Reluctantly, I take the seat next to Addy and acknowledge him with an awkward smile.
“What’s up?” He nods at me, making no attempts to move over. His confidence oozing from every pore and overpowering mine within seconds.
“Hi,” I reply. Looking up to meet his gaze, his eyes don’t meet mine. They are fixed on the space between my blazer lapels where my V-neck vest top is gaping slightly, now I’m sitting forward. I jump back, folding my arms across my chest and feeling the blood from my veins turn hot and rush toward my cheeks.
He smiles and jerks his chiselled chin to one side, letting me know he doesn’t care if I’m on to him, and I wonder how much of my bra he could see.
I’ve always been shy about my body- part of the reason I’m not in a rush to lose my V-card. Mostly because it’s important to me, and I do still believe in some of the Catholic values I’ve been raised on, but also because the thought of someone seeing my tiny excuse for boobs in the flesh kills me.
Harlow says I’m being silly and the right person will love me whatever shape and size I am and I’m leaning toward believing her, but Addy Alonso blatantly staring down my top doesn’t help.
“What does a pretty little thing like you eat, then?” He still hasn’t taken his eyes off me, and I still haven’t uncrossed my arms.
“Pretty little thing?” I arch an eyebrow at him; his megawatt charm won’t work so easily on me. I’m not just going to fall at his feet, like the other girls he’s used to, just because he has good hair and gorgeous come-to-bed eyes.
“Just calling it as I see it.” He casually shrugs, picking up a menu and handing one to me.
Despite my best intentions, my cheeks burn up all over again. For fuck’s sake.
“Do you always do that?”
“Do what?”
“Blush when someone pays you a compliment?”
Harlow and Gav fall silent, and three sets of eyes are suddenly fixed on me.
“Always,” my best friend kindly chips in, and I scowl at her.
“Cute,” he replies to her while continuing to watch me squirm. His eyes are so blue, I could dive in and drown in them forever.
The waitress appears, and we all order pretty much the same food as one another because the burgers and shakes at Geppetto’s are the best around campus.
Gav and Harlow continue to talk about pointless shit, and we laugh at Gav when he succumbs and promises to watch Bliss Island just so they can discuss what happens tomorrow.
“You’re clearly not into reality TV then?” Addy murmurs to me quietly, letting the two of them talk amongst themselves while we wait for our food to arrive.
“Not really.” I shake my head, relaxing a little and dropping my arms to rummage for my phone in my handbag and check the time on the lock screen, conscious that all the while I’m sitting with sex on legs, I could be working on my essay.
“What turns you on, then, Imogen?”
His gaze is so intense, I can’t help but giggle as I answer honestly, “Books mostly.”
Great, now he thinks I’m some kind of alien. He’s making sexual innuendos, and I’m talking about my Kindle to-be-read list. Way to go, Bella.
“Books,” he repeats, as if he needs to digest the concept before we can move on.
Our food arrives before I can say anything else which is going to make him think I’m a certified weirdo, and I proceed to say as little as possible. Aside from our comparable amazing dress sense, it quickly becomes clear Addy and I have absolutely nothing in common. It doesn’t stop me wanting him, though. Or him wanting me.
“Do you two wanna get out of here?” he asks as we finish up our burgers and sip the last of our shakes.
“And go where?” Harlow pipes up from across the table.
“I do have a little something that will shake things up a bit,” Addy claims.
My eyes widen at Harlow, and she narrows hers at me, warning me not to say anything but knowing full well if he offers us drugs or something, I’ll stick it to him. Of course, I know drugs are rife on Campus but as far as I know Addy’s too focused on his football career to risk screwing it up by getting messed up with anything like
.
He reaches inside the pocket of his hoodie and pulls out a handful of cardboard tickets.
“I’ve got spare tickets to fight night with your name on them.” He grins.
“No way!” Gav’s face lights up like he just remembered he is friends with the coolest guy on the planet.
“Way.” Addy smirks, bringing his eyes to meet mine. “You in?”
“Not really my thin…”
“She’s in,” Harlow cuts me off, kicking me under the table.
I yelp out loud, glaring at her.
“Give us a minute; we will be right back,” she announces, grabbing my hand and pulling me to my feet before I can argue.
“What was that?” I hiss at her as we make our way through the crowded diner to the ladies’ room.
“F.U.N. It’s called fun, and it’s exactly what you need more of, Imogen. You’ve been working your ass off, and you’re about to burn out if you don’t let your hair down. This is your chance to do something outside of the norm. You need this.” She swings the door to the ladies’ room open, and I follow her inside.
“You need this, you mean. You’re only going to spend more time with Gav. What am I going to do? Stand next to Addy like his personal cheerleader the entire time?”
“How do you know you won’t love it? Ever done anything like this?”
“No,” I lie. Imogen Thomas didn’t know about fights and Roma culture. Imogen Thomas had lived a perfectly whimsical existence at a private boarding school, returning home at weekends to her adoring dad. A dad who managed the most successful football team in America. In reality, during my childhood, he hadn’t had any time or inclination for a relationship with me.
Sure, he’d sent the obligatory monthly pay check in the mail to my mommy, and the past couple of years he’s really tried to salvage some kind of father/daughter connection. But, we both know I’d never fully forgive him for the way he left my mommy when she was pregnant. Desperate. Scared. Alone.
If Tommy hadn’t quickly married Mom and claimed me as his own, I don’t know what would have happened to her. To us. No amount of money from my biological dad, Gary, was enough to stop our community from rejecting her, especially back then. Pavee woman didn’t just have sex with footballers who were passing through town, get knocked up, and never see them again.
“You have to do this, for me,” my best friend pleads. “Things are going so well with Gav, and you must admit, you and Addy have got something.”
She’s got that right. We definitely have something. Something confusing, something that will never work and is destined for failure before it even starts but something that both of us want, all the same. Enough of a something that despite every fibre of my being knowing this is a bad idea, had me agreeing to go to the stupid fight night. A fight night I never have dreamed of stepping foot inside with anyone else but, Addy makes me feel things I had never felt before.
He is popular, sexy and there’s something about his cockiness that speaks to my needy; untarnished heart. Maybe its just that I like a challenge because knowing he’s out of my league is making me want to make him mine, just to prove I can. To the all the girls who would be horrified if they knew my true identity and to myself to prove that Hunter Ryan means nothing to me. Less than nothing. I take it back, this has nothing to do with the stubborn asshole I’m engaged to.