"What happened to you at my party? I thought you'd stick around 'til the end."
"It was getting late and I don't really do late hours." I'm such a liar.
"Really? Well maybe I can make it up for you today at lunch, what do you say?"
"Uhm, I think-" I can't finish my answer as a woman breaks into the office, making us snap our heads at her.
"Babe I was-" She stops as she looks at me. "Oh, didn't know you had clients, sorry, I'll come later."
She even blew a kiss at him. Damn, must be serious.
"Hope you liked my books. Have to get back to work." I say standing up from the chair.
"Emma, wait." He does the same. "Let me explain."
"Oh no, no, seriously. It's all cool. See you around." I say smiling heading out of the office pretty quick.
As I return to the conference room, I find it empty, but Dean's perfume is present, and I close my eyes to take in the hipnotizing scent.
"What are you doing?" His voice interrupts my stupidity.
"Nothing, I was just trying to remember something." I say quickly as I take a sit, not before checking him out, as pretty much every time I see him.
He's wearing a white t-shirt, so transparent that something catches my attention. He has another tattoo. It's like a paragraph on the left side, over the rib. I wonder how many tattoos does he have? Or what do they mean? Or when did he get them?
As I'm deep in my thoughts, he looks up and I immediately snap, to try and make it less obvious that I was staring. Like always. But I fail miserably. Like always.
"Smooth." He teases.
"Hmm?" I play dumb.
"It's almost 12pm, don't you have somewhere to be right now?"
"Shit, yeah." I say, realizing he already knows I'm always in a rush at this hour of the day on Mondays and Wednesdays, and it's only been a week. "Thanks, see you tomorrow."
"Or later." He says, without taking his eyes off his laptop.
***
I have to admit I was a little bummed Lucas wasn't at the center to have a talk today, I have this feeling he's not okay and he needs help. I couldn't help but think he might not come back and I'd have to switch therapists, which would be annoying and stressful. Also he must be going through something all alone. Damn. I thought he'd be the one. Guess surgeons die too.
"Do you know who Dean West is?" I ask Keith as we walk towards our literature class.
"I've heard some stuff. Why?"
"What have you heard?" I dig.
"Uhm, he's on the soccer team, apparently he's like a legend and he's just in his second year." He tells me. "Oh, I heard some girl say he's quite the catch now that he worked his way out of all the trouble he got in last year."
"How come I haven't heard anything about him but you have?"
"Remember Lindsay from Narrative?"
"Yep." Our curly big girl.
"She told me stuff."
"You and your stuff, dude." I punch his arm in a friendly way. "Come on, spit."
"Why are you so interested? Got a crush on him?" He makes his eyebrows dance.
"What?" I frown. "No! I just work with him, but he's so... I don't know. Mysterious?"
YOU ARE READING
Mine
RomanceEmma is no goody two-shoes, but she does have some goals in her life, and she's willing to be the best version of herself, in order to realize those dreams. Dean, on the contrary, is still re inventing himself, since his past is full of his childish...