“You’ll come visit me, right?” I asked. Pia and I had grown close over the past three years of working together. She often covered for me when I took an extra long break to study, and I returned the favor, covering for her at the bar when one of her boyfriends came in and she needed to step away to argue with him. On the outside, it may not have seemed like Pia and I had anything in common aside from the place we worked at, but I often felt like I could relate to her more than most of the girls I shared classes and dorm rooms with.
“Of course. Anyway, we need to get back to work. There’re tips to be made.”
Groaning, I glanced over at the group of guys from Stanford. Their attention was on the new dances who’d come out to give them lap dances.
“At least now their hands are occupied and they won’t be trying to grope you,” Pia stated.
“Let’s hope. For their sakes,” I responded, and then headed back to the kitchen to retrieve the food they’d ordered.
****
Then
Robert
“Princess!” I called for the third time to no avail. My voice was deep and loud. I knew she’d heard me, which only meant one thing—Deborah Tate was intentionally ignoring me.
I narrowed my gaze on her retreating back. There was no way in hell that would fly.
I jogged a little to catch up to her just as she exited the building we’d just had our World Mythologies course in. It was a sunny day in Palo Alto, but when Deborah spun around, glaring at me, snatching her arm away from my hold, it felt like the entire sky had darkened.
She waspissed.
Swallowing, I shifted, lowering the books I held in my hand in front of my crotch because I’d be damned if her attitude didn’t turn me the hell own. It felt like all of the blood rushed from my brain to my groin. She had no fucking clue what she was doing, either.
“What?” she nearly shrieked.
In my peripheral, I noted a few heads turn our way, but I ignored them. They didn’t matter.
“You’re pissed,” I said, stating the obvious.
“You think?”
I angled my head. She really had no idea what she was doing with those laser sharp, cerulean-blue eyes of hers. Her cheeks were tinted red, evidence of her anger, and her brunette brows were turned downward.
I decided to prod. “What for?”
Her eyes widened. “What for? It’s been two weeks since you’ve been to class.”
A smile touched my lips. “I didn’t know you cared so much, princess.”
A scowl this time around. “I don’t. Trust me, I don’t. But as I told you the first week of this class, I amnotgoing to allow you to mess up my GPA. We have a major assignment at the end of the semester due, and smaller assignments along the way. You haven’t even been around for us to decide a topic!” she seethed.
Not one to let anyone speak to me like this, I was almost stunned into silence. But not quite.
I knew she’d be angered at us not having picked our topic yet. Our first assignment for the semester was due the following week. And while I wouldn’t explain what had kept me from class the past two weeks, I would let her know that I wasn’t the rich slacker she assumed I was.
“I realize this, princess. Which is why I’ve been doing some research.” Shifting to remove the backpack hanging on my shoulder, I placed the notebooks I’d been holding inside, then removed two books on Middle Eastern and North African mythologies before handing them to her.
Her angry gaze shifted from me to the books I held. Her face registered surprise when she noted the titles of the books.
I smirked, cockily.
“How’d you know?”
“I may have peeked over your shoulder the first day of class.” She had jotted down some notes as to what mythologies she’d wanted to research for our project. “I looked through both of them. I think studying the Berber mythologies of Northern Africa seems pretty interesting, but I’ll let you decide since I’ve been MIA the past few weeks. It won’t happen again,” I stated firmly.
Her head popped up, the corners of her eyes wrinkling as she scowled. “It better not.”
