Touch Me Not (Manwhore Series #1)

Chapter Three

The bookstore was just as crowded as Lily suspected it would be. All the new freshmen were eager to get their things sorted quickly. At least this was her last year here, the last year she'd have to deal with seeing Adam and Sue together. He was her best friend and she loved him, but being around him hurt a lot. He'd never seen what was right in front of him. He preferred the blonde airheads.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she fought her way to the front counter, only to discover the book had not yet arrived. Class started on Monday, and they didn't expect it in until sometime next week. Well, that was just flippin' great. More money out of her pocket on an Amazon digital textbook.

Dejected, Lily made her way back to the cafeteria. At least she might be able to grab a bite to eat before she went to check on the girls at the dorm. As a resident adviser, she was in charge of her floor. It earned her a steep discount on her room and board.

The do's and don'ts speech she had to give later this evening was not something she looked forward to because it would go in one ear and out the other for most of the girls. Inevitably, each semester, someone just had to try sneaking either booze or their boyfriends into their rooms after hours. College kids were college kids, no matter the school.

Lily snagged a salad and a Coke from the all-natural health food store before heading into the main cafeteria area. It was more of a mall food court than a cafeteria with tables taking up the bulk of the room with stalls and shops lining both sides and even more outside the main space.

She nodded to people as she walked. Several waved her over to their tables, but she wasn't in the mood for chit chat. Depressed over Adam's deciding to bail on lunch, she refused to try to be sociable with anyone else. Instead, she found an empty table and sat. If people came over, she'd just excuse herself, but most everyone knew to leave her alone when she sat by herself.

Stabbing a piece of tomato, she imagined it was Sue's smiling face. What she wouldn't give to be able to tell that woman what she really thought of her just once, but Adam loved her, and that was that.

This was exactly the situation she'd wanted to evade after high school. But Fate was not on her side. She wanted to put her feelings for Adam behind her, or at least suppress them enough so she wasn't miserable all the time, but how could she when he was always there?

Boston was supposed to be her escape from everyone and everything from her past, but Adam found out she was going here and decided to tag along. She'd specifically chosen Boston because he wanted to go to LSU. He'd been given a full football scholarship. Who knew he'd go and change his mind? Boston offered him a full scholarship too, but their team was nothing compared to LSU. And Adam lived and breathed football.

At first, she'd taken it as a sign that maybe she meant more to him than she'd first thought. The man had followed her to Boston over LSU, after all. She later found out he didn't think she could handle it on her own, and his big brother instincts kicked in, trying to protect her like he always did. He'd never see her as anything but a little sister. Then he'd met Sue in their sophomore year.

Nail—coffin.

New York was her new out. She'd worked her ass off over the summer, and it paid off. The literary agency where she'd interned told her they'd be willing to take her on as an assistant to one of the agents when she graduated. Lily loved books, and the opportunity to work where she could one day represent authors who wrote awesome books was amazing to her.

She, herself, wanted to write but had always been afraid to try. Now that she'd had the opportunity to understand what agents looked for when reading query letters and partials, she had a better grip on how to present her own work to them once she finally sat down and started to write.