My fingers clench in the hem of his Henley. “I don’t need them to like me.”
“You damn well do not.”
“I don’tneedto do this. I like my circle. I like my life. I like my people.”
“We can stay at home. There’s that movie that just came out on Netflix?—”
“Zaaach,” I whine. “You’re not supposed to talk me out of this.”
He shrugs. “They don’t deserve you. I’m more than willing to be selfish and keep you locked away with me forever.”
I slap his chest. “Don’t be weird.”
“You make me weird,” he crows, leering at me as his hands slide down and cup my ass. “Did I mention that your ass looks bangable?”
“No, just that my tits are the reason vampires exist.”
“You like vampires.” He scowls. “Zombies.Zombieswake up at the sight of your tits.”
“You can’t be jealous about my appreciation for vampires, Zach.”
“Sure I can.” He squeezes my butt but then resettles his hands on my waist. “What are we doing tonight, beautiful? The ball’s in your court.”
“I applaud you for not using a hockey reference,” I drawl, earning myself a wink from him.
It’s dumb. So dumb. But my eyes prickle with tears. “It’s going to be really hard.”
“Yeah,” he concurs, voice sad. “I wish there were something I could do to make this better, but I can’t.”
“This whole thing is just… humiliating. So humiliating.” My shoulders sag. “Mortifying and miserable and I’m going to be followed around byoinksfor the rest of my college career and?—”
“This is today’s gossip. Tomorrow, some other student will fuck a married professor and get pregnant and that’ll be the talk of the day.”
“Not helpful, Zach.”
“Maybe not, but it’s accurate.”
I pull a face. “It’s not the end of the world, so why does it feel like Bruce Willis is serenading me with Aerosmith 2000’s movie-style?”
“Because it sucks. People suck. They all suck. And you neverdeserved any of what happened today. It’s my beef with Dyers and he brought you into it and I’m so sorry, D?—”
“Hey! I riled him up too, you know? And I’m glad I did.”
His hand smoothes over my shoulder. “You sure about your plans for him?”
“I definitely am.”
“Some of them are… kind of illegal.”
“How do you know that?”
“Saw your planner. Not sure it’s wise to write down the crimes beforehand, D.”
“We have a shredder.”
He rolls his eyes.
When he doesn’t say anything else, I tack on, “I’ve never been a good girl, Zach.”
