I’m In Love With My Brother’s Best Friend?! – Episode 23
Cole studied the fake identification with disapproval. Kaitlyn expected concern about the bar or her age. Instead, he hesitated because accepting meant appearing beside her in public.
He called her Katie, retreating into the safe childhood nickname. After what they had just shared, the name felt like another attempt to turn her back into Ryan’s little sister.
Kaitlyn demanded to know why he could touch her like a woman in private and address her like a child afterward. Cole said he was her teaching assistant and she was a freshman. If people saw them together, they would make assumptions.
“That we like each other?” she asked. The possibility did not frighten her. What frightened her was how ashamed he seemed of letting anyone believe it.
Cole insisted he was not embarrassed by her. He worried that gossip would reach Ryan. On a small campus, secrets crossed continents with astonishing speed.
Ryan was more than Cole’s best friend. He was family—the only family Cole believed he had. Losing him would mean losing the Sinclairs and the home they had once given him.
Kaitlyn heard the fear but could not accept endless secrecy as its solution. Ryan would discover the truth sooner or later. She was prepared to face that consequence.
She asked whether Cole was. He had no answer. His silence made their tender bathroom reconciliation feel conditional.
Kaitlyn dressed and announced that she was going out regardless. If Cole changed his mind, he knew where to find her. She left before he could reduce the invitation to another warning.
Cole watched the door close. He wanted to follow, but every imagined witness became a threat to the life he had built. The same loyalty that made him trustworthy now made him a coward.
At the old campus bar, music and conversation crowded the worn wooden room. Sammy greeted Kaitlyn enthusiastically and admired the success of the fake ID. Kaitlyn tried to match her energy.
Part of her continued watching the entrance. She hated herself for hoping Cole would appear after refusing her. The evening was supposed to prove she could live without waiting for him.
Sammy noticed an older student looking their way. His name was Mikey, a junior with an easy smile and enough confidence to approach strangers. She encouraged Kaitlyn to speak to him.
Kaitlyn hesitated. Sammy asked whether someone else occupied her mind. Cole’s words about gossip and Ryan replayed with painful clarity.
She decided to stop waiting for a man unwilling to stand beside her. Kaitlyn denied having anyone in mind and let Sammy wave Mikey over.
Mikey introduced himself and asked why he had never seen her around. Kaitlyn said she had been distracted by a crush. His disappointment lifted when she added that it was over.
They raised their drinks to fresh beginnings. Mikey was pleasant, attentive, and uncomplicated. Kaitlyn wished attraction could be chosen for convenience.
Then Mikey glanced past her shoulder. He asked whether the former crush happened to be the man staring at them as if he wanted to commit murder.
Kaitlyn turned. Cole stood near the back of the bar, older and more commanding than the undergraduates around him. His eyes were fixed on Mikey’s hand beside hers.
He had followed after all. Hope surged before caution could stop it. Cole might fear public judgment, but jealousy had once again dragged the truth into the open.