Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 112892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
“Ouch,” came his voice through the door.
I felt only a tiny bit bad. “Sorry.”
“I’m not saying it’s undeserved,” he said, and I heard the door handle turn.
Diego stepped into my room, looking uncomfortable and out of place. He glanced around like he’d never seen it before, taking in my unmade bed, the textbooks scattered on my desk, the laundry I’d thrown in the corner.
“I’m sorry about lunch,” he said.
“Why? Isn’t that why you invited us out there? To accuse me of two-timing my roommates?” I stared at him and thought about what Cody had implied. “Or maybe three-timing?”
He didn’t answer that, but he finally sat down in my desk chair. I’d had so many visitors lately, I probably needed to replace the seat cushion. “Things got complicated,” he said finally. “Starting with the Halloween party.”
“You could say that.”
“That was the day you found out about Sara, right?” he asked suddenly, his voice gentle. “It took me a while to put two and two together.”
I nodded, not trusting my voice. Just thinking about that day made my chest tight.
“I… that was a difficult day for me, too.” He didn’t elaborate, but then he sighed. “I don’t remember a lot of it. Do you know… how much we did?”
Heat flooded my cheeks. “We were in the middle of a room full of people.”
His tan skin didn’t often flush, but it did now. “Yeah, but at college parties, that doesn’t always mean very much.”
“My friends eventually found me and pulled me off you,” I said, the words coming out in a rush.
Diego groaned, putting his head in his hands. “Oh god. Not your friends from the scavenger hunt?”
“Yep.”
“And they recognized me?”
“Yep.”
“Holy shit.” He buried his face deeper in his palms. “I need to transfer to a new school.”
“Tori and Jayden aren’t the judgmental type.”
He didn’t look as if he believed that when he finally raised his head to look at me. “I had such a hangover the next day that I didn’t spend much time about thinking what had happened at the party. I was too hung up on why I was there in the first place.”
“Do you want to tell me?”
He reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He handed me a folded and creased sheet of paper. “You can see for yourself.”
My hand shook slightly as I took the paper from him. People didn’t generally keep a well-worn letter on them if it was good news.
I read the short letter once, and then twice. A tear slipped down my face.
“It took me years to find her,” Diego said quietly. “And another couple of years to get the courage to write to her. And as you can see, she wants nothing to do with me—my own birth mother.”
The terse message had been very clear on that point. She had a new family. She didn’t want anything to do with a long-forgotten son. “I’m sorry.”
“Me too.” He raked a hand through his hair. “But it doesn’t excuse what I did at the party.”
“You were upset. We both were.”
“I should’ve known better.”
Wait, what? “We were both sad and drunk.”
“And you deserved to commiserate with your friends, not get groped by a stranger.”
My jaw dropped. “From what I remember, the groping was mutual.”
“I’m older. I should’ve known better. I took advantage of you when you were—”
The anguish on his face was real. And completely unwarranted. “That was on both of us.”
“I’m your RA. I’m supposed to—”
“You weren’t back then.” I needed a moment to gather my thoughts, so I held up a hand when he seemed like he was about to speak. “Let me get this straight. We were both very upset. We were both drunk. We were both all over each other—but that somehow makes you the bad guy and me the victim?”
He hesitated, and then said, “Yes.”
“Oh, right. Because women are weak and delicate and must be protected.”
“Mia, you were drunk.”
“So were you!”
He stood abruptly, pacing. “I should’ve dealt with it better.”
“Why? Have you had a lot of practice receiving letters like this?” I held it up and he snatched it back, coming no closer than he had to.
“I haven’t been handling things well. That night or since.”
“You’re only three years older than me, Diego. While it would be nice to think that in three years, I will be a wise, mature adult who never makes a mistake, it’s unrealistic. No one expects that of you, so don’t expect it of yourself.”
Diego sat down again. “You sound pretty damn wise at age twenty.”
“It won’t happen again.”
That made the corner of his mouth rise, so briefly that I almost missed it. “I really fucked things up, didn’t I?” he asked.
“At the party? No. We were both wasted. But yeah, things haven’t been great this past week or so. Freaking out when you remembered it was me, getting so loud you woke a baby, and let’s not forget inviting us to the world’s most awkward picnic today.”