Under the Rose by Diana Peterfreund

the supposed love of my short life, Alan Albertson, who’d abruptly left me for someone named Fulbright? Or Brandon, number five, who I couldn’t manage to hold on to for longer than a few days. How about that one-night stand I’d had in between the two of them, that Spring Break mistake I don’t remember well enough to report his full name?
    I could imagine why these C.B.s were so popular with male-only clubs. The double standard was in full force, once again. A man having anonymous sex was a Penthouse letter. A woman doing it was something different altogether. And there was probably nothing I could say that would impress George enough to keep him from sorta making plans with me and then sorta standing me up. I leaned my head back and began massaging my temples. Five minutes in, and the day already sucked.
    The door to Lydia’s bedroom opened and out walked a very rumpled-looking Josh Silver.
    He stopped dead in his tracks when our eyes met, and for a second we just stared at each other—me a bumpy T-shirt lump on the sofa, him in a wrinkled button-down he’d obviously unwadded from a corner of Lydia’s boudoir.
    “What are you doing here?” he hissed.
    “I live here,” I replied. “Did you not notice the pictures of me in her room? No, wait, don’t answer that. I don’t want to know what you were busy noticing instead.”
    Lydia came to the door in her silk bathrobe. Silk! “Oh, Amy, you’re up. This is Josh.”
    “Hi, Josh,” I said, extending my hand from inside my tee. “Nice to meet you.”
    “Nice to meet you, ” he said, taking my hand in his.
    “Oh, wait!” Lydia said. “What am I saying? You guys totally know each other.”
    We froze, mid-shake.
    “Remember, Ames?” Lydia said. “At that political reception last January?”
    I looked to Josh. Go with it? “Yeah, I think you look vaguely familiar.”
    “Funny, I was just about to say the same.”
    “I’m going to go hop in the shower,” Lydia said, then began to coyly toy with the felt-tipped marker attached to her whiteboard by a thin piece of yarn. Lydia, coy! “You, um, want to stick around for breakfast, Josh?”
    “Sure.”
    Lydia left. The second the door closed behind her, Josh looked at me.
    “Amy—”
    “No.”
    “Amy—”
    “No.”
    “Amy—” He stopped. “Wait, ‘no’ what?”
    “No, I’m not getting involved. This is barbarian matters, Josh.”
    “Oh.” He plopped down beside me. “I thought you meant ‘No, you can’t see her.’”
    “I like that one, too.” I crossed my arms. “This is weird.”
    “That’s my assessment.”
    “How did you…meet?”
    He brightened. “It’s a funny story, actually. It was at the inductee ceremony for Phi Beta Kappa last month.”
    My legs shot out of the bottom of my oversized T-shirt. “Phi Beta Kappa? But—”
    “I know, that’s what I thought, too.” Josh nodded, getting into his narrative. “My dean called me in to her office to give me the news and I was all ‘Thank you so much for the honor, ma’am, but I’m afraid I must decline, as I am already in a secret society.’”
    I blinked at him. “Isn’t Phi Beta Kappa just an honor society now? I think it doesn’t conflict with our oaths.”
    “Yeah, I know that now, ” Josh said, rolling his eyes. “After they all had a nice good laugh at my expense.”
    I shook my head. We were getting way off track here. “Wait, let me get this straight. Lydia is in Phi Beta Kappa?”
    “Yeah. Didn’t she tell you? The induction was the day of Angel’s champagne party.”
    “Two dollars,” I said evenly. And no, she hadn’t. But she had been ebullient that day, and this explained it. Why would Lydia keep such great news a secret from me, her best friend?
    Josh was apparently wondering the same thing, considering the raised eyebrows he was currently pointing in my direction. And then, it clicked. She was keeping it from me because I was keeping Rose & Grave from her. So not fair. She got two secret