The thought crashes through me, erasing everything else, and we stare at each other like we’re caught in a freezeframe.
Then I feel his hand tighten around my arm and I shrug him off. I bend down to start picking up my things and he joins me, hunching over the asphalt to pile advertising textbooks into hisarms.
“Idiota,” I mutter tomyself.
“Hey, you weren’t exactly paying attention either, Peaches.” His tone is light, but his smile falters a bit when I lift my head to give him the darkest death glare I can manage. “Right. NoPeaches.”
We stand up at the same time, and Aaron’s about to hand my books back when his eye catches on the page in front of him. He raises an eyebrow atme.
“What?” Isnap.
“Planet of the Douche?” he questions, his smirk growing a mile aminute.
“Give that back!” I try to sound angry and aloof, hiding all the embarrassment rushing through me behind anotherglare.
My arms are still piled with stuff, keeping me from grabbing the notebook out of Aaron’s hands. I start shoving textbooks into my bag, but by then he’s read through the wholepage.
“This is cute, Dominguez,” he teases, twisting out of my way as I try to snatch the diagram back. “Really, this is adorable. ‘Fun and have great personalities.’ That is sosweet.”
“I swear to God, Penn, if you don’t stop being such acarahloand give that back, I’m going to have you in a sleeper hold in about fiveseconds.”
He starts moving up the line of cars, making sure to stay just out of my reach. “That’s not really my kink, sweetheart, but sure, I’m down toexperiment.”
I realize I look like an overexcited puppy, chasing after him and jumping up to grab the notebook he’s now holding over his head. Trying to save a bit of my dignity, I stop with my feet planted on one of the yellow parking lines. “For fuck’s sake, just give me my stuffback.”
He sighs and then lowers the notebook, walking over to hand it and the few textbooks he has back to me. I clutch them to my chest and do an about-face, intending to march over to my car without another word or backwardglance.
Instead, Aaron starts trotting along beside me. “So, what’s the story with that? Were you trying to list all the reasons to dateme?”
I snort, putting as much disdain into the noise as I can muster. “No, dumbass. This had nothing to do withyou.”
“Then why is my name on it?” he asks, sounding way too pleased withhimself.
We reach my car and I dig through my purse, pulling out the keys and unlocking the doors. I toss my bag onto the backseat.
“I don’t need to answer your questions,” I tell Aaron, not even looking his way as I open the frontdoor.
“Itwasabout dating me, wasn’t it? It’s okay. You don’t have to admitit.”
I should just get in the car and drive away. He’s reeling me into the conversation like a fish on a hook. I should spit out the bait and leave him standing here, but something about the slyness in his tone twists a nerve in me that I can’tignore.
I whirl around to face him. “No, Penn, it was not. As a matter of fact, it was about dating someone else. Someone I will be seeing tonight. Someone who is definitely notyou.”
He’s standing with one elbow propped against the roof of my car. His other hand adjusts hisbeanie.
“Get off of my car,” I add. “You’ll smudgeit.”
He laughs outright at that. “Look at this thing. Smudges are the least of yourworries.”
“I’m pretty sure whatever sleazeball slime you ooze isn’t going to washoff.”
“Sleazeball?” He opens his eyes wide and places a hand over his chest. “If I can’t call you Peaches, you definitely can’t call mesleazeball.”
“Then stop being one.” I move to get into the driver’s seat. “Now get off my car. Like I said, I have a date to getto.”
“You gonna tell me about him?” Aaron asks, not budging aninch.
“No,” Ireply.
