Page 44 of Under Her

My phone is in my bag, but I’m not going to tell him that I couldn’t text or call him because I’m out of credits on my prepay phone, and I don’t have any spare cash to put some credits on it until I get paid in a few days.

It was minutes for my phone or food. Crazy gal that I am, I opted for food.

Wilder takes a step closer to me and away from the brunette he was just pressed up against. “So, what was so important that you had to miss our meeting then? Wait, let me guess.” He clicks his fingers and then points at me. “I know. You were with Professor Weller, getting your nose surgically removed from her ass because it’d been stuck up there so long that hemorrhoids started to grow out your nostrils.”

The girl bursts out laughing. And I can feel my face heating with embarrassment.

“Surely, you couldn’t have been doing something fun, like getting laid, because you don’t know how to have fun, Stickford.”

“You’re an ass. And I’m done here.”

I push past him, ignoring the laughing brunette, and I all but run down the steps off the back porch. I’m speed walking down the side of the house when a hand catches my arm.

I whirl around to see Wilder.

His eyes are lit in a way I’ve never seen before. It makes both my legs tremble and my heart beat faster.

“You could have called to let me know you’d be late, Morgan.”

He rarely calls me Morgan. It throws me off balance for a moment.

I pull my arm from his hand, needing him to stop touching me because I can feel my mask starting to fade.

I hate that he has this effect on me.

How can I want such a mean, jumped-up asshole, whose sole aim in life is to screw as many girls as possible? It makes no sense to me. He makes no sense to me.

“I couldn’t call you,” I tell him through thin lips. “I was at work. My boss offered me extra hours, as one of the other girls had called in sick, and I couldn’t not take them because I need the money. We’re not all born with a rich mommy and daddy who can pay our bills for us.”

His eyes narrow on me, but he doesn’t say anything for a long moment.

Then, he just turns and starts to head back to the party.

“We need to rearrange our study session,” I call to his back. “I’m not failing this class because of you.”

He stops and turns back to me. His eyes look dark. “I did the work. Well, my half of it. Because you didn’t turn up, I made the decision of who should do what. I’ll email my part to you tomorrow, so there’s no need for us to meet again.”

I should be relieved. But I’m not.

“What if I don’t want to do the part that you’re giving me?”

He laughs, but it’s a hollow sound. “Then, complain to Professor Weller. I know you have no problem doing that because she pulled me aside the other day to ask me what the issue was between you and me. Said that you’d been to see her and asked to be reassigned to a different partner. And you know what I told her?” He takes long strides back toward me until he’s so close that I have to tip my head back to look into his face, which looks clouded with anger. “I told her that I don’t have a fucking clue what I ever did to make you dislike me.” His voice is a harsh sound in my ear.

I swallow roughly, and he takes a step back and runs his hand through his hair.

“But you know what else I told her?”

Dumbly, I shake my head.

“I told her that I don’t care. Whatever your problem with me is, well, it’s your problem and not mine.” And then he’s gone, striding off back to the party. Back to his brunette.

“But that’s the problem,” I whisper to his back. “You didn’t care. You hurt my feelings, and you just didn’t care.”

I don’t bother to knock on Morgan’s office door. I just walk straight in.

Her head comes up from her computer, her eyes narrowing with anger on me.

I have flashbacks to college and her looking at me that exact same way on many occasions.