“I’m—”
“Leaving.” Ethan cuts in, walking around his bike to nudge me toward my house. “I’ll call you tomorrow. We can talk about that shift change then.”
What the—?
“Please,” he whispers so only I can hear him. His eyes are pleading as he darts them between me and his brother.
I get that he might not want his family to know he has something going on with me just yet, but it still stings that he is referring to me as just an employee right now. At least he could have told his brother I was a friend or a neighbor. Either way, this reaction is bullshit.
“Yeah, sure thing.” The sentence is nothing but sarcasm, and from the worried expression Ethan just gave me, he knows he just ruined our first date.
I walk away hearing a faint “she’s feisty” from his brother. I’d really like to turn around and flip him the bird, but I can be more mature about this. Instead, with all this run of new emotion I have, I think I’ll work on my essay. The life of a twenty-something girl and her failed attempts to make a relationship work with the same guy might make for interesting story. In fact, since this is going to be a column about my personal life, this would be a great opening piece and might just be the one to win me this job.
Chapter Twenty
Kelsey
I wrote the entire essay in two hours last night. Edited it first thing this morning and now I’m confidently handing it in.
“You’re really going to enter that? I didn’t realize you wanted to be a writer that badly,” Logan comments once I’ve returned to my seat. Professor Frank announced today was an in-class writing day, so everyone is sitting quietly at their seats, scribbling notes. Everyone except Logan because he doesn’t like to write. I glance at his paper, Hangman is all it shows. I laugh to myself, shaking my head.
“Like most of the other people in this class, I happen to enjoy writing.”
“But to do it every day?” He sounds doubtful.
“Twenty-four hours a day,” I assure him. “I’d love it.”
“Okay, why writing? Why not art?”
“Because I suck at art and writing just comes to me. I can have all these conversations in my head and assign them to different characters. I can give them lives I’ll never live. Fancier or maybe more exciting lives. It’s nothing different than a movie. I just leave mine on paper instead of making it into a film.” Not very many people ask me why I write anymore. It’s nice to know some people don’t just think I’m weird.
“So you write about the life you want?”
“No, that would be crazy and in some cases really disturbing.”
“Interesting,” he says, drawing up another hangman game. “So what’s up with you and Ethan?” Now I know why he was acting overly interested—he was building to this.
“Nothing.” I shrug.
“Lies. Come on, tell me.” His voice is nearing the begging side and that’s when it clicks.
“Sara asked you to ask me that, didn’t she?”
“Nope.” He shakes his head. “She did not.”
“Yeah, okay, we’re not really anything. I don’t think Ethan knows what he wants.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Okay everyone! Let’s end class here. If you haven’t turned your entry in for the columnist spot, you have exactly twenty seconds to do so or you’re out.”
I glance around to see who my competition might be, but no one steps up. I saw three other papers on the prof’s desk so I know I’m not alone, and he has more than one class, but the fewer who enter, the better. My paper is going to grab their attention, I just know it.
“Hey.” Logan taps my desk. “Let’s go and you can tell me your Ethan theory.”
I follow him out of the room with the other students.
“He was just acting weird last night after his brother showed up. He couldn’t even introduce me to him.”
Logan nods, pushing to doors open to step outside.
“It’s like one minute he likes me, the next he has no idea. I don’t get it.”
“Well, you better figure it out quick because confused lover boy is standing by your car.”
I stop, looking directly at Ethan. He’s got a bouquet of flowers in his hand and a nervous look on his face. This would be much easier if he could look happy all the time instead of like someone who keeps messing up. Or he could just stop messing up. I stroll toward him, crossing my arms over my chest. Whatever his excuse it this time, it better be good because I swear, one more chance is all this guy is going to get.
Ethan
I fucked up, again. At this point I should stop trying and just leave the girl alone, but I can’t. I’ve never found someone whose opinion meant more to me than my father’s and I’m not about to let her go that easily.
As she hesitantly approaches, I cringe inside at the reminder of how I put us into this spot.
I should have introduced her as my girlfriend. Anything would have been better than placing her into the employee category. I’m an idiot.
“Hey,” I say when she stops in front of me. I’m leaning against the hood of her car. I had this whole speech planned out. One where I confess, again, to what a jackass I am and how I won’t let it happen again. But now I can’t think of anything except just being near her.
Her eyebrow rises as she crosses her arms over her books in front of her.
“Do you think we can talk?” I ask. Kelsey huffs and her car chirps behind me once she’s hit the unlock button.
“No, you had time to talk last night, but instead you didn’t. Actually, that’s a lie. You said plenty when you made it clear to your brother that I was just an employee.”
She tries to nudge me away, but I don’t budge.
“I was caught off guard. I didn’t want my family to think I came down here to get managing experience only to start hooking up with someone who works there.”
“Well, you did.”
“Yeah, but not in the way it sounds.”
“That doesn’t even make sense, Ethan. If that’s not what happened between us, then what was it? We hooked up. It was fun. That’s the end of it.”
She jerks her car door hard, smacking me with it. I step back and grab the frame.
“I like you, Kelsey. It was more than just a hookup to me,” I finally admit. I don’t sound very manly, but sometimes the truth isn’t.
Kelsey laughs sarcastically. “Well, I’d hate to see how you treat the girl you fall in love with.”
“Just give me one more chance, Kelsey. I swear to you this time. I will not mess it up.”
“Ethan—”
I don’t let her finish the rejection that is on her lips. Instead, I crash mine against them. Her body freezes for a moment before her mouth responds. I grab the books out of her hand and toss them in the car.
This right here, the passion and the way I care about nothing but her, this is why I can’t stay away and it’s the exact reason why I have to get this right.
“This is your last chance,” she says. “I mean it, Ethan. I’m an idiot to give it to you, so do not make me look like a fool.”
I step back, holding her door until she slides inside her car.
“I won’t, you can trust me.”
Even as I say the words, I know they are just as much to convince myself as they are her. Now all I need to do is find the perfect time to explain further why I’m here and not working for my father.
* * *
“You sure ran off in a hurry this morning,” Lance says when I walk through my front door. I head for the kitchen and he follows me.
He didn’t ask me any questions last night. Nothing about Kelsey or the bar. Sometimes I wonder if he really cares what happens or not. He doesn’t seem to concerned about running the BA or being an accomplice to expanding the family feud we have going on between Sara’s dad and ours. Yet he’s still here, just like my father said he would be.