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I nodded, trying to convince myself that she was right.

Even though something in my gut was telling me this wasn’t normal, I didn’t have any real evidence other than a feeling.

Irrationally, I wondered if there was somehow a way that everyone knew Theo had hit on me last night, but that didn’t seem right.

Theo was a big deal, but she was a big deal in basketball; I doubted anyone cared about her personal life.

And beyond that, there was no reason for anyone to care about my personal life.

I wasn’t some major influencer or even a small-time campus celebrity.

People didn’t know my face and name like that, especially not enough to stare at me in the gym because of a brief interaction with a college basketball player.

I brushed it off and went to the stairmaster while Iris headed off to the rowing machine. I forced myself to focus entirely on the audiobook in my ears, pushing out every other thought in my head.

The distraction was helpful for more than one reason; I needed a reprieve from thinking about Theo, and thinking everything came back to Theo.

I was driving myself insane, always wondering if I was going to run into her and what she was up to and if she thought about me even half as much as I thought about her.

And I still hadn’t even come up with something to say to her. All of that time spent thinking about her, wondering about her, and stressing about her, and I still hadn’t found the right introductory text.

I tabled it all for now, getting lost in the story playing out in my ears. I could deal with Theo later.

I moved between machines at the gym in my usual routine, minding my own business as I went, and no longer looking to see if anyone was looking at me.

As I got my body moving more, it was easier for me to forget that I’d been feeling so paranoid earlier.

I quickly got back in the rhythm, letting my mind wander to the sounds of my book and the steadiness of my breath.

Despite my best efforts, Theo’s arms and smile and gentle off-court demeanor would pop back into my head at random, but I would shut it out as quickly as I could.

The only thing that made it actually possible to relax was that I probably wasn’t going to run into her here. The team was successful enough that I doubted they worked out in the student gym.

But even as I convinced myself this was a Theo-free zone, it was still hard not to think about her working out here.

I imagined her confidence on the machines, the weights she could probably lift.

Iris was right; maybe athletes were everyone’s type.

I’d never thought much about arms, but that was before I’d seen what Theo’s looked like when they were flexed.

By the time I was sweaty and hungry enough to justify leaving, I’d completely forgotten my concerns that people had been looking at me sideways. And I’d half-managed to push thoughts of Theo out of my head.

Or, at the very least, I was doing better controlling my spiral out here than I was from bed last night.

I texted Iris to see if she was ready to go, and she responded quickly with a Yes!!! I wiped down the leg press I’d been using and then headed off to find her near the lockers at the front door of the gym. We lived close enough to the gym that we didn’t have to bother with the locker room.

“I’m so ready to eat,” Iris said. “And nap. I need to lie in that one specific spot on the couch in the sun for a while before heading to work.”

“I know exactly what you mean,” I said. The only things on my agenda for the day were one class and then a long study session preparing for an upcoming exam.

I usually liked that my Fridays were easy, but today was one of those days when I needed a distraction.

Iris was usually perfect for that, but she didn’t get home until the late evening.

I was coming up on crunch time for needing to message Theo if I didn’t want to look like a complete asshole who was blowing her off.

But I wasn’t exactly itching to message her too quickly; the feeling that would come after texting her was the only thing worse than trying to figure out what to say to her in the first place.

And I still hadn’t thought of the perfect thing to say. Not that I was worried about that.

“Do you want to go to The 151 tonight? I think they’re hosting something again—Amelia texted me about it.

But I think Stephen’s has drink specials.

” Iris kept her eyes fixed on her phone as we walked.

I held the door to the gym open for her and was greeted by warm sun and frigid air that pinched the parts of my skin that were exposed.

The layer of sweat sitting on my skin was slowly sucked away by the dry air as we walked.

“I don’t know which one yet,” I said. “I’m kind of down for whatever. Stephen’s might be fun—I feel like we haven’t been there much so far this year.”

Stephen’s was the local dive bar a couple of minutes from campus. It didn’t usually get that busy, but it was still a lot of fun. There was a pool table, and the drinks were surprisingly good for the price. I could also unapologetically fuck up their tater tots any day of the week.

“Let me check in with everyone and see what they’re up to. I should know what the plan is before I get off work, so I know how quickly I need to eat and get ready—” Iris suddenly stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk.

I turned and looked at her. “Hello?”

She put a hand gently to her mouth and looked up at me. “Oh my god.”

“What?” I asked and walked back toward her.

“Um.” She looked down at her phone again. “I think I know why you thought people were staring at you. I think they actually might’ve been.”

My heart raced thinking over anything I could’ve done to deserve a public callout online.

I didn’t know if I had any previous hook-ups bold enough to share stories online about me, but maybe it was my time to shine in the lesbian gossip circles.

I hadn’t exactly been careful about my reputation around campus.

Iris turned her phone toward me. She’d gotten a text from Tamara, one of her friends from the basketball game. Is this your friend from the game last night?

Attached to the text was a screenshot from a social media app that included a picture of me and Theo talking.

And based on the body language, I couldn’t even blame the person for captioning the photo: Looks like Theo McCall is off the market—sorry ladies!

Based on the amount of interactions the post had gotten, it’d been making rounds way beyond just our campus.

It’d already gotten more likes than the entire size of our student population.

My heart raced, taking in every detail. For the first time in my life, I was speechless. I’d never posted much about myself online and didn’t have aspirations of becoming an internet personality. It didn’t feel real that so many people had seen a picture of me.

“Shit, dude,” Iris said.

“I guess I have something to DM Theo about now,” I said.