Getting Schooled (The Wright Brothers #1)(18)

I wasn’t nearly progressive enough for that shit.

I let out a heavy sigh.

“I get it,” I said, trying not to flinch when he pulled me into an embrace. The lack of warmth I felt made it clear to me that our relationship ship was well past the climax, and reaching the resolution. Fast. It just wasn’t a conversation I was ready to have today.

“What are you even doing here?” I asked. “I thought you had some legal conference or something to get to today?”

He gave me a beautiful smile that did nothing for me, moving his hands to grab handfuls of my ass and squeeze. “I do, this afternoon. But I was hoping that before I drove up there, you could give me a nice little send off…”

I’m not quite sure how I controlled myself from sneering. “Um, let’s raincheck, okay? I wish you’d called. I really have to finish my weekly cleaning, and I have to get this run in, and-”

“So you’d rather clean, and work out, than be with me?” His hands loosened their hold on me, and he stepped away, shaking his head. “Or is this about the little stare off between you and GI Joe?”

“Oh God,” I rolled my eyes. “No. I’m just not feeling it right now. Is that a crime?”

“Not feeling it, or not feeling me?”

I bit my lip. I was trying so hard but…

“You know what? Not feeling you. You claim you’re too busy to even send me a damned text message throughout the day, and the first time you get to see me in two weeks, you want to drop by for a quickie? Really Gray? That seemed like a good plan to you?”

He opened and closed his mouth for a few second, like he was searching for something to say, before he finally dropped his shoulders. “I thought that’s what you would want?” he said weakly, and I bit down on my lip again as I nodded.

“Did you? Okay.”

His face brightened. “Okay? So come inside, let’s do this…”

I pushed his hand off my ass. “No, you misunderstood. We’re not having sex today. If all you have time for is a quickie, you don’t have time to make up for falling asleep after those five pumps last time I saw you, for not making any effort to talk to me these last few weeks, and the months before that, or for dropping by here unannounced like this is a cat house!”

He recoiled backwards. “Damn, Reesie… what has gotten into you? Why are you being so mean?”

Mean?

Mean?

He looked damn near ready to cry, when Jason would have…Ugh!

I looked away from him, inhaling a deep breath through my nose, letting it stream out of my mouth before I brought my gaze back to his. “I’m sorry for being mean, but I think you should go ahead to your conference.”

Not giving him a chance to respond, I climbed in my mother’s car, moving it down to her driveway. I hoped that by the time I was done, Gray would have gotten the picture, and taken his ass home.

- & -



I stopped in my tracks as I headed into the library, narrowing my eyes at a familiar-looking car. I thought about it for a few seconds and then went in, heading straight for the second floor.

“Liv!” I called out, when I spotted her coming out of the bathroom, fixing her clothes. I could have sworn she saw me before I said her name, but maybe she was just distracted. She seemed flustered when she turned around, but her face bloomed into a bright smile as I approached.

“Hey, Reese! What are you doing here?”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Umm, it’s the library… where the books are, and my mom’s classroom, and office…”

“Ah! Right! Sorry.” She shook her head, then finished smoothing her clothes. “I’m a little bit out of it.”

“Girl, we all have our days. Hey, have you seen Gray in here?”

Her eyes went wide, and she leaned her head forward a little. “Who?”

I laughed. “Grayson… my boyfriend, crazy girl!”

Olivia and I hadn’t known each other very long – just the past two years, since I’d started grad school. We weren’t confidant-friends, more like “hey let’s go out/do lunch”, but she’d met Grayson before, on more than one occasion at Refill.

“Ohhh,” she said, nodding. I shook my head. She really was out of it today. “Umm, yeah. Some hours ago, over in the legal section. He was researching case law.”

“Oh.” I twisted my mouth a little. “I thought all of that was available online?”

Olivia’s face spread into a weak smile. “Oh, you know how Grayson is. Likes to put his hands on it. Touch the pages.”

“So… he’s up here often?”

“No, I wouldn’t say often,” she shook her head. “Has he not mentioned it to you? Is everything okay with you guys?”

“Of course,” I lied with a smile. “Like I said, we all have our days, and I’m a little out of it myself. I’m gonna head on to this office. See you later.”

She nodded. “Okay. Bye hon!”

I turned and walked away from Olivia, trying to keep my shoulders relaxed even though I was seething inside. Another a week and a half had passed with minimal contact between me and Grayson, though he had apologized for that stupid Saturday morning.

The thing was, I wasn’t looking for an apology. I didn’t want his meaningless words, I wanted him to do something. I wanted him to let me know he was going to be at the law library while I was on campus, I could help him research. I wanted him to send me those random messages again throughout the day. I wanted him to stop by my place in the middle of the night, wake me up, and screw me back to sleep. I wanted him to make me forget Jason Wright existed.