“Screw Axel Stevens. He doesn’t own you. Flirt with whoever you want to. He can suck it.”

“But you said I made him jealous…”

“He’s playing stupid boy games. This is why I love older men. Because they know what they want and don’t have to play mind tricks. Get your butt back in here and stay on your mission until Axel begs you to not flirt with anyone but him. I promise, Scar, it’ll work. You just have to play a better game than him.”

“But if I keep flirting with Jacob…what if Axel kisses Gigi again?” Just the thought made my chest ache.

“Then they can dine together in hell.”

I laughed because I didn’t know what else to do. But Sophie was right. Axel hadn’t asked me out. Not even close. We weren’t any closer to being together. “I’m not good at games.”

“But I am. And with me in your court, we’re definitely going to win.”

The only problem was that this wasn’t a game of tennis. This was my life. But I trusted Sophie. She’d had tons of boyfriends over the years. My zero didn’t really compare. And I saw the way that Mr. Halifax had looked at her in class. She was about to catch her version of Axel. “Okay. So…what do I do?”

“You come back in here looking hot as hell and eat your ice cream.”

I couldn’t help but smile. It was really sweet that Axel had offered to buy me ice cream.

Sophie sent me one final text: “Phase Incest is still a go!”

God, Sophie, don’t call it that. But at least she’d dropped my name from the phase title. I made my way back to the cafeteria.

Sophie’s smile faltered when she saw me walk back in. Probably because of Axel’s jacket that was still around my shoulders. But I couldn’t take it off. I’d been not-so-secretly dying for him to give me his jacket for years. And it smelled too good to return. As far as I was concerned, I’d earned this jacket.

There was a Drumstick waiting for me at my spot. I sat down and smiled at Axel, but he didn’t look pleased. At all.

“Thanks for this,” I said and started unwrapping the cone.

Axel’s frown deepened.

“Figured we didn’t have time to leave today,” Jacob said. “But that doesn’t mean you couldn’t have ice cream.”

Oh. Oh. Wow, Jacob really was so sweet. “Thanks, Jacob.”

He leaned down and whispered in my ear. “Next time let’s have that date.”