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“It’s sabotage,” she said with blazing eyes, pointing a finger at luttony I hate cheaters, and she’s cheated me out of Penn”

“You’ve already been accepted,” I reminded her

“Would you go to a college without being adram?”

I said nothing She knew my answer

“Exactly”

I tossed the sodden towels in the nearby trash, andher shoulders as she watchedoff my red blazer

“What are you doing?” she asked

“This is what help looks like”

She shook her head “I don’t want to be indebted to you” She pointed another finger at et it You do things for students and they have to pay you back in some sick way” Opportunity cost Benefits Deals They were the foundation of my life

“I’ people” I held outattached to this I’ in return Take it”

She just kept shaking her head at me

My hand fell “What?”

“Why do you act like that around Caroline?” she suddenly asked

I read into her question I heard: Why do you like her? Caroline was a typical WASP girl She always looked at : What use will you be tomoney?

But Rose Calloas different She was fashionable But not a sorority girl She was a genius on paper But not a teaainst loving

She was a complicated equation that didn’t need to be solved

I didn’t even have time to respond That’s how fast Rose moved in her state of irritation She set her hands on her hps and mimicked me from earlier that day “You ride well, Caroline I saw you at the equestrian event last week How’s your mother?”

“I was being kind”

“You’re different around certain people,” she told h from academic conferences to see it You act one ith them and another with me How do I knoho the real Connor Cobalt is?”

You never will “I’m as real with you as I can be”

“That’s complete bullshit,” she cursed

“I can’t be you,” I told her “You leave a trail of bodies with your glares People are afraid to approach you, Rose That’s a problem”

“At least I knoho I am”

We had somehoards each other I towered over her, taller than most men and built like an athlete I never hunched Never recoiled I wore ht with pride

She raised her chin to combat me I pushed her to be the best that she could be

“I know exactly who I am,” I said with every ounce of confidence I possessed “What unsettles you, Rose, is that you have no idea what kind of guy that is” I stepped closer and she stiffened “If people stare at ive them exactly what they want I aain “And you need a fking jacket”

She reluctantly took the blazer but hesitated “I can’t be you,” she said “I can’t internalize all of s I don’t understand how you can do that”

“Practice”

Our eyes met for an extended moment There was so ht then I wasn’t prepared for the deep conversations that she would force me to have

Rose Calloway couldn’t stand uy anted to reach the top The irony was that she wanted the saet there

She slipped on my blazer that dwarfed her frame “What part of you do you show me?” she asked

“The best part”

She rolled her eyes “If you have nothing real to say, Richard, then why speak at all?”

I couldn’t form the words to reply hat she wanted I spent years building barriers and defenses I could take care of a woht ht es She ent

She ical and factual

I knew sex I knew affection But love? That was an illogical concept, so as fictional as the Bible, Katarina Cobalt would say When I was a child, I thought love belonged in fantasy itches and monsters It couldn’t exist in real life, and if it did, it was just like religion—only there to ood

Love

That was fake to me

And I nearly rolledreal That’s so from the heart

“Rose,” I began And she turned to look at aze was like the depths of hell Ice cold Bitter Tumultuous and pained I wanted to bear it all But I couldn’t show her all the cards I held to do so I couldn’t let her in I’d lose the gareat”

And that was it

She was gone

Through a friend of a friend, I learned that Rose Calloas accepted to the Honor’s Program I learned that she denied the request to attend Penn For whatever reason, she chose Princeton, our rival college

Sixafter that, she becairlfriend

It was a life that I saw co

It was one that I was prepared for

There was nothing spontaneous or alluring about it

At nineteen, everything was just practical

Five Years Later

[ 1 ]

ROSE CALLOWAY

You know the stories where the strong, brawny h, his chest puffed, and his stocky shoulders pulled back—he’s the king of the jungle, the big irls’ knees He carries an air of unwarranted superiority for the pure fact that he has a dick, and he knows it He expects the girl to go tongue-tied and agree to his every demand