She starts to walk around me, but I step in her path, my hands landing on her shoulders to stop her from stumbling.
“Oh no you don’t.”
She lifts her head, anger burning in her irises. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Williams?”
“Me?” I point at the doorway where her asshat boyfriend disappeared through. “What the fuck was that?”
Her eyes narrow at me. “That’s none of your business.”
“It became my business when I saw him corner you in a dark hallway, so I’ll ask again. What the hell, Trouble? Do you always let yourboyfriendtalk to you like that?”
Her jaw is set in a tight line, color rising up her cheeks.
“Ex-boyfriend.” She jabs her finger into my chest. “A status he earned because he was talking to me like that in the first place. Besides, I don’t remember asking for your help. I was handling it on my own just fine, thank you very much.”
A mocking chuckle escapes me. “Oh, I saw just how you were handling it.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
If looks could kill, I’d be a dead man. Does that stop me? Hell to the no.
“You’re still a shit liar, just like you were at seventeen.”
“I didn’t l-lie.”
There it is again, that slight tremor in her voice.
I quirk my brow at her. “There isn’t anybody you’re seeing. Is there?”
Jessica presses her lips into a tight line and raises her chin stubbornly. “Let it go, Matthew.”
She walks around me, and this time I don’t stop her, just call loud enough for her to hear, “I didn’t hear you correct him.”
I glance over my shoulder, seeing her stop in her tracks. “What?”
“You didn’t correct him when he assumed I was your new boyfriend.”
“I said I wasseeingsomebody,” she says slowly, enunciating every single word. “Notdatingsomeone.”
“Same difference.”
Seeing, not dating.
Maybe you should get a girlfriend.
Nico’s words pop into my head out of nowhere, and my pulse speeds as the idea shapes in my mind.
It’s ludicrous.
She hates me.
There is no way this could work.
I don’t even want it to work.
I don’t want to do it period.
She shakes her head. “I’m not even sure why I’m still entertaining you.”
