“Nothing much. How have you been? I hear you’re finished with your freshman year.”
“Yeah, thank goodness. I’ve been pretty good.” She looked across the room where Nick and Ashley were. Nick said something, and Ashley started laughing hysterically, and then she kissed him lightly on the cheek.
“What do you think of her?” Brian asked, noticing Lila’s gaze.
“I think she’s really nice, but you probably know her better than I do.”
“I like her, but I don’t think she’s what Nick really wants. He seems happy with her, but he doesn’t seem in love.”
“I don’t know. He told me he thought he loved her.”
“Personally, I think he’s in love with someone else.”
“Really? I don’t know. They seem pretty happy together.”
Brian looked over at Nick to make sure he was still across the room. “I think he likes you, Lila. I think he likes you a lot.”
She laughed cynically. “I don’t think so. After our one-” she stopped, realizing she was divulging too much information.
“After your one-night stand? He told me about that, Li,” Brian said quietly. “But you’re not supposed to know he told me, so don’t tell him I told you.”
“Okay. Yeah, after that, he made it clear that he didn’t want anything more out of our friendship.”
“So you care about him?”
“To say the least, yeah. I was gonna tell him on the ride home yesterday, but then he broke out with the information that he had a girlfriend, so I kept my mouth shut.”
“I think he has feelings for you. What he told me about that night was pretty much an objective story. He didn’t include any of his feelings. He just said, well, you got drunk and slept together. I tried to get some more out of him, but he got a bit upset, so I left it alone.”
“I don’t know what to think, Brian. I thought about telling him despite Ashley, but I couldn’t do that to them. They’re both happy, and I don’t wanna screw that up for them.”
“I don’t think you’d be screwing it up for him. I think you’d be opening his eyes. And sure, Ashley would be a little upset, but I bet she would rather have him break up with her than think he had feelings for her when he really didn’t.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think I could do it.”
“Well, think about it, Li.”