Okay, well, getting come on to by a guy who’d graduated three years ago wasn’t on my bingo card for Friday night at the library.
“What about that Lindsey person you mentioned?” I asked, politely pulling back on my hand.
“We’ve got an open relationship. In fact, she’s bi and likes them exotic, so if you want to come back to my place after the drinks?—”
“Wow, no, thank you!” I said a little too loudly. This time, I didn’t just pull; I tugged hard to get my hand back from the guy who didn’t realize that calling a womanexotichad to be the least attractive way to get someone to say yes to your threesome.
“I’m studying tonight,” I reminded him through a clenched-teeth smile. “Like I said.”
“It’s just one night.” His voice took on a cajoling tone. “C’mon, we’ve got to celebrate my first commission.”
Do we?I looked longingly over at my usual Anne Tyler carrel, where I wasn’t sitting yet because I was stuck having this conversation.
“Um… actually, I kind of just started seeing someone,” I told him, grabbing on to the excuse like a life preserver—that would save me from having to hurt his feelings.
“Seeing someone?” The pursed-lip suspicious look came back. “Who?”
“Um...” I opened my mouth to answer.
But then Julz’s entire expression suddenly dropped.
“Oh, I get it. You already have plans tonight,” he said, visibly paling. “Sorry to have bothered you. I’m just going to go now. Yeah, that’s what I’m going to do.”
I went from trying to figure out how to let Julz down easily to scrunching my forehead when he switched from weed-head Lothario mode to Speed Racer. I watched him snatch up his backpack like a runner in a relay and practically race toward the library doors with a hasty “Bye!”
“Bye!” I called after him with a cheerful wave, even though I was beginning to worry that maybe he was on something stronger than weed.
But then, the feeling of being watched came back. With such force, it raised the hairs on the back of my neck.
No one called my name this time. Or laid a hand on my shoulder.
But somehow, I knew, even before I turned around, who was standing there.
Artyom. It felt like the air was snatched from my lungs. Artyom Rustanov towered over me. His expression was stormy and dark, and he didn’t look nearly as glad to see me as the guy he’d just sent running away had been.
YOM
He’d promisedhimself he wouldn’t do this.
As he watched the fear bloom in Lydia’s wide brown eyes, shame and frustration filled Yom’s empty stomach with acid. He’d skipped dinner and several party invites to see if she’d show up at the library. But he’d told himself he’d only watch her from the shadows.
He wouldn’t approach her or give her the satisfaction of knowing how badly she’d hurt him when she pretended to be as into him as he’d secretly been into her. For years. Ending his longtime crush.
Or at least it should have ended it.
But then, that painter touched her. Dared to pull her in for a hug. A savage feeling had writhed inside his chest. That had been enough to drive Yom closer, where he could overhear their conversation. Hear the guy with blond dreadlocks, who looked like the walking urban dictionary definition for the termtrustafarian, ask her out. Then pressed her when she told him she was already seeing someone else.
At least he tried to press her.
It didn’t matter that she’d betrayed him—that the shy, virgin Library Girl had been an illusion from the start. The word “mine” ripped through Yom’s head, and the next thing he knew, he was stepping out of the shadows. The look on his face must have been murderous. He sensed that from the way the grown man fled without another flirtatious word, nearly tripping over his feet.
And now, Yom stared down at her, feeling an odd mixture of sick to his stomach and darkly thrilled that she was staring back at him like he was a monster she’d met in the dark woods.
Yom didn’t know whether to feel vindicated or contemptuous.
He ended up sneering down at her. “What kind of coward abandons someone after he has asked her out? Just because a bigger guy comes along? You truly know how to pick them.”
“Oh, Julz?” She glanced over her shoulder at the near smoke trail the trustafarian left in his wake. “I didn’t pick him. He’s just an old acquaintance. I think he’s taking a few years to, you know, explore and find himself....”
