Hypothetical Heart (Farewell Fairwood #2)

Chapter 33

33

A few weeks after Myrtle Beach, Winnie is at one of her first ballet rehearsals for the year, and Jameson is at some type of pre-med conference at Columbia, which leaves Genevieve, Luke, and I in the city with nothing to do.

“Where are we going?” Genevieve asks once the three of us are out of my apartment lobby.

The driver I called is standing on the curb, right on time.

“Just get in the car, you’ll see,” I tell them, and I’m shocked when neither of them argues. They simply climb in the backseat after me.

I’ve had this trip planned since we got back from North Carolina, so when the opportunity arose to have Genevieve and Luke come with me, I decided to take advantage of it.

“How’s class been, Gen?” Luke asks.

She purses her lips, thinking up an accurate response. “It’s been good, a lot harder than Fairwood, but that was expected.”

“How about Jameson? Is he keeping up?” I ask.

“We aren’t allowed to discuss our grades with each other,” she says, almost sounding guilty.

“Says who?” Luke laughs.

“Us.” Genevieve looks down at her hands. “It was a few weeks into the semester when we realized it was all we talked about, and it wasn’t good for our relationship. So, now we have a rule forbidding us from discussing school.”

“You know, Gen, I can’t say that shocks me.” While it’s funny, it makes complete sense. Genevieve and Jameson were rivals in school from the second they met one another, and it took them an entire semester to realize they worked better as a team than opponents. But even now that they’re dating, it doesn’t change how competitive the two of them are.

“Maybe once he’s in med school, and I’m in law school, we’ll be able to talk to each other about our classes.”

“Doubtful,” Luke mutters under his breath, making Genevieve elbow him in the side.

The rest of the car ride is pretty dull. Winnie calls me when she has a short break during rehearsal, and soon after, Jameson calls Genevieve on his walk back from class. “Jameson, how are your classes?” Luke asks with a devious smile on his face, and I struggle not to laugh.

“Um…” Jameson hesitates over the speaker. “They’re good.”

Genevieve gives both of us a murderous look, taking Jameson off of speakerphone to continue their conversation.

When the driver parks in front of our destination, Genevieve looks out the window and then back at me. “I am not helping you pick out an engagement ring,” she tells me as if I’ve lost my mind while looking at the jewelry store in front of her.

“I’m not getting an engagement ring,” I say truthfully.

One day? Yes. Today? No.

Luke lets out a dramatic sigh of relief, opening the car door and jumping on the sidewalk. Genevieve and I follow suit.

“So, what are we looking for today? A necklace? Earrings?” he asks, clapping his hands together.

I shake my head. “A ring.”

“Logan!” Genevieve smacks me in the back of the head.

“I already told you, it’s not an engagement ring!”

“This feels close enough,” she says with a firm voice. “It’s a diamond jeweler, Logan.”

“So?” I don’t care to argue with her, walking through the revolving door into the shop.

“Logan–”

I spin to face her. “Are you telling me Jameson hasn’t bought you jewelry, Gen?” She stays silent. “That’s what I thought.”

I’m buying my girlfriend something whether Genevieve thinks I should or not.

“Hey, they don’t only have diamonds,” Luke says, standing over a case of a variety of colored stones.

Genevieve peers over my shoulder through the glass. “Those are pretty.” She points, sounding more coy than she had a few minutes ago.

“Gen, I’m not mad.” I place my hand on her shoulder. “I do want your help. That’s why I brought you here.”

“Sorry,” she sighs. “I shouldn’t have said anything to begin with. It was rude of me.”

I nod. I don’t need to make herfeel worse about it in order for her apology to feel sincere. I accept it as it is because she’s my friend, and I love her.

“What do you think about that one?” I ask, pointing toward a gold band with a blue stone in the center.

Luke steps back, letting Genevieve up against the glass.

She shrugs. “It’s okay, but she wouldn’t like how thick the band is.”

I trust Genevieve’s opinion, and I know she’s right. From all the jewelry I’ve seen Winnie wear, it’s very minimal, matching her delicate persona.

“I think she’d like pink more,” Luke adds, and I nod my head in agreement.

We continue to circle around the cases full of jewelry, all of us stopping every time we see a ring with any type of pink stone. It takes us a couple laps around the store before an attendant finally approaches us.

