Chapter 312: boyfriend V

Chapter 312: Chapter 312: boyfriend V

Damian continued toward the women’s residence hall, the paper bag warm against his palm.

He was still thinking about Vivienne.

Just the thought of her made him smile.

Then he saw them.

Damian stopped.

Vivienne.

She was sitting on one of the benches beneath the trees.

And Christopher was beside her.

For a second, Damian didn’t understand what he was looking at.

Then he saw their hands.

Their fingers were intertwined.

His eyes stayed there.

Joined hands.

Christopher beside her.

Breakfast between them.

Damian’s grip tightened around the paper bag.

His mind went strangely quiet.

Then the anger came.

Sharp.

Immediate.

What the hell?

He stared at Vivienne.

She was smiling.

She looked happy.

Not uncomfortable.

Not confused.

Happy.

With Christopher.

Damian’s jaw tightened.

He had just spoken to her.

About an hour ago.

She had told him she was tired.

She had told him she didn’t feel well.

And now she was sitting here with Christopher, eating breakfast.

His eyes dropped to the food on the bench.

Christopher had brought it.

Of course he had.

Someone else was already taking care of her.

The thought made something twist painfully inside him.

Then another thought struck him.

She lied to me.

Damian stared at her.

He couldn’t even decide which part made him angrier.

Christopher being there.

The lie.

The timing.

The fact that she was smiling like this.

All of it.

He had walked all the way here thinking about her.

Thinking about whether she’d eaten.

Whether she had a headache.

Whether she needed anything.

And she had been here.

With him.

Damian looked back at Christopher.

Then he noticed the doughnut in Vivienne’s hand.

She was holding it toward Christopher.

Christopher leaned closer.

He took a bite.

Vivienne smiled.

Damian stared.

Christopher said something to her.

Damian couldn’t hear the words.

He didn’t need to.

He could see the way Vivienne looked at him.

The ease between them.

The little smile she couldn’t seem to hide.

Christopher took another bite when she offered it again.

Then Vivienne reached toward him.

Damian’s breath caught.

Her thumb brushed the corner of Christopher’s mouth.

She wiped away something he couldn’t see from where he stood.

Christopher looked at her.

Vivienne glanced at her own thumb.

Then—

She licked it.

Damian went completely still.

For one terrible second, he simply stared.

His hand tightened so hard around the paper bag that the top crumpled beneath his fingers.

What the hell?

His chest felt too tight.

He looked away.

Then, against his better judgment, he looked back.

Vivienne was blushing.

Christopher was looking at her.

There was something in his expression Damian couldn’t quite make out from this distance.

He didn’t need to.

He knew what he was seeing.

And he hated it.

He hated the familiarity of it.

The softness in her face.

The fact that Christopher was the one sitting beside her.

And beneath all of that anger was something almost worse.

Humiliation.

Damian had actually believed there was a chance.

Yesterday, he had stood in front of her and admitted that he wanted more.

He had let her see exactly what he wanted.

And this morning, he was standing there with medicine and breakfast in his hands while she sat beside another man, looking perfectly happy.

He felt like a fool.

His jaw tightened.

Not because she had chosen Christopher.

He knew she liked him.

He had known that from the beginning.

But yesterday—

Yesterday she had looked at him and asked him something that had mattered.

Do you want more?

Yes.

He had said yes.

He had actually allowed himself to say it.

And she had told him she would think about it.

Think about it.

Damian swallowed hard.

Then what the hell had that been?

Why ask him?

Why give him that possibility?

Why let him walk away yesterday believing there might actually be something between them beyond what they had already agreed to?

His gaze returned to her.

She was still sitting beside Christopher.

She looked completely at ease.

Since when?

His mind raced.

Last night?

This morning?

When had this happened?

They had been together yesterday.

They had been intimate yesterday.

How could she already be sitting here with Christopher like this?

The thought came before he could stop it.

Was this some kind of game to her?

Did you do all of that just to toy with me?

But even as the thought formed, Damian knew it didn’t quite fit.

Saturday had been real.

He knew it had.

He knew it had been her first time.

There had been no mistaking that.

So no—

It couldn’t simply have been some joke.

That only made everything more confusing.

More than two weeks ago, he had decided he was done with her.

He had felt used.

He had stayed away.

He had forced himself not to make himself available to Vivienne anymore.

Then Saturday happened.

She drew him back in.

The storm stranded them together.

And somehow, they crossed that line.

Sunday came.

Then Monday.

Then Tuesday.

Four days.

Four days of intimacy.

Four days of attachment.

Four days of hope.

And somehow, in those four days, she had become such a huge part of him that he was standing outside her residence hall at nine in the morning with medicine and breakfast because she had said she wasn’t feeling well.

Damian closed his eyes for a brief moment.

He knew the arrangement.

Friends with benefits.

No expectations.

No promises.

He knew she had never called him her boyfriend.

He knew she had never chosen him.

He had no claim on her.

That was the truth.

And still—

It hurt like hell.

Because knowing he had no claim on her didn’t erase what had happened between them.

It didn’t erase yesterday.

It didn’t erase the way she had looked at him.

It didn’t erase the hope she had allowed him to have.

Damian opened his eyes.

He was furious with her.

Furious at the lie.

Furious at Christopher.

Furious at himself for believing there might be more.

And beneath all of it, the worst part remained.

He still wanted her.

Even now.

Even after seeing this.

He wanted to walk over there.

He wanted to ask her what the hell she was doing.

He wanted to know when this had happened.

But what would he say?

You can’t be with him because you were with me?

He couldn’t.

She had never promised him that.

He knew it.

Which only made the humiliation harder to swallow.

Damian Blackwood had enough pride not to make a spectacle of himself in front of a residence hall.

But he also knew himself well enough to understand that if he stayed another minute, he might forget that pride.

He didn’t know what he would do if he stayed.

He was too angry.

Too hurt.

Too humiliated.

So he needed to leave.

Not because he wasn’t hurt.

Because he was hurt enough to know he needed to get away before his anger decided for him.

He took one slow breath.

Then another.

His grip loosened slightly around the paper bag.

He stepped backward.

Neither Vivienne nor Christopher noticed.

Good.

Damian turned away.

The medicine was still in the bag.

The breakfast was still warm.

He had brought them for her.

And now all he wanted to do was throw it at the nearest trash bin.

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Tbc