Never Saw This Coming

Fine.

He looks at me for a little while longer before looking back at Valdez. You okay? Nova mouths. I nod and wipe my damp mouth with a napkin. "No, he's not. He hasn't been seeing anyone in a while," Valdez says with furrowed eyebrows. That's not completely true. Max tilts his head and shoves a roll onto his mouth, using his hands instead of chopsticks like the rest of us. "Really?" he asks. Valdez takes a long swig of water and nods. "Yeah, no. He's chilling, focusing on football. Who told you that?" he asks curiously.

"She did. I should've figured she was lying," he frowns. Valdez's eyes widen a bit and he shakes his head. "Yeah, no. She lies a lot. I think he's slept with her before but recently? Nah." Why am I present for conversations like this? Ugh. I don't say anything and even try avoiding eye contact with the two guys in the room. Obviously, my ears pay close attention to their conversation. I believe Valdez though especially since Xander said we weren't going to sleep with other people. I trust him enough to trust him on that.

He's also definitely not batting an eye at any woman whenever I'm around. It's cute, I have him wrapped around my finger and I like it. I smile slightly at the thought, but it fades quickly. I don't want to be smiling to myself like an idiot.

"Her best friend did sleep with Rhys though," Valdez laughs. Nova smiles at her boyfriend for no real reason. "Ohh, Kennedy right? She's fucking hot," Max says. Nova and I both make disgusted faces at each other. These guys gossip more than we do. Sometimes.

After I finish up my food, I end up coming back to my room to finish off my bathing suits. I'm almost done, putting some of the finishing touches on each of them. I've had Max over a couple of times to try on the men's suits already and he said they are really good. The ones for women are all done at this point, I'm just fixing up the male ones one last time. "Hey, can I ask you something?" Nat says from her bed behind me. I focus on sewing, but I pay attention, nodding my head at her.

"You've been disappearing a lot at night lately. Any hot reason why?" she says. I tense a little bit. I knew she'd figure it out eventually especially since she's my fucking roommate. She's here most of the time when I randomly leave at night or sometimes even in the middle of the day to hang out with Xander. I turn off the sewing machine and spin in my chair to face her. Her red hair is up in a bun and she's dressed ready for bed even though it's only 6 pm.

"Maybe," I say lowly. She smiles instantly. "Who?" she asks. Normally I wouldn't lie to Nat, but I don't want anyone knowing about Xander and me. We both promised we wouldn't tell anyone about this thing we have going on. I won't break that promise and tell Nat. "I've just been sleeping with some different guys every now and then. I hadn't slept with anyone in a while, you know this, so I guess I've just been getting back into the game," I lie. I can't say it's one specific guy because then she'd ask for a name. I cannot give her a name.

She nods, taking in my response. "I'm so glad, Mads. You deserve it, it had been long enough. As long as you're being safe and having lots of fun," she smiles. A smile on my face grows as well. "Oh, I'm having lots of fun. Trust."

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"Why is your house always so cold?" I pull the covers up my shoulders and tuck them into my body. The fact that I'm naked doesn't make this any better. Xander scoots closer to me on his bed and wraps one of his arms around my bare waist, pulling me close to him. "I'll give you some of my bodily heat," he winks. I roll my eyes but still press myself closer to him under the covers.

I once again snuck into Xander's house. We've done this a couple of more times after the first time. It's a bit easier now but sometimes we just stick to seeing each other out of each other's places. Keeping a secret hookup a secret is hard. Luckily, we haven't been caught. "Do you want me to turn the AC off?" he asks. I shake my head quickly. "No, it's okay. I'm fine," I smile small. He kisses my lips quickly before laying his head back on his pillow.