Page 21 of One Week Hating You
Jeff shoots me a smile and a wave. I’ve always liked him – he’s a good sidekick for Blake. Blake can be impulsive and wild. Jeff, on the other hand, has a good head on his shoulders and is pretty conservative. Without him, Blake might fly off the rails. I wonder if Jeff has settled down yet.
Mystery guy eyes the both of us with curiosity – it’s that hunting look. It’s so easy to spot when a guy finds you attractive and surveys you carefully, most likely picturing you naked. He can’t seem to figure out which one of us he likes best.
“You remember Jeff,” Mandy says. “And this is Rick.” She motions to leering mystery man.
He offers a hand to the both of us, and his hand is sweaty… yuck! I’m nice about it, politely coming to terms with a stranger’s sweat on my hands, but not Corrie. She unapologetically wipes her hand on her jeans right after he shakes her hand. I do it too, but in a more inconspicuous way.
I can’t help but stare at Blake; he’s looking good in a plain white tee and dark jeans. Every now and then, he quickly throws me a glance too. It’s like we’re playing hide and seek with our eyes.
It’s down to the eight ball again. Blake leans in, a lock of hair falls over his eye. He doesn’t swipe it away so it must not be messing up his game.Get a haircut,I want to shout, but I remain quiet as a mouse. I watch him intently as he sinks the ball.
He stands straight again and turns to me. He surveys me intently – his eyes dance slowly over the curves of my body, from the swell of my breasts, all the way down to my tall booties. When Rick surveyed me in exactly the same manner, just a minute ago, it made me feel nasty, yet with Blake, it arouses me. Funny how that works.
“Nice outfit, Freckles,” he quips. “I barely recognized you.” He shifts his gaze to Corrie. “You ladies on the prowl tonight?”
Corrie laughs. “Not exactly. You calling us cougars, boy?”
Blake chuckles. “No… just curious. My friend, Rick, here, is single.”
We both laugh – we can’t help it. Rick is kind of repulsive.
“Actually,” Corrie starts. “We have a proposition for you, Blake,” she says in a sing-song tone.
Blake smiles mischievously. His gaze shifts to me and it lingers there. “Go on… I’m curious.”
I nudge her discreetly. “No, we don’t. Forget she said anything.”
She turns to me. “Well, he needs to be in on it if this is going to work.”
I bury my face in my hands, mortified.
“You see, we have a little plan for tonight, just something fun,” she goes on. “As you know, Freckle’s fiancé was kind of a dick, and left her at the altar.”
Blake is stifling a smile. “How rude.”
I want to kill them both. How can I make this look like bar-fight-gone-wrong?
“Anyway, to add insult to injury, he sends her this email and tells her she’s too boring for him. Apparently he can’t settle down yet. He wants to havefun.”
I want to crawl under a rock. Maybe I can crawl under a pub table?
“I’m not following,” Blake says, clearly intrigued.
“Well, we want to prove him wrong. We want to make him see that Maeve can be just as fun and wild as the next girl, and we want to make him jealous,” she explains. “We want him to run back to her and beg.”
Yes.
“Oh.” He cocks a brow, and his gaze surveys me once more. “That explains the outfit,” he says.
I smirk at him.
“I love it.” He winks at me. “But I think I prefer the flowers and polka-dots.”
I melt a little. Why do I let him do this to me? Why do I give him that power?
“Anyway,” Corrie goes on. “We need you to make him jealous.”
He shakes his head and cracks up.