“Looking for anything specific?” I can already tell by the way she asks that she doesn’t believe any of us are going to buy anything.

“Yes, actually,” I say, shocking her. “I’m looking for a ring for my girlfriend. Something with a thin gold band, preferably a pink stone.”

“And the stone should be circular,” Genevieve interjects.

“Any budget?” She questions expectantly, fixing her name tag pin that reads AMY.

I reach into my coat pocket, pulling my wallet from the inside and handing her my card. “No.”

Genevieve and Luke sit quietly, but they’re both grinning in a way that says, suck on that, lady .

She touches her fingers to her lips, thinking. “I might have just the ring.”

“Great.” We follow her through the store, and she heads behind one of the glass counters, unlocking a case out of view.

Another worker comes up to us, offering flutes of sparkling water, and I have a good feeling she was only told to do this once they got my credit card.

“We keep these ones out of view because they’re limited editions, but since price isn’t an issue…” Amy sets a smaller case of rings on the counter. “They’re all pink diamonds and around two carats.”

“What do you think?” I ask Genevieve.

“Oh, is this ring for you?” Amy asks as we both shake our heads

“No, no,” I say quickly. “The ring is for my girlfriend.”

“My best friend,” Genevieve clarifies.

Amy nods, looking suspicious as she steps away. The whole encounter makes me feel uncomfortable, and I can tell Genevieve’s feelings are mutual.

“I think she’d like this one.” I pick up the ring that grabs my interest, a thin gold band with a simple pink diamond that glitters under the bright lights. “What do you think?”

“She’ll love whatever you pick out,” she assures me. “Plus, that ring is gorgeous.”

Luke is busying himself talking to another worker, likely chatting her up so he can get another flute of sparkling water.

I wave Amy back over, handing her the ring. “I think I’ll take this one.”

Her brow furrows, grabbing the price tag attached to the band and showing me the price as if she’s asking, ‘ Are you sure you can afford this?’

“He’s not worried about it,” Genevieve answers for me. I’m not even sure if she saw the price. All she knows is that I can afford it.

Looking over my shoulder, I notice Luke’s change in expression as he looks through a different case across the showroom. “You have my card. Could you excuse me while you ring me up?”

Before Amy replies, Genevieve and I are already heading toward Luke.

“What’re you looking at?”

“Got some secret girlfriend we don’t know about?” Genevieve asks jokingly, bumping her shoulder against his.

He doesn’t break his gaze away from a specific ring. “That one looks just like my mom’s.”

“Did your dad get it here?” I question.

“I don’t know.” Luke shrugs. “I think I should buy it,” he then says, almost in a daze.

“What?” Genevieve and I ask at the same time.

Luke’s always been sentimental–he makes it clear through his love of photography and capturing memories–but somehow, I don’t imagine him being the type to pick out an engagement ring when he doesn’t even have a girlfriend yet.

“What if I come back one day and it’s gone?”

“You understand how crazy you sound… right?” Genevieve looks completely appalled.

Luke stays staring at the ring, like it’s the most important thing to him right now. “I want to buy it.”

“Man, you don’t even know who you’re going to give it to,” I say. He gives me a timid look, like he wants to say something but knows he shouldn’t. “Or do you?” I trail off.

Genevieve raises her eyebrows, not knowing what to say. “Is this about Valerie?”

“What?” Luke’s head snaps back. “No, no.”

He sounds like a fucking liar.

Before we can say anything else about it, Amy comes up behind me, holding the gift bag with Winnie’s ring in it. “You’re all set,” she says, also handing me my credit card .

I thank her before I notice Genevieve walk out of the store in my peripheral with her phone to her ear and a serious look on her face. “I should probably follow her,” I tell Luke, giving him the space to make his own decision about the ring.

When I find Genevieve outside, she’s pacing back and forth, and it’s only once I get close enough that I can actually hear the conversation. “If something is going on, you need to tell me, Val.”

Valerie Mason. The girl Luke hooked up with during our senior year ski trip before he knew she was friends with the girls.

“Okay, okay, I believe you,” she replies after a beat. Then she looks over at me. “Alright, Val, I have to go, but I’ll talk to you soon.”

