Page 18 of His Reckless Freshman

Her eyes dart to mine, her gaze sharp and penetrating.

I swallow and shuffle back a step, whispering, “I’m sorry. Am I not supposed to say that?”

“We don’t talk about it in this space. It’s best to keep that tension at bay.” She leans in and softly murmurs, “To be honest, I don’t know how Angelica stomachs working with the guy. I would have quit if I’d been in her position.”

“I guess it says a lot about her character. I really like her.”

“Me too.” Carina smiles at me, but then her expression buckles. “But that’s got nothing to do with what I was going to say.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, just…” She tuts. “Be careful. Kieran asks out a lot of girls. I think you should know that going in. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Oh.” My mouth opens and shuts as I try to wrap my head around that.

So he’s a player.

And he asked me out.

Wow! Guys like that never notice girls like me.

But he noticed me!

“I’m just aware that you’re still young and impressionable, and I want you to have all the facts.”

“Well, thank you.” I smile at her. “I’ll go into this knowing it’s just a friendly date and have zero expectations. I won’t read into every nice little thing he does and assume that he’s, like, really falling for me. Is that what you mean?”

“Yes.” She smiles, and my insides deflate just a little.

I mean, sure, I’m stoked that a guy like him would notice me, and for that reason alone, I’m not bailing on this date. But it’s also just a touch disappointing to hear that I’m not anything special. I’m just another girl on a long list of⁠—

My eyes dart to Carina’s pretty face. “Has he ever asked you out?”

“Yes.” She snorts and shakes her head. “But I’m not into guys, so I dodged that bullet.”

She’s not into guys?

She’s… oh. Okay.

I nod, smiling at her. I’ve never met a gay person before.

“Even if I was into them, I’m not sure I would have said yes.” She turns to stare at his office door, pursing her lips to the side while she has a little think.

I let her, shuffling on my feet while I wonder what she’s going to say next.

I’m not loving this conversation and am ready to wrap this thing up and get out of here so I can spend my evening prepping for Ben.

“You know what?” Carina turns back to smile at me. “You could use this to your advantage. If he likes you, he might publish your article. I’m not saying do anything you don’t want to, but a few cute smiles and laughing at his no doubt unfunny jokes might give you a better chance. May as well get something out of this date, right?” She winks at me, and I let out an awkward laugh.

That sounds kind of… wrong for some reason.

I don’t want to use him that way.

I want him to publish my article because it’s well written and worthy of publishing, not because he likes me or doesn’t like me.

Wait.

“Do you think if he doesn’t like me, he won’t publish my work, no matter how good it is?”