“It’ll be fun. I’m gonna remind you on Friday, and wait—” He types on his phone. “There, I just emailed you my number. If you need a ride while your car is getting fixed, let me know.” He smiles.
“I will.” I nod. “And thanks again for this.” I hold up the muffin. “And again for the notes,” I say over my shoulder. Pushing the door open, I walk out into the warm day and make my way toward the English building. I’m forcing myself to get there before I stalk Brett and his brother on the Internet. Walking over to a large palm tree, I pull out my phone and type Jett Powers. Pictures of a truly gorgeous man pop up as I scroll.
“God, I’m really out of it,” I hiss because his brother is like the biggest defense attorney, and kind of famous. This is when my childhood friend Christy would have come in handy. She loved to keep up with all the trends and who’s who. I was always way too busy studying. Not that I don’t love social media, but I mostly scroll through dog videos and makeup tutorials rather than staying up to date with the latest gossip news.
“Whatever,” I grumble, typing in Brett Powers. And there he is. I look up just to make sure no one can see that I’ve now been reduced to stalking my professor. So apparently he went to Stanford and went on to earn his doctorate here. He’s single… interesting. But maybe he and Skylar are too new for anyone to know about it.
My heart flutters, and I puff out some air as I look at pictures of him with a bunch of different women, none of them my sister. He’s basically the foremost expert in environmental engineering, and it looks like he just got green-lighted for a fifty-million-dollar project…
“Jesus.” I swipe away my browser. He’s a fucking hot genius. What am I doing? I head toward class. Something is not right. I mean, maybe he’s not with Skylar? God, Alex, it doesn’t matter anyway. He’s dangerous in that he could steal your heart in seconds. He’s also the dean, and on his way to great things. What happened earlier was probably nothing to him.
Push him out of your mind. Maybe Jordan was right. Maybe I do need to have fun. Because if Brett Powers is with my sister, and he just… with me, on his desk… then he’s an asshole. And if he’s not with my sister, but he’s letting me think he is… still an asshole.
Therein lies the problem: I don’t really think he’s an asshole. Exciting, fucking hot, and dangerous? Yes.
I realize I have to let all this go as I walk into my literature class. Stay on course, and see what happens. Focus on getting my car fixed, remain positive, and everything else will work out the way it’s supposed to.
ALEXANDREA
“Three days. You said that’s how long it would take,” I yell into the phone, dodging a bunch of people running past me as I move outside to hear.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Carter, but the part we need didn’t come in today like I had hoped. If we’re lucky, it will arrive Monday morning, and we’ll have your car ready for you by Monday night.” The mechanic’s voice sounds like he’s barely even paying attention. Biting my lower lip, I look out at the sunset, which at any other time I’d find stunning with its deep oranges and reds, but not now.
“This is very disappointing. I need my car,” I snap.
“We can offer you a rental, but as it’s already six o’clock, you’d have to come right now.”
“Really? You tell me this now? Look, just… call me when it’s ready,” I say, looking down at my white Converse.
“Will do. You have a nice weeke—” I hang up on him, not in the mood to hear anymore crap. Because the last three days have been exactly that.
Shitty.
My whole positive attitude has slowly disintegrated like fruit left out too long. That’s me, a three-day-old banana, once yellow, now rotten and angry. Not only have the last few days been miserable with my sister, but Dean Powers has not said one word to me.
Nothing.
Literally glances over me as if I’m a ghost. At first, I thought he was just playing it cool and would ask to see me in his office, but Wednesday came and went, and here I am on Friday, standing outside a fraternity house with nothing but my phone.
“Yo, Alex.” Jordan comes stumbling over to me carrying two red plastic cups as I look at all the mayhem around me. Basically, he guilted me into coming to this party. I know I should be more excited. After all, this is a real fraternity party, but to be honest, I’m exhausted. I’m running on coffee and nervous energy. I stayed up until three in the morning on Thursday fine-tuning my first paper for engineering. Not just because I’m going to be judged by Brett, but also because writing is something I excel at.
“Thanks.” I take the plastic cup from him and wrinkle my nose at the red liquid, which smells like rubbing alcohol.
“Is your car ready?” He smiles. See, Jordan promised if we just stopped by his fraternity party, he’d drive me to get my car as soon as it was ready. But from the looks of him, he’s already drunk.
“No. The part didn’t come in,” I grumble. “Are you drunk?” My eyes take in his flushed cheeks.
“No. No way, I was just arm wrestling.” He laughs as a couple of guys shout behind us.
I almost ask why, but who cares. Taking a sip, I almost gag. “What is this?” I shove the cup at him.
Laughing, he chugs his.
“It’s Danny Boy’s famous punch,” he yells even though we’re outside. “Trust me, after the first couple of sips, it tastes good.”
“Come on, Alex, let’s have some fun. We survived the first week.” He holds up his hands and does a really bad dance, which of course makes me grin at him.
“Fine.” I take another sip, feeling like I’m drinking some sort of acid, but he’s kind of right—it does go down easier the second time.
“Let me show you around.” He wraps an arm casually around my shoulders as we walk back inside the large two-story, white-pillared house. I don’t know why I visualized his fraternity house as some kind of shack with beer cans and empty kegs everywhere. This is not like that at all. It’s huge and gorgeous with hardwood floors, expensive furniture, and the kitchen is state of the art. Like I wish I lived here.
“For some reason, when you invited me to your frat party, I visualized Animal House,” I yell over the loud music as we enter the large front room where a lot of people are laughing and drinking.
“What?” He cocks his head as if he’s confused.
“Animal House… remember the Delta House?” I laugh. “Toga, toga.” I keep going, because has he not seen Animal House? I know it’s old, but come on, who hasn’t seen Animal House? It’s a classic.
“It’s a movie, right?” He looks over my head at someone.
“Yes.” I take another sip, and my tongue’s kind of tingling. The phone vibrates in my hand, and my heart skips a beat.
“Holy shit.” I elbow him, and he acts like I just gut punched him, spilling half his punch on the floor.
“Oh God, sorry.” I look around for something to mop up the spill.
“It’s fine. Darren hired people to clean up. Don’t worry about it.” He pulls away from the mess, and we move to a corner. “Now, what’s up?” He steps in closer. I know Jordan likes me, and if I could get Dean Powers out of my head, I might actually be interested. As it is, though, I can’t think about anyone but the dean.