Page 18 of Personal Foul
What’s it going to take for her to stand up for herself? To someone? Anyone? Ever?
I get that her dad being under investigation is embarrassing, but does she really think her friends will abandon her for that? Those are pretty crappy friends, in that case.
Why is she so willing to put up with so much shit for them?
“What did you tell her?”
She shrugs. “That I didn’t know if you’d go for it, and I’d talk to you about it.”
Smart. But that shouldn’t be surprising. She’s a smart chick.
I roll around my answer for a minute. I don’t think I’ve ever gone on a double date like this before. I mean, sure, I’ve brought a date to family functions. That’s not what this is, though.
I don’t date a lot. For one thing, I’m here to get my degree. I need good grades to get into my choice of law schools so that I can go back and join the family firm. I have a reputation to uphold, after all. My parents were disappointed I chose not to go to an Ivy, but Marycliff is a good school and close enough to home that they’re happy I can come back for big family functions and I can be a summer intern at the firm.
Plus, in the fall, football takes up any other free time I have. Spring semester usually allows for more of a social life, but now that I’m having Charity over every day …
And now, for the benefit of the public anyway, we’re dating. That means I can’t date anyone else. Or even have party hookups.
Maybe I didn’t think this through very well …
“Is this double date important to you?”
She sucks in a breath and holds it, carefully considering her words. See? Smart. “Not particularly.” She even manages to say it casually, but I don’t think she’s being completely honest.
Narrowing my eyes, I study her for a minute. Eventually she sighs, and glares at me with her hand on her hip. “If you’re just going to stare at me, I’m going to get back to work. Let me know what you decide.”
“So it doesn’t matter to you at all?” I call after her retreating back.
She stops in her tracks, then slowly turns to face me. “Quite frankly, I’m torn about it. It’s important to Isabelle, and she’s my best friend, so if I can help her, I want to. But spending an evening with you? On a date? That sounds like torture. So I’d actually prefer it if you said no, because even though Isabelle would be disappointed, it’d be on you, not me, and it would save me from having to pretend to like you for an evening. There are so many things I’d rather do than go on any kind of date with you, really. Basically, I’m screwed no matter what. Which I’m pretty sure is the whole idea here anyway.”
I have to bite back a laugh at her honesty. With how cagey she was a second ago, I didn’t expect her to tell me even a fraction of that. Sitting back in the chair, I study her again.
With a disgusted sigh, she turns and marches out of the room. I almost call after her again, but decide to let her go. It’s not like she’s going far. She’s still in the apartment. And letting her stew over my answer will be even more fun.
Of course, I have to decide on my answer too …
My first impulse is to say yes. It would be another thing to hold over her head—I did this favor to help out your friendkind of a thing. And even though she said she’d rather not, she still asked me.
And the fact that she’d rather not actually adds to my desire to say yes. It’ll be the perfect opportunity to test her ability to live up to the promises I extracted yesterday.
Can she spend an entire evening pretending to be my girlfriend without acting disgusted?
Only one way to find out.
CHAPTER NINE
Charity
Isabelle throws her arms around me when I come out of my room after changing for our double date. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” She’s said it a million times. Basically every time we’ve talked about the date at all. Or when we’re just sitting around and she’d think about it and gush her thanks.
Smiling, I pat her back. “You’re welcome, Iz.”
“I just appreciate it so much.” She steps back, her hands on my shoulders. “I know you were a little apprehensive about asking since your relationship is so new.”That’s not why I was apprehensive about asking.“I still can’t believe that you managed to get together with Dylan from all of us hanging out together, and the only way I’ve managed to get Andrew to agree to go on a date with me was to make it a group thing.” She pokes out her lower lip in a pout, but quickly smiles again and shrugs. “Oh well. At least he agreed to this.” She claps her hands. “Tonight’s going to be so fun!”
“Yeah. It’ll be a blast.” I don’t sound enthusiastic at all.
She laughs. “Oh, come on, Charity. I know you’d rather have Dylan all to yourself—and who can blame you?—but I promise we’ll have a good time.”
