“It’s nothing.”
“Okay, now you definitely have to talk to me.” I reach across to squeeze her shoulder. “What happened? Come on, you’ve been here for me this whole time, the least I can do is the same thing for you.”
She pauses to cram half the toilet roll into her face, which does wipe away most of the worst mascara stains from her cheeks. Then she sighs and gives up, dropping the roll into the trash bin. “I broke up with Nick.”
That is . . . not what I expected to hear. He’s annoying as heck, sure, and I can’t understand what she sees in him besides that he’s American and she seems to like the frat bro type. But they seemed fine. In fact, he’s been doting on her harder than ever the past week, constantly showing up with flowers and leaving boxes of chocolates around her flat. I crouch down beside her. “How come?”
She shakes her head. “It wasn’t real. It never was. He’s been sleeping with other people the entire time and I—”
“Excuse me, he what?” Any good feelings I ever had toward Nick vanish that instant. My hands ball into fists of rage as I think about the glowering expression on his face when I saw him last. “Where did he go? I’ll tear his damn balls off.”
“No, no, Harper.” MK grabs at my arms. “It’s not like that. I knew about them.”
“How dare he fucking—wait, what?” I stammer to a halt, as my brain catches up to what she just said.
“It’s complicated, okay? But we . . . When we started hooking up at the start of the semester, he asked if I’d be okay with an open relationship. I said sure, because . . . uh, to be honest, I wasn’t really feeling anything beyond the physical with him. And he was hooking up with other people, but it was also only physical for him too, I mean, he never wanted anything serious. But last month, I . . . I met someone else, and. Shit, this sounds so idiotic.” She buries her head in her hands, but I rest my hand on her hair, the same way she’s done for me a hundred times.
“It doesn’t sound idiotic, MK. It sounds like life.”
She snorts into her palms, then groans. “Anyway, I, uh, I think I’m starting to have feelings for the other guy. Real feelings.”
“Wait, whoa, who?” I gape at her. I can’t believe she hid all of this from me.
Then again, I hid an awful lot from her this semester, so I suppose I can’t really talk.
Mary Kate shakes her head. “You don’t know him. That whole thing is a mess anyway, but . . . ugh. It’s happening, so. I told Nick that we had to end it. Um, but it turns out, he started to have real feelings too. For me.” She grimaces, biting her lip. “I feel like such an arse.”
“You’re not an arse. You can’t stay with someone you don’t truly care about. That’d never work.”
“Yeah, I know, but . . . ugh. Nick made so much sense! He’d met my mum, my brothers, my step-dad. He’s majoring in the same thing as me, we have all the same friends. I should have feelings for him, you know? I just . . . don’t. And now I don’t even know why I’m crying except ’cause I feel super guilty,” she adds with a derisive snort.
I’m staring at the back of the door now, my mind flying a million miles away. Because suddenly all of this sounds so very familiar.
“Hello? Earth to Harper?” MK waves a hand in front of my face, and I blink back to her, startled.
“That sounds totally normal, though. You don’t have feelings for the practical person, the one who makes the most sense. Otherwise humans would all just be robots—program in perfect companion settings to the computer, spit out the ideal match, and we’re all set. We’re messier than that. We have to be, or online dating would work every time,” I add with a smirk, cause god knows MK and I have both suffered through some epic failures at that.
But also, I’ve realized something.
All along, I thought Hannah was Jack’s ideal woman. They make sense, after all. They’re both professors. She knows his whole family. She’s gorgeous, he’s hot.
But maybe I’m wrong. Maybe she’s not right for him at all in real life, even though they’re a perfect match on paper. Maybe she’s the Nick to his Mary Kate.
My heart twists. Even if I’m right, though, it doesn’t mean I’m the new guy to his MK. Just because Jack doesn’t want her, doesn’t mean he wants me instead.
“You’re doing the zoning thing again,” MK points out with a wry smile. “Do you think we should vacate the premises? Netflix and chill at my place?”
“Oh, no.” I unzip my purse and pull out a whole stash of fresh makeup for her. “You dragged me out here tonight. We’re staying out. No moping from me, no dwelling for you, no boys—”