Do Not Fall For The Baseball Captains novel Chapter 38

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Conflict of interest

Conflict of Interest

Victoria’s POV

Eva was moving around our small room like a small cyclone, ruthlessly pulling. sweaters, jeans, and random shoes out of her closet and tossing them into a battered canvas suitcase sprawled open on her mattress.

I sat completely still on the edge of my own unmade bed, my knees pulled up to my chest.

My laptop sat closed beside me, entirely forgotten. I couldn’t focus on schoolwork.

My mind was stuck on a loop, playing Nova’s earnest confession over and over again. The look of pure, fragile hope in her eyes when she asked for my help was driving me

crazy.

How was I supposed to handle this? How could I possibly help my new friend get closer to Caleb?

Aside from the messy, complicated feelings still tangled up in my own chest regarding him, there was a glaring, massive obstacle Nova seemed to be overlooking. Caleb had a girlfriend.

Even if he didn’t, the idea of orchestrating a romance between the guy who used to hold my hand and the girl who sat next to me in lab was making my stomach churn.

I was spiraling, sinking deeper into a dark pit of anxiety, when a stray sneaker flew across the room and smacked against the leg of my nightstand.

“Okay, what has got your ass so worked up?” Eva’s loud, raspy voice cut through the quiet, shattering my thoughts.

She stopped her aggressive packing, leaning her hands on her hips as she stared

across the room at me.

Her dark eyeliner was slightly smudged, and her messy blonde hair was piled into a loose knot on top of her head.

I let out a long, heavy sigh, slowly turning my head to look at her.

Eva wasn’t exactly the poster child for conventional wisdom, but she was blunt, intensely loyal, and she didn’t sugarcoat anything.

Maybe a detached perspective was exactly what I needed.

“Hey, Eva? Can I ask you a hypothetical question?” I murmured, resting my chin on my knees.

She narrowed her eyes but stepped away from her suitcase, sliding into the swivel chair at her desk.

Confict of interest

“Oh boy. A hypothetical. This is always code for ‘I ruined my life, please help me. Bu go ahead, shoot.”

! swallowed, trying to phrase the mess in my head carefully so she wouldn’t guess the actual identities involved.

“Hypothetically… let’s say you have a new friend. A really sweet, great girl who completely trusts you. And she confesses to you that she has this massive, desperate crush on a guy. But the problem is, you also have a really complicated history with this exact same guy, and you might still have lingering feelings for him. On top of that, she asks you to help her get close to him because she thinks you have connections. What do you do?”

Eva blinked, studying my face for a few seconds. A slow, wicked grin began to spread across her lips.

“Wow. That is a delicious amount of drama.”

“Eva, I’m serious. What is the play here?”

“Alright, alright,” she said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs.

“I’ll give you two options on how to handle it. The first one is the mature, boring route. If this friend actually matters to you, you have to be honest. You tell her, ‘Hey, look, I used to ride that ride, and it’s a conflict of interest for me to help you get on it.‘ You draw a boundary. She might be a little hurt or awkward at first, but it saves you the agony of watching them make out in front of you later.”

I nodded slowly, considering it. It sounded reasonable, though the thought of admitting my long–buried feelings for Caleb to Nova made my chest tighten.

“Okay. And what’s the second option?”

Eva’s grin turned entirely predatory, her eyes flashing with pure mischief.

“The second option is way more fun. You agree to help her, right? You set them up on a date, but you make sure it’s at a restaurant with terrible lighting. Then, right before they sit down, you show up wearing something illegal–like a skin–tight latex dress- and you accidentally drop a napkin right by his lap. You look him dead in the eye, remind him of exactly what he’s missing, and completely ruin his ability to perform for her later that night. Heck, if you play it right, you can end up in a three–way, which solves the sharing problem entirely.”

My face instantly caught fire. A deep, scorching crimson heat rushed up my neck and flooded my cheeks.

I grabbed my pillow and hurled it across the room, hitting her square in the chest.

“Eva! Oh my god! Stop!”

Eva caught the pillow, howling with laughter as she tossed it back onto my bed.

25

Confict of interest

“Oh, come on, Victoria! Stop being such a massive prude. You turn purple every tim someone mentions anything remotely fun.”

She leaned forward, poking a finger in my direction.

“Besides, you’re literally dating Elijah Carter right now. The school’s hottest, most dangerous athlete. You need to get used to a little heat, because there is no way that man keeps things PG behind closed doors.”

The mention of Elijah made my heart skip a beat, but it also opened a door I hadn’t realized I wanted to look through.

With Allison revealing earlier that Elijah had a complicated past, I couldn’t help but feel incredibly out of my depth.

I was a quiet student who spent her weekends with textbooks; Elijah was a gorgeous, experienced athlete.

Even though our relationship was a complete sham, a terrifying new fear was starting to take root in my chest; the fear of actually wanting more from him.

If our fake arrangement ever crossed that line and led to actual intimacy, I was terrified of completely embarrassing myself.

I didn’t want him to realize how inexperienced I really was, or worse, let my real, fragile emotions slip through the cracks while he was just playing a part.

I cleared my throat, trying to sound casual.

“Actually… since you think you’re such an expert. How do you do it? Like, when you’re dealing with a guy who has a lot of history, how do you keep up? What’s the secret?”

Eva’s eyebrows shot up so high they practically disappeared into her hairline.

“Oh? The innocent nerd wants some real–world tips? I am so here for this.”

She spun her chair around to face me completely, leaning forward with an eager grin.

“Look, it’s all about confidence and control. When I started dating Keith, he had a massive reputation on campus. I was terrified I’d be boring. But my biggest tip? Never let them see you sweat. In the bedroom, you don’t have to be a porn star; you just have to be locked in. For example, the first time Keith and I got intimate, I didn’t wait for him. to make the rules. I literally pinned his wrists to the headboard, looked him dead in the eye, and told him exactly what I wanted. Men like that are used to girls just fawning over them. When you take the lead, or even just match their energy, it completely drives them insane. And honestly, a little bit of teasing goes a long way. I used to leave my hair ties in his truck on purpose just to-”

“Eva! Stop! Please!” I shrieked, covering my ears with my hands as my face burned hotter than the sun.

“I asked for general relationship tips, I did not need a graphic, explicit play–by–play

about your personal life with Keith! I don’t want to know!”

Eva laughed so hard she practically fell out of her chair, her shoulders shaking.

“Hey, you asked the expert! I’m just giving you some sisterly advice based on what actually works!”

I let my hands drop, my chest tightening as I braced myself to ask the question that had been burning a hole in my mind all afternoon.

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