Page 53 of Don't Be in Love

My second reaction was logical. He was a guy. A support of The Chase. That constantwant. Victoria may have used him originally, but now it sounded like he was using her for the benefits of a relationship without the relationship.

“Speak of the devil,” James muttered.

It was like we summoned her.

Long blond hair swished back and forth as Victoria Sutton turned down the hall in a tweed skirt. She looked just like her Wikipedia page. The quintessential model. Tall, thin, high cheekbones, full lips, perfect posture. Someone who greeted you with two air kisses on the cheek and had hair from a shampoo commercial.

It took only one second. One second that Victoria spent giving James a smug smile, and me, an odd look. One I couldn’t piece together. One I couldn’t spend long enough dissecting.

Her floral perfume hit me before she was facing her phone again, turning down the hall.

“She knows you hate her, doesn’t she?” I asked.

“One hundred percent.”

I turned to him. “You can’t actually put up with this.”

“There’s not much I can do. Dorian loves her.”

18

Don’t Think About the First Time You

Both Kissed — Adelaide

I knew what James said yesterday. The conversation was involuntarily filed away in my brain, right in between my Strategic Brand Management syllabus and the wine cellar scene fromThe Parent Trap.

I knew what he said.She used Dorian.He had realized.

But that was difficult to comprehend when there was an image of Dorian and Victoria making out on my phone under the headline:

“Dorian Blackwood is Greeted with Romantic Return from Girlfriend After Her Three Months Abroad”— London Today

There were several images, actually. Angles really. Like some preppy, collegiate magazine spread.

One of her grabbing onto his bottom lip with her teeth. One with her hands under his shirt. Another with her whispering into his ear. And another and another and another and another.

I flipped the phone upside down and smacked it against the desk beside the register. No more screen time.

“What’s wrong?” Mia asked, slicing the tape down the middle, and opening another box of books. I took the scissors after, hunching over to do the same.

“Nothing,” I responded with a closed-mouth smile, shredding the tape and dropping the scissors back into her hands.

“You saw the photos, didn’t ya?” Dotty asked, coming from the backroom with a list of invoices.

“What photos?” Mia perked up.

I let a curtain of hair hide the right side of my face from Mia as I gave Dotty a death glare.

“I thought you were avoiding the boy. I didn’t think you cared!” Dotty defended herself.

“Boy?” Mia questioned.

Dotty rifled through the papers on the desk until she found a vibrant magazine, handing it over to Mia. “Page twenty-six,” she clarified.

“Holy shit. That’s the girl—Victoria.” Mia looked to me for an explanation.

The cardboard box snapped under the scissors. I quickly pulled them out and returned them to the desk. “It’s his girlfriend. It’s normal to kiss your girlfriend.”