Page 5 of The Player

Nicole was barely in the door before Bailey took the greasy bags from her. “Oh, thank God. I’m starving.”

“You and me both.” Nicole dropped her keys in the bowl by the door and toed off her shoes. “You’ll never guess who I met today at the mall.”

“Who?” Bailey pulled out the TV trays and set them up in front of the couch. Nicole’s mother would have a fit if she knew they were eating on the cream Ralph Lauren sofa she’d paid for.

“Drew,” Nicole said, grabbing two glasses from the cupboard.

“Drew who?”

“Kiernan.”

“No shit. Really?”

“Yep.” She filled both glasses with ice and poured Boone’s Farm over them.

When Nicole came back with the drinks, Bailey already had the burgers and fries spread out on napkins across the TV trays. Nicole handed her a glass and plopped down next to her on the couch.

“So, what happened?” Bailey said, turning toward her. “I need details.”

Nicole told her everything, from the magazine aisle to the parking lot. She only left out how long she’d held on to his hand.

Bailey dragged a fry through a puddle of ketchup. “So, are you going to the party?”

Nicole scoffed. “No.”

“Why not? I’m already going. Come with me.”

“You are?”

“Umm, yeah. It’s Homecoming weekend,” she said. “And he’s in the same fraternity as Ryan.”

Ryan, Bailey’s new boyfriend, practically lived at their place these days.

“I would’ve already asked you,” Bailey continued, “but I knew you’d say no.”

Bailey went to the white frat parties, the ones with the kegs and the packed front lawns. Nicole went to parties where everybody looked like her, Greek or not. Neither one of them had ever pushed the other to cross over.

“It’s just not my scene,” Nicole said.

Bailey rolled her eyes. “How do you know that if you’ve never gone?”

“True. But I told Toni and Lauren I’d go with them to the AKA party.”

Bailey tsked and shook her head. “Your mom was so pissed when you told her you didn’t want to pledge. That’s all she talked about when she flew down and designed this place.”

“She’ll be fine.” Nicole had listened to her mother go on and on about what she needed to do if she was serious about becoming an AKA, who she needed to meet, which events she needed to attend, and how she needed to make herself known. Nicole hadn’t done a single one of those things. “Sorry about her, by the way.” She winced.

“Don’t be. Our house is the bomb. All of my friends are so jealous. I still can’t believe she furnished my bedroom too, free of charge. Like, she’s my fairy godmother.”

Nicole chuckled. If there was one thing that woman loved, it was an excuse to use her platinum card.

She’d come down in August carrying a folder full of pages torn from Southern Living, and by the time she left, the house looked less like two college sophomores lived there and more like the magazine might stop by for pictures.

The couch was piled with coral and rose pillows. Sheer curtains let in the afternoon light, and a ficus that Bailey somehow kept alive stood in the corner. The television hid inside a wood armoire with doors that closed. Even televisions needed to be put away properly. And Nicole had already started stacking her books two deep on the built-in shelves around it. Not a milk crate or cinder block in sight.

Her mother had standards. Very expensive ones.

Bailey reached over and stole a fry from Nicole’s napkin. “Don’t sit here and act like you’re not dying to come to that party with me just to see Drew.” She lifted her chin and dropped into an exaggerated, sultry voice. “‘I guess you’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?’”