We already agreed on this last night when she finally got around to calling me.
“Meg, you had a name picked out for the dog that you guys were supposed to adopt after you both finished college and got married,” she tells me in a dry tone, “he counts as your ex.”
“You don’t know me,” I hiss, closing my drawstring bag shut.
She just rolls her eyes at me. “Has he mentioned anything about the note?”
“No, thank God,” I reply with a huff, “otherwise I’d probably be hiding out in the bathroom right now.”
“See? Didn’t I tell you there was absolutely nothing to worry about?”
“Easy for you to say,” I grumble as I cross my arms, “your middle school boyfriend and preteen mistakes haven’t come back to haunt you.”
“True,” she agrees with a nod, “but I have my own ex problems, which you know.”
“Speaking of…” I trail off, looking past her. “He’s coming this way.”
She proceeds to curse. “Just go ahead and put me out of my misery.”
“Lora,” Holt singsongs, stopping beside her, “what’s going on, babe?”
“Holt,” Lora deadpans, swatting his arm away as he tries to put it around her shoulders. “I don’t have time to deal with you right now, I’m going to be late for class.”
“I’ll catch you at lunch then,” he drawls, his brown eyes watching her expectantly, “sound good?”
“See ya later, Meg,” Lora says, not bothering to acknowledge Holt as she walks past us, “keep me posted.”
“Posted about what?” Holt doesn’t hesitate in asking me. After all, he’s always been incredibly nosy.
I purse my lips at him. “None of your business, Márquez.”
“Rude,” he hums, pushing his eyeglasses back up his nose. “Hey, has Lora been talking about me more often these last few days?”
“I have class, Holt,” I state in a matter-of-fact tone as I go around him. “And even if I didn’t, you can be sure that I wouldn’t be passing along private intel to you.”
“So, that’s not a no!” he exclaims after me. “Right? Megan?”
I wave him off, continuing to walk down the hallway. If he wants to get back with Lora, that’s between him and her. I don’t want, or need, to be in the middle of their relationship drama. Case closed.
Once I make it to my next class, fully ready to open the door and walk in, someone reaches past me to grab the doorknob. What the—
And that’s when I lock eyes with Brayden.
He gives me the same lopsided grin from earlier this morning. “Told ya I have great luck.”
“You’re joking, right?”
At this point, I’m just holding onto false hope…
“Read it for yourself,” he drawls, handing me his folded schedule.
I reluctantly unfold it and look over the dreaded thing. Sure enough, he and I both have this class right now. Plus, we share another class. As well as lunch. I go ahead and make a mental note to hide during that period.
Fannnnnnntastic.
“Here,” I mutter, smacking the sheet of paper against his hard chest, “congratulations on having such amazing luck.”
In saying that, I open the classroom door and walk inside. Shockingly enough, he catches the door again. Yes, that was sarcasm. And no, I’m not bitter.
“Hey, Mrs. Flint,” Brayden greets our teacher oh-so-casually, “I’m Brayden Knight.”
“Ah, yes!” Mrs. Flint exclaims with a wide smile. “The new student. Well, I don’t have a tablet for you yet, but—oh, Megan!”
No.
Please, no.
“Could you share your tablet with Brayden?” she asks, looking at me expectantly. “Just until we can get one for him?”
I’m sure that any other girl in here would absolutely LOVE to share their tablet with him.
So, why do I find myself nodding?
“Sure thing, Mrs. Flint,” I agree for whatever stupid reason.
“Very good!” She sighs in apparent relief, then motions toward the middle of the room. “You have my permission to move your desks closer together, that way it’ll be easier for the two of you to share the tablet.”
Once again, I have made an extremely poor decision.
Even so, I trudge over to an empty desk and proceed to sit down. Brayden then takes that as his cue to pick up another empty desk and set it right next to mine, along with its chair. Crazy enough, I’m pretty sure I hear a girl gasp. Wow, he can lift a desk and a chair…big deal. It’s not like he’s some kind of Hercules. I mean, I barely noticed his arms flex.
As Mrs. Flint begins to talk, Brayden sits down beside me, and I try not to cringe at our closeness. Why did I say that we could share a tablet? And why does my throat feel so dry all the sudden?
“Hey,” he whispers, his cool breath teasing my ear, “you good?”
Nope. Absolutely not. I am anything but good.
“I’m fine,” I snap, matching his quiet tone, “stop talking before you get us in trouble.”
His only response is a low laugh.
A low laugh that I wish didn’t sound so darn sexy…
Chapter 6: This Could Be Fate
By the time that lunch period comes around, I still have his sexy laugh stuck in my head.
So. Stupid.
Even more stupid? I can’t stop looking for him in the cafeteria. At first, it was just to make sure he wasn’t anywhere near me. Except, now I’m seriously wondering where he is. See? Stupid. I shouldn’t care if he’s in here or not.
“What’s that look for?” Lora asks, sitting across from me.
“There’s no look,” I fib as she sets her tray down in front of herself. “What took you so long?”
She rolls her eyes. “I was watching some cat video on my phone, and four people took that as an advantage to cut in
