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“Yes!” Kamryn went over to the bar and ordered them new drinks. Finding a quiet corner where they could talk was fairly easy. Kamryn leaned against the standing table with a candle on it. “I do need your advice though.”

“Shoot. That’s what I’m here for.” Greer leaned in closer. “Are you finally going to let me in on all the secrets?”

“No.” Kamryn laughed lightly. “Well, some of them. There’s a group at the school who’s trying to fire Elia. One of them is heretonight. That one.” Kamryn pointed the top of her beer bottle toward Susy.

“Susy?” Greer narrowed her eyes in that direction. “That’s Garrett’s aunt, I think.”

“Are you sure?” Kamryn asked.

“Pretty sure, but I could be wrong. If we’re sober in the morning, we might be able to find out.”

Kamryn hummed, her brain processing that information. “She’s on the board.”

“And the plot thickens.”

“Not really.”

“Here’s what I don’t get,” Greer changed the subject. “What does any of this have to do with Elia and you?”

“With me and Elia?”

“Yeah.” Greer nodded emphatically. “Because from the reports that I’ve been getting from the crew, you two have gotten mighty close in the last few months.”

They had. But when it was in front of Kamryn’s friends it had all been an act. Hadn’t it? They’d agreed to that. It was part of their deal. The fake dating routine, the keeping things strictly off property. Well, they’d failed at that one spectacularly, hadn’t they? And Kamryn wasn’t even sorry about it. That was the worst part. She didn’t regret one moment of the time that she’d spent with Elia. Not a single one.

“What’s that look for?” Greer pushed.

“Nothing,” Kamryn mumbled into her beer before she took a long chug from it.

“Oh, don’t lie to me now. You’ve never lied to me before.” Greer gave her a serious look, one that meant business, and she didn’t let up.

Kamryn withered under that stare. But she had no idea what to say. She didn’t understand what to do next or if she could even begin to find the right words to even explain it to Greer.

“Maybe you’re not lying to me,” Greer said, pressing her hand over the top of Kamryn’s on the table. “Maybe you’re lying to yourself.”

“I’m not lying to myself,” Kamryn muttered. She hated when Greer called her out like this. Her shoulders tightened, something like a string being pulled in the center of her back. She looked around the room again, wishing that Elia was there with her to experience this.

“You keep looking for her, don’t you?”

Fuck you, Greer.How was she so damn good at this? Kamryn immediately pulled her gaze back to her drink, her cheeks flushed. But she wasn’t sure if it was from embarrassment or if it was from the alcohol.

“Lauren’s breaking up with Rosie.”

“I heard about that,” Greer responded. “And I assume that she hit on you?”

“At the party last night.” Kamryn nodded her agreement. “She implied she and I should get back together again.”

“And will you?”

Kamryn pressed her lips together into a thin line as she thought. The longer she’d had to think about it, the more solidified she became in her answer. She wasn’t going to do that to herself. When she’d said that the last time was the last time, she’d meant it. Even though she’d said that before, she actually meant it now.

“No.”

“I think that’s the most resolute I’ve seen you when it comes to this.”

“It is.” Kamryn breathed in deeply, sucking down the rest of her beer. “I can’t keep going back to her, Greer. I can’t keep living my life and expecting her to change or thinking that I can change her.” Those words that Elia had said really were coming back to bite her in the ass.

“What changed this time?” Greer seemed so sincere when she asked that. And she would be. She’d genuinely want to know, and she would truly care about the answer that Kamryn gave.