Definitely, Maybe in Love

“I like snakes,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Ha.” I rolled my eyes. “Sure ya do.”

“And I happen to enjoy a good bite.”

I blinked, but his gaze remained fixed on me, the intensity of his dark eyes making my stomach flutter. I was not about to fall for this guy’s game, even if it was completely original.

He moved closer. “Dance with me.”

“I didn’t come here to dance.”

“You were earlier.”

I remembered meeting his eyes briefly when I’d been on the floor with Alex.

“You can do better than him,” he said, evidently recalling the same moment. “And I’d steer clear from him if I were you.”

My mouth fell open.

“Dance with me,” he repeated before I had the chance to tell him off.

I almost laughed. “No.”

“Why?” His eyes did not waver.

“Seriously?” Was this guy for real? “You—someone I just met—are warning me to stay away from a friend I’ve known for two years, like you’re my brother or something, and…and I heard you.” I pointed toward the card tables. “I heard what you said to Dart Charleston about me, about my hair. It was an hour ago. Do you think I already forgot?”

He looked over his shoulder toward where I was pointing, then back at me. “What do you think you heard me say about you?” He stepped forward. If he got any closer, he would seriously be invading my personal space.

“Just keep your opinions to yourself until you get to know someone, and—”

“Is that what you do?”

The nerve of him.

Okay, so yeah, whatever, maybe I had made some snap judgments before I’d officially met him, but so far, weren’t they pretty much true?

“Of course,” I said, planting my hands on my hips.

“And that’s why you flipped off my car earlier tonight?”

My breath caught, much too audibly. “I…I didn’t…flip off your car.”

“You did.” He slid his hands into his pockets, his posture easing. “You were with two other women on the street, you stopped in front of my driveway and gave my Viper the finger. I watched the whole thing out the window.”

Frack.

He’d seen that? Mel, Julia, and I had been on our way to the party. We had to walk past the house across the street, and I couldn’t help…well, I mean, what moxie must a college student have to own a car like that? He had it coming.

“Look, if I did do something like that—and I’m not saying I did—all I meant was…well, our generation has to be more responsible and—”

“So you’re implying my car isn’t responsible or I’m not responsible?”

When I didn’t reply, he took another step, practically right in my face now. Any closer and I’d be forced to dance with him after all.

“Maybe you should take a drive with me.” His voice dropped low. “Then you can make up your mind about both.” His gaze scanned down my face, pausing briefly on my mouth.

Woo-boy.

If only to break eye contact, I dragged my gaze past his shoulder toward the side of the street.

Lilah stood there, watching us, hands on hips. She was flanked by a pair of her sorority sisters wearing matching tight red cardigans. The glare she was shooting at me could freeze fire. To her, I couldn’t imagine what Knightly and I looked like, less than arms-length apart, leaning toward each other, me flushing lustful red like a girl talking to the boy she was crushing on.

Frack. Frack. Frack.

Lilah broke from her group and sauntered our way, death and destruction in her eyes.

I lifted my hands. “I’m out of here,” I announced, backing away.

“Spring.”

Hearing him call me by name muzzled my anger, tripped me up momentarily. There was something in his tone, something unfinished. But I kept walking, not wanting to give us time to finish.

Chapter 6

“You look very pretty,” Julia said.

“Don’t sound so disappointed,” I replied, looking up at her from my bedroom floor.

“I’m not disappointed.”

“Sorry, disapproving, I meant.”

“I’m not…” Julia broke off when I smiled. “Are you really going out with him?”

“If by him you mean Alex, then yes. My shift at the restaurant ran late, he’ll be here any minute.”

She didn’t say anything as she watched me slip on my shoes, but she was humming. In Julia’s case, that was worse than outright complaining.

“Do you have something you’d like to share?” I asked.

The humming stopped. “No,” she said, but the timbre of her voice was unnaturally high. “Where’s he taking you?” She was behind me now, fingering my braids.

“Dinner.”

“Hmm.”

“Disapproving again,” I said as I rolled to my knees then stood, reaching to turn off the radio on my desk and simultaneously shut my closet door.

My room was uber-tiny, but I loved it. It used to be an attic, but the owners decided to squeeze one more rental fee out of the house the year I moved in. The one and only downfall was that the attic stairs were supremely loud and creaky. Last year, I paid an engineering student a hundred bucks to construct a retractable rope ladder outside my window so I could come and go without waking my roommates. To keep out any unwanted visitors, I secured a padlock on the outside of my window when I was out, and when I was in, the ladder was retracted, window locked from the inside.

Before lowering the blinds, I made sure the ladder was down and the window was padlocked, in case Alex and I were out late.

“I wish you were hanging out with us instead,” Julia said. There was a slight pout in her voice. “We’re watching a movie over at Dart’s.”

“I told you, there’s no way I am hanging around that person.”

A few days after the street party, I’d told Julia what had happened between Henry Knightly and me, the things I’d heard him say. By then, I was talking to a brick wall. She’d been hanging out with Dart every day and she just knew there had to be some kind of logical explanation. After all, any friend of Dart’s couldn’t have possibly said such mean things about me.

I grabbed my purse and hooked the strap over my head and shoulder.

Julia flopped down on my bed, humming again, but lifted her head when we both heard the doorbell two flights down. Following that was the sound of Anabel’s high heels rushing to answer. I moved toward my door, half worried that Anabel would find a way to steal my date right from under my nose.

“When will you be home?” Julia asked.

I was halfway through my threshold when I said, “When will you be home?”

She exhaled a dainty giggle. “I hope you have a really nice time, Spring,” she said sincerely.