I’m In Love With My Brother’s Best Friend?! – Episode 13
The hallway remained charged after Cole disappeared. Students whispered, phones emerged, and the story changed with every retelling. Kaitlyn barely heard them. Her mind stayed fixed on the pressure of Cole’s mouth and the familiar ache of watching him walk away.
Maddy recovered first. She demanded to know how Kaitlyn had convinced Cole Hart to kiss her. The obscenity she added was meant to restore the hierarchy that the kiss had shattered.
Kaitlyn answered with a calm she did not feel. She reminded Maddy that only minutes earlier she had called her unwanted trash. If that were true, Cole’s choice should not have mattered.
The reply earned startled laughter from nearby students. Maddy’s face tightened, but she could not attack without revealing how deeply the kiss affected her. She stalked away with a promise that Kaitlyn would regret humiliating her.
Sammy congratulated Kaitlyn as though she had won a contest. Kaitlyn managed a weak smile and escaped before questions began. Being kissed by Cole had felt extraordinary; being discarded immediately afterward felt painfully familiar.
Outside the building, she replayed the moment until anger replaced wonder. He had kissed her after the party and called it a mistake. Now he had done it publicly, then left her to face the consequences alone. Cole Hart was driving her insane.
Across campus, Cole condemned himself with equal intensity. He had intended only to protect Kaitlyn from Maddy’s cruelty. Instead, jealousy and desire had seized the first excuse to touch her again.
The kiss had made his position impossible to deny. He could not continue pretending Kaitlyn was simply Ryan’s sister, yet admitting more threatened his friendship, his teaching role, and her reputation. His attempts to protect everyone were becoming the source of the damage.
Kaitlyn wandered toward a quieter courtyard, hoping solitude would restore her balance. A striking older student stood nearby, watching something on her phone with open displeasure. Kaitlyn did not recognize her.
The stranger’s screen displayed a photograph from the hallway: Cole kissing Kaitlyn. Campus gossip had traveled faster than either of them imagined. The woman’s reaction carried the intimacy of someone who believed Cole’s choices belonged to her.
Kaitlyn nearly approached, then stopped herself. Whoever the woman was, her anger was not Kaitlyn’s responsibility. She had spent too much of the day reacting to people who treated Cole as a prize to be claimed.
The stranger—Amber—noticed Kaitlyn looking and lowered the phone. For a moment neither woman spoke. Amber’s polished appearance and graduate-student confidence made Kaitlyn suddenly aware of every insecurity Maddy had tried to exploit.
Kaitlyn told herself the woman was probably another admirer. Cole had plenty of them. Jealousy still rose with humiliating speed, proving how little control she possessed where he was concerned.
She started forward, then silently scolded herself. Cole had not promised her anything. He had kissed her twice, rejected her once, and offered no definition for what existed between them.
Amber watched the internal debate cross Kaitlyn’s face. Experience made the younger woman’s feelings easy to read. She smiled with the patient cruelty of someone who had identified a weakness.
Kaitlyn finally asked whether she could help her. Amber answered that the question should be reversed. She had seen Kaitlyn kissing Cole and wanted to know who she thought she was.
The possessiveness in her tone triggered Kaitlyn’s defenses. She asked herself why she was angry at a stranger for living her life. If this woman dated Cole, that was his choice—and proof that his claims about boundaries applied only to Kaitlyn.
Embarrassed by her own jealousy, Kaitlyn apologized and tried to leave. Amber stopped her with a falsely sympathetic endearment. She said Kaitlyn might as well admit the obvious: she had a crush on Cole and hated seeing another woman near him.
Kaitlyn denied it, but the answer lacked force. Amber’s smile widened. She claimed to have seen many naive girls confuse a handsome man’s momentary attention with genuine interest.
Then Amber stepped close enough for the threat to become private. She advised Kaitlyn to back away from Cole before she was hurt. Kaitlyn did not yet know this woman was his ex—or how far Amber would go to reclaim what she believed was hers.