“Sorry.” I watch the amusement play out on his features and realize I should add something. “I have to go.”
Before he can say more, I walk.
“Wait,wait,” he says, blocking me as I try to sidestep him. “Okay, let me be completely honest.” He discreetly nudges his head back. “See those two guys over there? Back of the room?”
Behind him, two men are watching us. Dave Mitchell and Lucas Barrett, maybe? My lips twist. “Yeah.”
“We have a bet going on. They said I couldn’t get your number.”
I look back at him, mouth hanging open. Sothat’swhy he’s talking to me. It’s not the dress, not that he knows who I am—it’s because those twoidiotsbet him he couldn’t hook up with me. Because his friends, who haven’t changed a bit since high school, are making a joke out of me. God, this somehow just becamemoremortifying. “Goodbye.”
When I try to step around him again, he raises his hand with an awkward chuckle. “Whoa—okay. You don’t like them, do you? I hear you, but how about you take my phone, type in your name and number, and help me keep my two hundred bucks?”
Twohundredbucks? I glance at his phone. “And why would I do that?”
“A random act of kindness?”
“Kindness? Toward a man who’s placing bets on me?”
He opens his mouth, then closes it. I’m not a dancer, but I might just start now.That’s right, Rafael. I’m no longer the younger next-door kid who’s had a crush on you since she knew what having a crush meant. I’m no longer under your spell.
And you’re still the same douchebag.
“I’ll see you,” I say before walking past him.
“We have something in common, you know,” he calls.
With a groan, I turn to him. I highly doubt party animal, girl magnet Rafael Gray and I share a single thing. “Really? Like what?”
“I hate those guys, too.”
“Is that so?” I ask. “Then why are you here with them?”
“Because I just got back into town, ran into them, and they made a scene about not being notified I was back.” He waves a hand around. “They dragged me to this party.”
My irritation wavers as Paige swoops in like a whirlwind, flitting from table to table to adjust napkin holders and making sure everything’s perfect. When she spots me, she gives me a double thumbs-up like I’ve won some kind of personal growth award. I turn back to Rafael.
“Okay,” I say. “How about this: I give you afakenumber, and we leave this place together.”
His brows rise. “And where do we go?”
“Nowhere,” I spit out, like the thought alone is insulting. “Igo home, andyou… well, you do whatever, but you can’t come back here.”
He leans in, eyes trained on me. “And why would you want to do that?”
“Because there’s an excellent book waiting for me at home.” And Paige can’t possibly argue about me leaving if I’m with him.
A slow smirk spreads over his lips. “Counterproposal. You give me yourrealnumber, and we leave this place.” He pauses, then adds, “But we actually do something.”
“Something?”
“Together.”
So I’d be swapping one awkward night with a hundred strangers for an awkward night with Rafael Gray? Hell no. Once upon a time, that was mydream, but I know better now. Rafael is just an arrogant prick who doesn’t even realize I exist, even though we lived next door to each other most of our lives.
Why does he want my number? So he can add it to his infinite roster andneveruse it?
“I don’t think so.”
