Vipul rolled his chair out into the aisle. "How could you oversleep?

Brianna was on time. By the way, what's up with her? You piss her off this morning?"

“Hmm?”

“Well, she's acting kinda funny. I ran into her in the break room and when I asked her about the vacation, she just kind of glared at me and then walked away."

Now all three guys were staring at me. I shrugged and pointedly focused on my monitor. They took the hint and left me alone.

But still, I heard Vipul commenting.

“Did you notice her hair? She went blonde for a week and you gotta admit, she looked HOT. But now she's back to dark brown and she cut it real short! Still very cute, but... different."

I frowned at my monitor. Brianna? Cut her hair?

I got my confirmation just before lunch. I was heading to the bathroom and turned the corner, nearly bumping right into her.

“Hey! I said in surprise and some hope. Vipul had been right. She'd dyed her hair back to her natural color and also gotten a short bob.

Her resemblance to Danielle had been quite muted.

“Hey..." she said much more cautiously and then she looked at the floor. She practically radiated pure uncomfortability being around me, making me hesitant to say anything further. And then, still looking downward, she just brushed by me and practically fled down the halt, ready to burst into tears.

I'd been hoping things wouldn't be awkward, but Brianna clearly needed more time. I suppose the one bright side to never falling in love with her was that I wasn't hurt as much after the split.

I turned and watched her until she turned a corner and disappeared. I let out a long sigh, feeling really bad once again for the pain I was causing her.

It was for the best.

I reached up to take the plate full of food from Danielle's outstretched hands, but right before my hands got to it, she pulled it away and glared at me.

“No food unless you tell us."

Girls and their gossip. I groaned, but then my stomach growled even louder.

Cherys smirked from her seat at the table and Danielle waved the plate.

“It was a condition for you moving in."

“Fine, fine. I promise. Now gimme the damn plate."

She smiled and handed it over: chicken, rice, vegetables... it smelled delicious. I managed to get three bites in before Danielle's annoyed rapping of her spoon on the table got my attention. So I sighed and began the story.

The retelling was easy. I'd certainly thought enough about the sequence of events myself. And one really nice thing about being so close to

Danielle and Cherys was that I had no embarrassments, no qualms about what they might think of me. I held nothing back, and by the time I finished, our food was cold.

Cherys reached out and held my hand.