112

Piper

They Know About You

Agreeing to meet up with Adam was probably the dumbest thing that I could've agreed to do.

Dumber than jumping into a pit of rattlesnakes or getting into an argument with my parents about the last twenty years of sedimentology research. It just wasn't smart . But after the presentation—the amazing presentation that I floated through in an out-of-body experience—and after witnessing that man single-handedly put together the audience needed for it, I was feeling sentimental and stupid and I missed him so much.

I forgot just how much I missed him until he was three feet away from me with bloodshot eyes and a rumpled shirt, telling me his dad called. I had to be there for him. There was no other choice.

I didn't see him at one of the tables at Gianna's . I craned my neck, which was weird. Six-foot-four football players didn't blend into a crowd.

Where is he?

"Piper!" Sloane waved me over from the hostess's stand. " Adam's upstairs. Waiting."

"Upstairs?" I blinked.

The rooftop of Gianna's was always packed full of people like they had a fire safety hazard to achieve. Getting a table upstairs was impossible. The best Kassie, June, Zariah, and I had done was just hang out by the railing. And even that was touch and go.

But Sloane didn't offer an explanation, she hurried to seat a family, and I was left to my own devices.

"Okay…" I whispered under my breath.

I had two options. Go upstairs and fight back the rooftop crowd to talk to Adam—preferably at a table—or go home and crack open the cookie dough that I returned from Oklahoma with.

I shook my head and headed towards the back of the restaurant, carefully walking around the busy tables.

Usually, the stairs were packed but not one person walked up or down there. I faltered for a moment at the door. Taped with neon duct tape was a sign for a private party on the rooftop. I stared at it for a moment. Was everyone behind the door? All the people we usually hung out with?

Gently, I pushed it open, and for a moment I didn't understand exactly what I was seeing. There were no drunk college students and no half-empty beer bottles. Sitting at the only table set out on the entire rooftop, Adam stood up from his seat with the bouquet in hand.

"Hey," he called out to me.

I blinked. "Hi."

With every bit of hesitation I had, I took a step forward but even that felt like too much. It felt like I was walking out into an alien planet.

"Um…" I cleared my throat. "Who—who else is here?"

"It's just us."

A blush blossomed across my skin. Of course it was just us, Adam had wanted to talk, I just didn't think he'd rent out the entire rooftop of Gianna's to do it.

"You didn't have…to do all of this," I told him.

"I just want to talk to you alone."

For a moment, both of us were quiet and I walked over to sit on the only remaining chair, at the other side of the round table. It was…so weird. Being with him and not joking with him and not touching him was just wrong.

He cleared his throat. "How was the interview?"

Nope. Not yet.

"You told them to take me to Thomas's," I stated, watching his face for his reaction.

"Yeah." He nodded. "You needed your stuff back."

The casual way he admitted to it, like it was the easiest thing to answer, baffled me. Even after we broke away from each other, he was still doing things for me, still making sure I was okay. Why?

I couldn't help but think about all of my stuff that Thomas had purposely put through a garbage disposal treatment. Adam would've never done that to me.

Not in a million years.

"And…the interview?" Adam prompted.

It was the news I immediately texted everyone about the moment I left the student center. The first person on my contact list had been Adam and I'd typed up a message without even thinking about it before deleting it in a hurry. His number was blocked. It wouldn't have gone through anyway.

"I got in," I whispered. "First undergraduate RA in fourteen years."

A breath of relief escaped him and he grinned so wide, it had to have hurt. And it did hurt me, looking at him. Because he looked so…tired. Rundown. It took everything in me not to wrap my arms around him.

"I knew you would." He chuckled, breathless. "Hardest working RA on staff. I knew you would. You're going to be the best person on that team. You're going to show all of them up."

The compliments made my head spin. I couldn't have this separation between us and have him so overwhelmed that I landed the job that he was beaming with happiness for me.

I took a deep breath. "Did your dad ask you to forgive him?"

The smile faded on his face and he placed the bouquet in front of me, shifting back in his chair. "No."

"What did he say?"

"They're—ah—writing a book."

I stared at him without comprehension. "I don't understand."

But the more I thought about it, the more I did. His parents lost their cash cow and they needed to make up the revenue somehow. But that couldn't be right. How could they do that— knowing they hurt him—and continue to profit off of it?

"No," I mumbled. "Oh my god."

"Yeah."

"I'm—I'm so sorry."

Adam's eyes flickered to mine and he held them for a beat. "And…they know, Piper. They know about you."

"Me?"

"Yes." He nodded, slowly, ruefully. "They know…how important you are to me. They know how much you mean to me. They know I would do anything for you."

Adam said it like they were horrible mistakes that he'd made at my expense, he said it in the same inflection that he'd apologized with, in the kitchen. But I gazed at him, stunned. My heart thudded in my chest with every word.

"And the easiest way for them to get to me is through you." He took a deep breath. "You don't know how manipulative they are. You don't know how they can hurt people. And I can't let them hurt you, Piper."

"You love me," I realized, blinking at him.

"Of course I love you." His eyebrows furrowed. "You know I love you. I'm always going to love you."

"I—I thought you didn't want to…put in the work for an actual relationship?"

Adam stared at me for a long moment. "What?"

"I thought I wasn't enough—"

"You are more than enough," he stopped me before I could finish the sentence. His features twisted, shocked. "Piper, you're everything to me. Why would you think that? I told you I loved you."

I swallowed. "How are you going to love me and leave me?"