I’ll expect you at ten o’clock.

I purse my lips, then text:

Anyone ever tell you how bossy you are?

His answer:

You haven’t seen the half of it.

I blink several times. How is that supposed to attract me to go to Phuket with him? A childish part of me wants to tell him I’m not coming tonight, so he knows I’m not about to go over to his club just because he says so.

Instead, I write:

I’ll update you later.

That leaves it open for me to decide to go or not. I’m about to put my phone down when I receive a final text:

No need. Just come at ten.

Is he trying to annoy me on purpose? I wonder.

“Hey, you wanna go shopping with me?” Amy asks. “We can either hit up Union Square or go to a mall in the ’burbs.”

“I should get to working on these grant applications for my internship,” I reply. “Plus, I don’t know that I’m going to Thailand.”

Amy looks at me as if I’ve said something sacrilegious. “Why would you not?”

“Between classes, my job and internship, I don’t know that I can get away. Don’t you have your first set of midterms in two weeks?”

“I’ll tell my professor I had to go be with family. It’s not that big a deal.”

I haven’t kept track of how many classes or shifts Amy has missed at the restaurant where she works, but her priorities seem to have shifted even though she usually stresses over her grades because she wants to make it into a med school like Stanford or Johns Hopkins. But maybe Amy will settle back to her old self once some of JD’s luster starts to fade.

Getting off the bed, I sit at my desk and turn on my computer. Time to make headway on my paper. Truth is, I want to see Darren tonight.

Chapter 3

DARREN

Past

“What are you smiling at?” asks JD as we work out in his home gym, which is equipped with several different pieces of cardio and weight equipment.

I put down my phone and pick up a pair of dumbbells to resume my biceps curls. “Giving Bridge a hard time.”

With a barbell situated over his shoulder, JD does a set of squats. “Who?”

“Bridget Moore. Amy’s roommate.”

“You’re kidding. You banging her?”

“We got together a couple of times.”

JD stares at me. “Why?”

The truth is, I don’t know. She’s not really my type, but for some reason I’m drawn to her. Maybe there’s some truth to what they say about pheromones. But I’m sure I’ll get bored of her eventually.

“She good at giving head or something?” JD asks.

“Don’t know. Haven’t done that yet.”

JD shakes his head. “What’s up with you? Are you trying to get back at Kimberly?”

Kimberly is my most recent ex-girlfriend, now dating the son of a billionaire real estate developer turned governor of Florida and presidential hopeful.