When she hangs up and walks back toward me, her hands are in her hair.

“What’s going on?”

“Something’s for sure happening between Luke and Valerie.”

“How do you know that?”

Genevieve is known for over-examining situations, and while she’s one of the smartest people I know, it wouldn’t shock me if this is something her brain has fabricated.

“You saw the way he looked at me when I mentioned her, and I know my friends. Val was lying through her teeth on that phone call.”

I’m sure my confusion laces my features. “Why would they lie about that?”

“It doesn’t matter.” She shakes her head, like it shouldn’t bother her as much as it does.

A moment passes where neither of us says anything, and then the revolving door of the jewelry store swings around. Luke meets us on the sidewalk, holding an identical bag to the one I’m holding.

“You’re fucking stupid,” Genevieve says. “And if I find out that you’re giving that ring to my best friend, I’ll kill you.”

“Why the fuck do you think this is about Valerie?” Luke asks, not defensive at all, which makes me think Luke might be telling the truth.

“Because I know for a fact she’s the only girl you’ve had sex with in the past year,” Genevieve snarls.

“Okay,” I hold up a hand between them. “I’m stopping this conversation now.”

O ur driver drops off Genevieve and Luke before taking me back to my building, milkshake in hand for Winnie. I drop the ring off at my apartment before heading up to her place.

I let myself into my girlfriend’s apartment and am met with the sight of her in the living room. Through the open-concept layout, I can see her sitting on the couch with her laptop resting on her thighs.

“Hi.” She smiles, noticing what I have in my hand for her.

I kick my shoes off and make my way around the backside of the couch, kissing her temple while I place the cup in her awaiting hands. “Hi, sweetheart.”

“Thank you,” she says, taking a sip of her favorite milkshake from a place down the street. “Sit.” She pats the cushion next to her.

More nights than not, this is where I find myself, sitting on the couch of Winnie’s apartment. Sometimes, she comes over to mine, but not nearly as much. It feels so naturally domestic at this point, like I’m here so much that I don’t even need my own apartment. But I’ve also found that this seems to be the best part of having a girlfriend: being able to do quiet, mundane things without it ever getting boring.

“What are you working on?” I ask, wrapping my arm around her slim shoulders. I only know she’s working on schoolwork because she has her blue light glasses on, and she claims they make her feel smarter.

“It’s a lot more boring than chemistry and biology,” she answers, bringing up the difference in our majors.

I run my finger underneath the strap of her tank top, smoothing over her freckled shoulders. “No way, marketing sounds too cool.”

She rolls her eyes, laughing. “Yeah, learning about the economy is so much cooler than learning how to save a life.”

“Is it due tonight?”

Winnie shakes her head, and I shut her computer. “Then don’t worry about it.”

“You are the worst procrastinator I’ve ever met,” she says like she’s not going to listen to me, but then she pushes her laptop to the side and crawls closer to me.

“I prefer to do things on my own time.” I smile.

Winnie stands from the couch, and I can’t help but notice how high her tiny cotton shorts have risen. I reach out and grab the bottom hem of them, pulling her shorts down to cover her ass so I can control my urges.

“Wanna help me make cookies?” She asks, grinning.

“By that you mean I make the cookies while you watch?” We both know how me helping her bake works and yet I say yes every time.

I follow her into the kitchen, letting her get out all of the ingredients before I pick her up and set her on the counter. She watches me as I measure everything out before I hand her the whisk for her to mix it all together.

Right when I get the pan out, Winnie grabs my shirt. “You might want to take this off,” she says, pulling at the collar.

“Oh really?” I smirk. “Why is that?”

She shrugs, her hands tracing all the way down my abs toward the bottom hem. “Just don’t want you to get dirty, that’s all.”

“Right, right.” I don’t restrain my smile as I pull my shirt up and over my head.

“Perfect,” she replies. “Now I can enjoy the show.”

I stick my finger in the cookie dough, smearing a glob of it over her bottom lip. “Oh, sorry, let me get that,” I say, grabbing her by the chin and pulling her toward me.

Winnie goes to say something, but my lips meet her, effectively cutting her off. And when I pull away, we’re both licking our lips.

Neither of us can contain the grins that overtake our faces.

“These better be some good cookies.”