Chapter 10
Brooke
* * *
As far as weird went, this was definitely weird—me at Officer Asshole’s house.
I’d been there for the last hour, seated at his table with a delicious feast before me, a feast he’d cooked and Aria had served.
Ryan made slow braised beef and honey roated chicken with spring vegetables.
It was definitely impressive and for me nothing was sexier than a man who could cook, but I didn’t tell him that.
I did however decide that if I was trying to like him, I should probably stop thinking of him as Officer Asshole. I thought it was fair to say he was leaning more toward the nicer side for me, especially after yesterday. Plus, there was the overarching fact that while the man had upset me to no end, I still thought he was gorgeous, the kind of handsome that could make me push aside the real world for one evening.
The real world had dealt me a bad day—another bad day. I hadn’t gone to Sally’s, but I had suffered through another chat with Perry. He was still unhappy with me for apparently reflecting poorly on the magazine.
I’d learned long ago that to move past a disagreement, sometimes you had to see things from the other person’s perspective, so this was me trying—trying harder. I had a meeting set up for Monday to see Sally, which would bring it to one full week since our last meeting. That gave me more preparation time, and more time to think of strategy.
I knew if I didn’t pull it off, it would be bye-bye for me.
It was my second chance to make a good impression. It weighed heavily on my mind, but I was determined to push it aside for the night.
Here I was eating dinner with Ryan and Aria. I would have never imagined myself being here, attending as an esteemed dinner guest—that was what Aria had called me. She was a great little hostess, and I even noticed she’d worn the skirt I gave her and some of the hair clips, as if she was showing me she was using what I’d given her.
What was even weirder was that I was actually enjoying myself. The food was great, and so was the company.
Aria talked nonstop. From the surprised look on Ryan’s face, I could tell that was perhaps uncommon.
I didn’t need to talk about myself because she did it for me. She babbled on about everything we’d talked about the other night, from me going to Yale and the scholarships I’d turned down to my work atPeople. Then she started talking about something I never expected: poetry.
Back at my house, she’d seen a few of my poetry books and realized they were the same ones she had for her English class. She, who hadn’t bothered to look at them since the school year had begun, declared that she thought she’d take a look since she thought they must be cool if I had them.
That had led her to reading all of her five books the day before, and because she wanted to know a bit more about the poets, she’d spent all her free periods in the library today.
As she explained that, Ryan had looked from me to her with a quizzical expression. I took that to mean she wasn’t normally a big fan of the library.
The situation with them was different for me, because none of my friends had kids and I wasn’t used to being around children or teenagers.
While I thought Aria was adorable and great, I could see how it must have been hard to have a sixteen-year-old, a mini adult who wanted to explore her own world.
“I can’t believe how much there is to know about all this stuff, and it isn’t just the poetry—it’s the art too,” she continued, looking at me eagerly.
“I hear there’s a gallery in town. In a few weeks they’re doing a Waterhouse exhibition.”
She gasped and clutched her hand to her heart. “Really? As in John William Waterhouse and ‘The Lady of Shallot’?”
I nodded. The exhibition was one of the things I’d noted before arriving. I’d planned to go even before I got the assignment. I’d thought I’d take Noah, but he wasn’t a fan of anything like that. It would be nice to go with someone who would enjoy it as much as me.
“We can go if your dad agrees.” I glanced over at Ryan, who was already looking at me, his fork danging between his fingers.
“He’ll agree because it’s like school work. He’s just opposed to anything else that contributes toward a life.” She frowned, looking at him.
He straightened up and gave her a hard stare. I had to bite the inside of my lip to keep from laughing.
God, if I’d said anything like that, my dad would have gone ape shit on me. Granted, I wouldn’t have thought to speak to my father that way. I noticed how outspoken Aria was, and I figured she was like that with Ryan because he was just a little over twice her age. Jayce, was five years older than me, and that was how I was with him. These two reminded me of the way I was with my brother.
“School contributes to a life,” Ryan replied.
