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When my roommate, Zoe Gorman, came back, she let out a startled cry. “Tess, what’s that huge bag outside? It’s blocking the way.”
“Sorry. It’s clothes I don’t want anymore. I’ll throw them out in a minute.” I looked up and gave her an apologetic smile, which made her gasp all over again.
“You–you…. are you still Tessa?” She grabbed me and turned me from side to side, looking me over. “Where are your bangs? Where are your glasses? Didn’t you say no matter what happened, you could never give up your top–student image?”
I pulled her hands down and looked at her firmly. “Bullshit. Nothing’s impossible.”
Zoe was the kind of girl who was always fashionable. If she wasn’t in the dorm, she was out socializing somewhere. She liked to call herself the fashion department’s all–knowing source.
“Don’t tell me you’re changing yourself because you’re in love with Adrian.”
I rolled my eyes in exasperation. “For Adrian? Please. In this life, he and I are sworn enemies.”
Seeing that I looked completely serious, Zoe grew concerned. “But basically, everyone knows you like Adrian. You even said you were going to get married right after graduation.”
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In fact, in my previous life, that was exactly what I had done. The second we graduated, I married him.
His family’s company couldn’t afford to wait, after all. What I never expected was that he would blame me for all of it–for not being able to marry Chloe, and for his father forcing him to marry me.
Once we got married and the investment money came through, he stopped pretending.
But didn’t I have the right to hate him, too? If he didn’t like me, he could have just said so. I had never been the type to cling to someone who didn’t want me.
But he had never once said that he didn’t want to marry me.
“Enough. Just assume I lost my mind. He’s not even half as good as that one guy in the physics department.”
The truth was, I didn’t even know who was in the physics department. I only had a vague impression and said it offhand, but to my surprise, Zoe took it seriously.
By the next day, rumors were flying that Tessa, the top student in the fashion department, had a crush on Noah Bennett, the heartthrob of the physics department.
The gossip spread across campus like wildfire. People said I was overly ambitious and wildly full of myself–first chasing Adrian from the athletics crowd, then setting my sights on Noah from physics.
In the cafeteria, Zoe bought me lunch to apologize. “Tess, I thought she was a friend. That’s why I told her about you. I had no idea she’d
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post it on the campus forum.
“Forget it. You didn’t mean to. And that guy–Noah, I think–probably won’t take it seriously anyway.” I waved my fork carelessly.
The moment the words left my mouth, a bottle of milk was set down in front of me. I looked up–and it was Adrian, my appetite vanished
instantly.
Because of the damage I’d done to my body through dieting, my stomach problems were severe. He used to bring me milk all the time, worried I’d go too long without eating and end up doubled over in
pain.
And yet in my last life, I’d still been left to starve.
“What are you doing here?
“Your father pulled the investment?”
I should have known. Other than that, there was nothing else that could possibly move him.
“His daughter was wronged. Why wouldn’t he pull it? Was he supposed to sit around and wait for the holidays?” I picked up my tray, ready to leave.
But Adrian caught hold of my hand. “I apologize. The way I treated you before… that was wrong.” He lowered his head, and his voice started trembling again.
For a second, I almost thought he had been reborn, too. “I know,” I said flatly. “Are we done here?”
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He looked up at me in disbelief. “You forgive me?“–
“I was the shameless one chasing after you, so what exactly is there for you to forgive? From now on, we go our separate ways. And if you and your childhood sweetheart show up in front of me again, don’t blame me for not being nice.”
Those things had really happened; how could I possibly forget them?
But he still held tightly to my arm and wouldn’t let go. “Tess, you know that’s not what I want.”
For a moment, I froze. After we got married, he used to call me that all
the time.
Then suddenly, another hand reached in, landed on Adrian’s arm, and yanked him away with force. “Didn’t you hear her? She said, “Let go.”
