I smile faintly. “Not me. Mrs. Dowd,” I whisper. “All day without one glimpse of your handsome face. I think it made her meaner.”
Hunter smirks as he opens his own notebook and draws out his Gatsby assignment. “My apologies. I’ll make sure I don’t skip any more classes. Don’t want to make your day harder.”
“Yeah, sure you don’t,” I murmur, shifting in my seat, remembering the words he wielded in the middle of the night.
Hunter catches the movement too and looks over at me, his eyes glinting with amusement. “A little sore?”
My cheeks warm with embarrassment. “Shut up.”
He smirks, looking pretty satisfied with himself.
I roll my eyes, but I can’t help myself: I smile.
___
The rest of the day goes smoothly. The only time I’m really tense is during lunch when Hunter and Sherlock are not only in the same room, but sitting at the same table.
I don’t sit with them, I sit at my table alone, but I can’t even focus on the book I brought to read today. Between bites of food, I steal glances at their table to make sure Hunter is behaving himself.
I don’t know what I missed yesterday, but today they seem fine. They keep a couple of guys between them and don’t really talk, but it’s far less violent than I was afraid it might be.
After that, the day flies by. I head home and do as much homework as I can before my night shift at the diner.
Just like that, it’s Thursday and the week is nearly over.
I stay after school for the newspaper meeting. To my absolute shock, Hunter walks in.
I look to Mr. Lohman expecting him to be surprised, but he just flashes Hunter a smile and says, “Welcome back, Mr. Maxwell.”
“Glad to be back,” Hunter says, stopping beside me and taking a seat.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, wide-eyed.
“Changing the world,” he says with feigned enthusiasm.
“I’m serious. I thought you quit so you could focus more on football.”
“Ah.” He nods. “Don’t have to do that anymore. I quit the team.”
“You… what? Why?”
He shrugs like it’s no big deal. “I like this more. Besides, I can do this with you. Football’s with Sherlock. I guess he’s all right, but you have a much better ass.”
I choke.
Hunter’s eyes gleam with amusement.
It’s like a million pounds fall off my shoulders, and I don’t even know why. “You’re done being crazy, then?”
“Nah, never,” he says lightly. “Just done being the kind of crazy that stresses you out.”
“I very much like the sound of this.”
“I thought you might.” He pulls his notebook out and drops it on the table. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”
“Working.”
“So, if your work suddenly decided they didn’t need you tomorrow, you’d be free?”
My eyes widen. “No, and I meant to ask you about that last weekend. I assume it wasn’t a coincidence my employer decided to give me the weekend off so I could spend it with you?”
Hunter shakes his head, but appears entirely unashamed of his interference.
“How did you even pull that off? You don’t have sway with Deb, do you?”
“Riley, I’m not trying to be an asshole here, but I can get sway pretty much anywhere I want it. The only thing I want that I truly can’t have is you. Whatever else I set my sights on, I can usually make it happen.”
I sigh. “You’re so spoiled.”
He flashes me a charming smile. “You keep me grounded. See, I need you.”
“Well, don’t do that again. I know you’re used to your bubble of privilege where people fall all over themselves to give you whatever you want, but I don’t live in it with you. If you keep demanding special treatment for me, even if Deb gives it to you because she can’t say no to those big brown eyes or the wad of money you throw at her, it’s going to end up hurting me in the long run. Eventually, she’ll decide employing me is more trouble than it’s worth, and I’ll be out of a job.”
“Then you can come to work for me,” he says, smiling.
“I am not going to be your professional girlfriend.”
Mr. Lohman grabs a dry erase marker and starts writing on the white board. “All right, guys, I think everyone’s here. Let’s get started.”
Leaning over toward Hunter, I whisper, “And I want my house key back, too.”
Hunter leans over and whispers back, “I’ll give it to you if you come over tomorrow night after work.”
“It’s my house key,” I remind him. “You can’t hold it hostage.”
“Possession is nine tenths of the law,” he informs me. “The key’s mine now. If you want it back, you’re gonna have to earn it.”
I shake my head at him. “You’re something else, you know that?”
“Actually, why don’t I pick you up from work? I have my mom’s car. Will you be hungry? I can make dinner.”
“It’ll be too late for dinner,” I mutter.
He nods. “Good point. Maybe a snack. How about a charcuterie board and a nice bottle of wine? I make a mean charcuterie board. Afterwards, you can take a nice hot shower. We never did get to all of them last weekend.”
“Has anyone ever told you no before?”
Hunter smirks. “Only you.”
I shake my head at him, but I can feel the indulgent gleam in my eyes. “Spoiled rotten.”
He leans over and steals a quick kiss.
I gasp.
“Mr. Maxwell,” the teacher says sternly.
Holding his hands up in playful surrender, Hunter says, “Sorry, Mr. Lohman. This one’s a temptress. I’ll try to control myself.”
“Oh my God,” I say, hiding my face in my hands.
Mr. Lohman tries to remain firm, but his eyes gleam with amusement. “See that you do.”
The teacher turns back to the rest of the class while I wait for the floor to open up and swallow me.
The newspaper kids are nicer than the average Hawthorne High student, so when I finally peek at them between my fingers, there’s no malice on any of their faces. They’re all entertained by Hunter’s antics, same as Mr. Lohman.
I shoot Hunter a narrowed look, but he’s completely unashamed about embarrassing me.
“What? You wanted to be kissed,” he whispers. “I was just obliging.”
Sighing heavily, I open my notebook and focus my attention on the teacher so we can get started on the actual work we have to do during this meeting.
I guess I should just be glad he did it in front of a nice teacher. If he’d have kissed me in front of Mrs. Dowd, she’d probably flunk me on the spot.
___
Stepford night is upon us.
To the rest of the world, it’s Saturday.
To Mom, it’s the end of living her life without a man.
Even though she loves Ray and she’s being a trouper about him moving in, I can tell she feels a little weird about it. It’s not that she’s having second thoughts or anything, it’s just that I’m the only person she has lived with for half of her life.