I spend the morning in class, trying to focus on Victorian literature and failing miserably. Keep checking my phone. Checking the time. Watching it tick toward 3:45.
By three o'clock, I'm back in my dorm room, staring at my closet like it holds answers. What do you wear to a fake date with your enemy?
Something warm. Practical. Nothing that could be interpreted as trying to impress him.
I settle on jeans, a thick sweater, and my warmest coat. Pull my hair into a ponytail. Minimal makeup because I don't own much anyway and I'm not about to start buying it for Sebastian Thornhill.
At 3:40, my phone buzzes:Outside in 5.
At 3:45 exactly, there's a knock on my door.
I take a deep breath. Check my reflection one last time. Grab my phone and the cheap skates I bought at a thrift store freshman year.
This is it.
Two weeks starts now.
I open the door, and Sebastian Thornhill is standing in the hallway of my shitty dorm, looking completely out of place in his expensive coat and polished shoes.
"Ready?" he asks.
No. Not even remotely.
"Let's go," I say instead.
And just like that, we're off.
Chapter 4
Sebastian
She lookslike she's about to walk to her execution.
Isla stands in her dorm hallway clutching a pair of skates that have seen better days, probably better decades and staring at me like I'm a firing squad.
"Your chariot awaits," I say, aiming for light. Casual.
"My what?"
I gesture toward the stairs. "My car. Unless you'd prefer to walk? It's only twenty minutes in sub-freezing temperatures."
"Walking sounds great, actually."
Of course it does.
"Isla." I keep my voice even. "It's part of the date package. Transportation included and we need to document this on social media, which means we need to look like we're actually on a date. Not like I'm stalking you across campus."
Her jaw tightens, but she follows me down the stairs and out to the parking lot where my car, a black Mercedes my father gave me for my twenty-first birthday sits waiting.
She stops when she sees it.
"Of course you drive a Mercedes."
"Would you prefer I drove a Honda?"
"I'd prefer you didn't exist, but here we are."
I unlock the car. "After you."
