first class a fair chance.
Fifteen minutes later, he’d already stopped pretending.
Adrian moved his pen every now and then, mostly so anyone looking over would assume he was taking notes.
Unfortunately, his attention was still at breakfast.
Rose had apparently seen Jenna leaving his building that morning.
Although, Jenna had slept over because he was hungover. That was a practical reason, and it was true. But Rose definitely wasn’t gonna take that so likely.
Adrian sighed quietly and tried to focus on the lecture. He managed it for another few minutes. Then Rose’s questions came back to him. C’mon.
His phone buzzed in his pocket. Adrian ignored it.
The lecturer was already on another topic. He copied the next line from the board without really taking it in, then glanced at the clock.
11:47.
Daniel wasn’t until one. He slipped his phone back into his pocket and tried listening again. After his failure, he simply gave up.
When the lecture finally ended, Adrian closed his notebook with more relief than the subject probably deserved.
He joined the students spilling into the corridor and pulled out his phone.
The earlier buzz had probably been nothing important. He was about to check it when the phone started vibrating again.
☎️Calling=> Mom
Adrian stopped.
Of all the people who could’ve called him right now, she was probably the one person he didn’t mind hearing from.
He smiled before he could stop himself and answered. "Hey mom."