I’m In Love With My Brother’s Best Friend?! – Episode 09
Kaitlyn opened her eyes to morning sunlight and the fading heat of her dream. Cole’s voice came through the door again, asking whether she was hurt. She pressed both hands to her burning cheeks and prayed she had not called his name loudly enough for him to understand.
“I’m fine,” she answered, though the words emerged unevenly. Cole reminded her that she had screamed. With no graceful escape available, Kaitlyn wrapped herself securely and opened the door.
He stood in the hallway wearing a gray T-shirt, his damp hair suggesting he had just showered. Concern tightened his features until he saw that she was unharmed. His readiness to protect her made the lie feel strangely intimate. Kaitlyn claimed she had suffered a nightmare and forced herself not to remember what his hands had done in it.
Neither mentioned the kiss outside the party. Silence carried it between them more vividly than conversation could have. Cole looked at her mouth once before redirecting his gaze, and Kaitlyn understood he was fighting the same memory.
He explained that the shower connected to her room was broken and apologized for forgetting to warn her. The ordinary household problem gave them something safe to discuss. He had prepared a hot drink for her, a small domestic kindness that made sharing an apartment suddenly seem more dangerous than sharing a kiss. When he handed it over, their fingers touched and made safety impossible again.
Kaitlyn thanked him and held the warm cup between both hands. Cole cautioned her that it was hot, his protective habits surviving even while he tried to withdraw emotionally. She wanted to ask whether he regretted kissing her or only regretted wanting to continue.
Cole watched morning light catch in her dark hair. He wished she would not look at him with such open feeling, because it made every argument for distance sound hollow. He also wished, with equal futility, that she would never stop.
He cleared his throat and announced that he needed to leave. Kaitlyn wished him a good day, matching his careful politeness. Only after the apartment door closed did she release the breath she had been holding.
Campus offered a welcome distraction. Students crossed the lawns with coffee, laptops, and schedules clutched in nervous hands. The energy of a new semester reminded Kaitlyn that she had ambitions beyond either man and a future she still controlled. She located Room 304 and promised herself that college would be the part of her life untouched by Brent or Cole.
The lecture hall was already filling when she found a seat near the middle. A cheerful student dropped into the chair beside her and introduced herself as Sammy. Her uncomplicated friendliness immediately put Kaitlyn at ease.
They discovered they were both freshmen. When Kaitlyn mentioned Professor Calloway, Sammy reacted with astonishment that either of them had secured a place in Business Ethics 401. The class was notoriously demanding and almost impossible to enter.
Sammy leaned closer with a conspiratorial smile. Academic difficulty was not the only reason students wanted the course, she said. Rumor promised them the hottest teaching assistant on campus. Apparently, women joined clubs and rearranged schedules merely for a chance to meet him, while his academic record made him seem even more unattainable.
Kaitlyn laughed politely and admitted she knew almost no one. Sammy assured her that she would recognize this man soon enough. Then she spoke the name Cole Hart.
Kaitlyn stopped breathing. She tried to convince herself there might be another Cole Hart at the university, despite knowing how absurd that was. Before she could ask a question, the classroom door opened.
Conversations died as Cole entered carrying a stack of papers. His posture was composed, his expression professional, and no trace remained of the man who had brought Kaitlyn a hot drink less than an hour earlier. Admiring whispers followed him to the front.
Sammy nudged Kaitlyn and whispered that the rumors had not exaggerated. Kaitlyn could only stare. The roommate arrangement had already forced her feelings into every private corner of her life; now they had followed her into the classroom.
Cole set the papers on the lectern and looked across the students. His gaze reached Kaitlyn and halted for a fraction of a second. Surprise broke through his composure before training restored the neutral mask.
Kaitlyn saw the reaction because she knew him too well. Cole clearly had not known she was enrolled. The discovery placed them in a situation neither had chosen and one the university might judge far less kindly than Ryan would. Whatever happened between them at home could now threaten Cole’s position and Kaitlyn’s reputation.
Sammy continued whispering about Cole’s formidable reputation, completely unaware that her new friend secretly lived with him. Kaitlyn imagined an entire semester of sitting beneath his attention while pretending they were complete strangers. Even their morning awkwardness now seemed almost painfully simple.
Cole faced the class and introduced himself as their teaching assistant. Kaitlyn’s childhood crush, her brother’s best friend, her roommate, and the man who had kissed her was suddenly responsible for evaluating her work. Every category that should have kept their lives separate had collided in a single room, and secrecy now mattered to more than their hearts. As he lifted the attendance sheet, she realized the hardest lesson of the semester would have nothing to do with business ethics.