Page 9 of Harnessed in Gold

As if on cue, my phone rings from my bag in the backseat.

“Go ahead,” he bites out. “Answer it.”

No way. “I’m sure it’s Liv,” I lie.

He’s got a chokehold on the steering wheel. “You went to that ball with Zander.”

“Yes. As friends.”

I wait for him to snort at my naiveté. No one actually believes Zander and I could ever be friends. But Leo says nothing, his swallow tight and his eyes trained on the road ahead of us.

He has no right to be jealous, if that’s what he is. He’s probably just pissed off that, in the end, Zander won the fight. Why else would Leo make me promise not to go back to him?

All along, he was planning to break my heart.

We drive the rest of the way in silence. When he parks outside Newberry, I thank him for the ride and jump out of the car, declining his offer to help me carry my luggage to my room. Yeah, try explaining that one to Liv.

“I’ll let you know when we’re meeting tonight,” he says as I grab my bags from the backseat.

“Fine.” I slam the door and set off for my dorm, refusing to wave or look back.

To my dismay, Liv is already back from Asheville. She’s here, in our room—the room I obviously haven’t been in all night—fresh from the shower.

At the sound of the shutting door, she drops her comb and whips around. “Oh my god, Betts, where the hell have you been?”

I deposit my suitcase at the foot of my bed and slip out of my coat. “I was at Avery’s.” It’s disturbing how easily the lies come these days, but this one is particularly handy. How else was I to explain to Liv my absence the night I slept with Leo?

She looks like an anxious mother, hands on her hips and eyes narrowed with suspicion. “Why didn’t you just come home?”

“Because I didn’t want to be alone.”

“Newsflash!” She mimics blinking lights with her hands. “Your best friend was at the hotel with you. Why didn’t you go to her?”

“Because I didn’t want to ruin your night.” Her joy over Sweetheart was the highest peak on last night’s emotional rollercoaster, and I wanted her to linger there.

“Ruin my night? Betts, why would you even think that?”

I shrug, too tired and too near tears to explain. Instead, I heave my suitcase onto the bed and tell her, “I just needed to get away from Zander and think.”

“But you could’ve at least told me you were leaving. I was looking around for you for, like, an hour. I was in a total panic. Thank god Mia told me what happened.”

So I ended up spoiling some of Liv’s night, after all.

She goes back to combing her wet hair. “She said you were mad about the room switch.”

“Yeah, I was pretty pissed off.”

“I don’t get it. I mean, sure, it was a little presumptuous of him, but it was kinda sweet too, don’t you think?”

The hope in her voice grates on my every exhausted nerve. “No,” I say flatly. “Not with a guy as possessive as he is.”

“Hmm, well, I thought it was romantic.”

If she thinks that’s romance, no wonder she always turns a blind eye to the way Braden treats her. But who am I to school her on men? I’m drowning in a sea of my own bad judgment.

She watches me in the mirror. “You can’t be mad at him forever.”

“No,” I agree, unpacking my clothes. “I won’t be.” I’m sure I’ll eventually stop caring.