“Shall we call a truce then? Start over as friends?”

“Friends?” Her dark brows drew in.

“Yeah. You know, hang in the quad, meet at the library, go to Panera.”

“Panera? Together? Like eat at the same table?”

I grinned. “Yeah. Or we can sit on opposite sides of the restaurant and yell back and forth.”

A giggle erupted from her and soon turned into a full-blown belly laugh.

“What’s so hilarious?” I asked, unable to keep the defensiveness out of my tone.

She gathered herself, wiping her eyes. “Oh, Dax Blay, you’re a real comedian. I cried over you for an entire semester, I ate enough cookie dough that the cashier at the grocery store would have it waiting for me. I watched an entire season of Orange is the New Black in one day just to get you out of my head. I daydreamed you’d come to my door and beg me to take you back. Instead, I watched girls panting over you like hyenas on campus while you reveled in the attention. So, no, absolutely never, ever can we be friends. I don’t want to be in the same room with you. No offense.” She smiled wryly and with her index finger pointed to herself and then me. “This here—you being nice and helping me and me being drunk and chatting like we’re comrades—it’s a one-time thing.”

Confusion set in.

She’d been depressed because of me? She’d cried an entire semester?

What. The. Hell.

Something wasn’t adding up.

I’d just assumed her coolness toward me was because of Eva-Maria and she had genuinely written me off as a complete jerk. Then tonight I’d learned of Eva-Maria’s bullying. But this?

My hands clenched. “Are you saying you were in love with me?”

She froze, her eyes evading mine. Seconds ticked by.

A weird panic hit and I held my breath.

Had she loved me?

No girl had ever said so.

Fuck. I hadn’t wanted them to.

“Remi? Help a guy out. I can’t read your mind.”

She raised hesitant eyes to meet mine, a sad expression flitting across her face. “No. I don’t believe in love at first sight, or falling in love in seventy-two hours—whatever. Do you?”

“No.” I lifted my hands. “But I don’t understand why you were so upset . . .”

Lulu marched up to the table, wearing a black skirt-thing and a shirt with rips everywhere, predictably dressed like a stylish homeless person. She set her martini glass on the table, whipped her mask off, and took in Remi’s ankle, her eyes widening as she got a gander at me. A long whistle came from her mouth. “Shoot, Remi, you sure know how to party. I leave you alone for a minute and you drag up Dax Blay and company. Is this an alternate universe? Are the Omegas hanging out with the Taus?”

Spider followed behind her, his voice amused. “Found your friend twerking on the dance floor with a bunch of guys. Nice girl.”

I stood up to give Lulu my seat. “Hiya, Lulu. Having fun?” My words were clipped. Pissed off.

She smirked and spoke in her usual slow Southern drawl. “Why, hello, playa, and yeah I was, until this blue-haired dude showed up and yanked me off the floor. He said Remi was hurt.”

“You should have been with Remi,” I told her tightly. “I’m assuming you came with her to keep her company.”

Lulu scrunched her face up, put her hands on her hips, and harrumphed. “This girl? She’s tough as nails. You don’t know half the shit she can handle, and don’t let the klutziness fool you. She survived a squirrel attack on the quad last year and only came out with a tetanus shot,” she said. “And why do you care? Why are you being in charge with Remi? She doesn’t even like you.”

I know.

“Guys, stop,” Remi said as she rose up from the table. She weaved a bit, then steadied as I reached over to help her stand. “I got this.” She held me off as she propped herself against the back of the booth and gingerly tested her ankle. Placing it down on the floor, she took a couple of practice steps. “See, I’m better already. All I needed was the ice pack.”

I exhaled. She did seem okay, her foot firmly on the floor as she walked.

Spider arched his brow and directed his eyes at me. “Seems like our cue to go, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. Scat,” Lulu said, shooing us. “I’ve got two guys I’ve been dancing with on their way up here to meet Remi, and one of them is going to be her date tonight.” She turned to Remi. “Sound good?”

Remi shrugged.

Lulu nodded, practically rubbing her hands together. “They are so sweet, and one of them is in a band and the other goes to uni—isn’t that a cute word? Uni?” She giggled.

Remi flicked her eyes at me and shrugged. “Sure, bring them on. The more the merrier.”

A vein in my temple pulsed. I mean, I could actually feel it. Visions of her drunk and in a bed with a random stranger pissed me off. Didn’t she know that was dangerous and stupid . . . ?

You don’t own her, Dax. She belongs to Hartford—or at least her heart does.

Spider came over to stand next to me, out of earshot of the girls. He grabbed my elbow and pulled me toward the staircase.

“Bye, y’all.” Lulu waved at us, a sarcastic tone in her voice.

Obviously she held a grudge as long as Remi did.

Spider turned to me as I slowed my pace, still looking back at Remi. “Dude, I know you want to stay and do your caveman protector act, but you’ve done all you can here. Your charms aren’t working. She’s a no-go. She bloody hates you,” he said.