As Long as You Love Me (Previously Kiss and Tell)

Chapter 2 ♔ The Hypothesis

I stabbed the ice cream like I wanted to kill it. Maya and Taylor observed as I shoveled out about half of the pint at once and bit into it like a hungry beast from the jungle. The odds were high that that was exactly what I looked like. I'd got home after the news, changed into shorts and an oversized t-shirt that had more holes than cheese, gathered my hair into a mop above my head, and raided the ice cream.

"How is it possible that life gives a person exactly what they don't want every single time?" I asked them in between open bites of chocolate ice cream so thick I might as well have been eating a frozen bar.

Taylor's ice cream was melting. She'd been watching me devour my pint and her spoonful was beginning to drip. Maya didn't bat an eye, though. As my roommate she was used to worse from me.

"It's not that bad," Taylor said with a shrug, finally giving up on her treat and putting it on the coffee table. "At least you have me in the group."

"Yeah, but he is there, too."

A corner of Maya's lips lifted. "Gabe's not bad—as a person and as eye candy. He's exceptional in the latter."

"I'm definitely not going to complain about that." Taylor sighed and flopped back on the couch, spreading her arms like an eagle. One of them landed on top of Maya's lap. "Too bad he has a girlfriend."

I choked. Among spluttering obscenities in my mother tongue I managed to ask her, "So what, you'd date him if he were single?"

She shrugged. "If he stayed single for a minute, maybe."

"I think every girl in campus has had the same idea at some point," said Maya as she inspected her nails. "Including me."

The laugh that escaped from my throat was so ugly I barely recognized myself in it. It was the kind of laughter of someone on the verge of greatness or disaster. Both would have been fitting if either of them had ever dated Gabe. First, it'd have been a great achievement to nab him, but also for him to develop taste in intelligent and good natured women. Second, it would've ended in disaster anyway, if one was to go by the quick turnaround in his dating record.

"You're kidding me, aren't you?" But I didn't wait for either of them to answer. Shaking my head, I added, "Enough is enough with the fact that I have to put up with his obnoxious face at school and at work. If any of you turn into his arm candy I will riot."

Maya went back to filing her nails because being the healthiest person in the room, she didn't need empty calories to cope with her day. Her words, not mine. She had no issues spending calories on giving me the side eye, though. "Maybe life's giving you a sign because he sure does steal your attention."

"What are you trying to say?" I challenged.

Taylor's face also transformed into her signature let's tease Catalina look. This look had an extra glint that her other smiles didn't possess. "Do you maybe like Gabe? Are you jealous of his girlfriends?"

It was as if I'd sucked a lemon. In my soul.

"Okay, that's how I know you guys have lost your minds, maybe we should go to church this weekend." I made the sign of the cross and shuddered.

"The hypothesis has merit," Maya said, spoken like the future medical researcher she was. "I mean, the statistical sample size of times you've spoken shit about him is, to simplify, huge."

I rolled my eyes, about to say they were exaggerating, but the wide looks on their faces said that nope, they weren't. I sat back for a moment, eating my ice cream and trying to think about the last time I'd talked about Gabriel Cabrera.