Page 3 of Apparently, I’m Trouble

Rutton raised a brow. “And you’re comfortable with leaving this program to Mia?”

She nodded, and this time, she sounded firm. “Mia’s never let me down. She’ll get those spots.”

A flicker of warmth cut through my frustration. Lilly’s faith in me almost made me forget how awful Rutton was.

But then the principal’s tone brought me back to reality.

“She’d better. I’d hate to have to take back your promotion,” and just like that, I was back to biting my tongue.

Wrinkled Pages

Saturday

“No, I didn’t hook up with that asshole guitarist. Why would I?”

“Because you’re randy and he was cute,” Lilly drawled.

I scoffed into my phone. I didn’t care how cute he was–an asshole was an asshole.

“I shouldn’t have taught you that word.”

“What? Randy?”

“No one says it anymore.”

“Stop trying to distract me. I love Shawn, but that guitarist was one of the greatest things to come out of that fundraiser, and you know it.”

I rolled my eyes but gave in. “He was a bit ridiculous, wasn’t he?”

My best friend’s laugh was a shot of serotonin straight to my brain. I was smiling at strangers on the sizzling sidewalk, and they were staring back at me like I’d lost my mind. I held my phone tightly against my ear and kept walking.

“He was. Forget about the band, we could’ve met our goal if we charged admission just to see him. Women were drooling. Those eyes and that hair? Are you kidding me? It’s not right for a man to look that good.”

“Especially one that’s as big a grump as him. Nice to look at, awful to talk to.”

Lilly sighed, and it sounded almost wistful. “Maybe you should’ve hooked up with him. Enemies-to-lovers is my favorite trope.”

I huffed out a laugh and said, “Excuse me, have you been reading your horny novels again?”

“Mia, they’re not horny novels.”

I turned a corner and dodged another surge of sweaty New Yorkers. The summer break might’ve been over, but this bloody heatwave wasn’t.

“If an author forces two complete strangers into having sex, it’s a horny novel.”

I could picture her rolling her eyes now.

“Other things happen. It isn’t just sex from page one.”

I let out a laugh, and the person across from me gave me a look of disgust. I understood. No one should be laughing with beads of sweat rolling down their back. Most people were covered in suffocating business wear, which was just wild for a Saturday. Meanwhile, there I was in one of my usual breezy boho dresses and sandals, swishing along the sidewalk like a British hippie from the seventies. I definitely couldn’t relate to these poor sods in suits.

“Knowing you, you’re only reading them because they make your panties tight.”

I walked by a store, and as their sliding doors opened, a gust of cool air hit my neck. I almost groaned. Why did the bookstore have to be so far from the subway?

“Cowboy romances are your favorite, aren’t they?” I teased. “Do we need to put Shawn on a horse?”

Lilly grumbled, “Shawn doesn’t need a horse, and I’m not reading them for the sex. There’s more to them than that.”