Chapter 41: What About Riley?

“I don’t understand why you’re beating yourself up about it,” Mal said, not even bothering to look at me as she spoke. “Sounds to me like the trip went really well.”

I was sitting on Mal’s large, plush king-sized bed discussing everything that had happened since I left. I kicked my legs anxiously over the edge. “It went well,” I agreed with a nod. “But that’s just it. It went well, and nothing else.”

Mal was kneeling on the floor, stuffing some clothes into her massive floral suitcase. Finally, she looked up so that I could fully appreciate the way she raised one of her perfectly plucked eyebrows. “Were you expecting something more to happen?”

I looked away. Maybe I was talking too much. I still hadn’t told Mal about the fact that Professor Bennett was the hot stranger I’d been hooking up with. I decided it was still safer that she didn’t know.