The Opportunist (Love Me with Lies, #1)(9)

The ref blew his whistle and Caleb raised his arms with the ball held lightly in his hands. I tried to imagine what he was thinking. He was done with me, no doubt. Probably angry that I would have the audacity to….I lost my train of thought. The moment of truth was beginning.

The muscles in his arms flexed, as the ball spun from his hands and sailed toward the hoop. In those few seconds, my mind had time to register that something wasn't right about the situation. And then it happened. The ball fell short a foot from the basket and hit the ground with a sickening thud. I watched in horror as pandemonium broke forth.

“No, no, no, no,” I whispered under my breath. How could he do that? Why would he do that? What an absolute idiot!

“Olivia, I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear any of that,” Cammie hissed, grabbing me by the wrist. “We need to go before someone kills you.” As she pulled me though the throng, I turned back to the court for one last look at what was happening. Caleb was gone.

I didn’t hear anything from him for over a week. Guilt had started seeping into my self-righteous bones and it hurt right down to the marrow. I didn’t want to admit that Caleb Drake had surprised me and humiliated himself. Someone like him couldn’t surprise someone like me…right?

Somehow, the news that he had sabotaged the game for a girl had spread across campus. Since it was me he had been talking to minutes before his miss, I was prime suspect. Girls whispered when they saw me and the basketball team had taken to giving me searing and menacing looks.

“She’s not even that pretty,” I heard one cheerleader say to another. “If he was going to sabotage his entire basketball career; he should have done it for a better piece of ass.”

I ducked my head in shame and disappeared into the library. How was I supposed to know there were scouts at that game? My knowledge of sports was limited to being able to identify the different colored balls, and anyway who would have thought that he would actually have done it?

I spent a little more time in front of the mirror in the mornings applying mascara and curling my hair. Since all eyes were on me, I might as well try to be a good-looking piece of ass.

I was too pretty to be plain and my features were too round to be exotic. Men avoided me. Cammie told me once that I had a kind of fierceness in my eyes that scared people away. Yet, Caleb Drake had not been scared. He missed the hoop on purpose. He played my game and I lost.

“Olivia there’s a uuuh…delivery for you,” Cammie called through the bathroom door one evening.

A box was sitting on my neatly made bed when I emerged. I quickly removed it and dusted the spot where it had been. Cammie rolled her eyes and collapsed onto her own bed, which hadn’t been made in a week.

“Open the thing won’t you? It was hand delivered by that creepy guy from the campus post office. He even tried to smell my hair when I took it from him.”

“He has sinus problems,” I said grabbing the scissors, “don’t flatter yourself.” The box opened, and I stared into it not quite sure of what I was seeing.

“It’s a deflated basketball,” I said holding it up to show Cammie. There was an envelope attached to it. Cammie sat up her eyes suddenly alert.

“No genius, that’s the deflated basketball!”

I swallowed hard as I read the note:

Olivia,

Time to pay up. Meet me in the library in ten minutes.

-Caleb



“Unbelievable!” I said holding the ball in my hand. “Not even a please! He pretty much commanded me to be there!”



“You’re going.” Cammie stood up, hands on her hips.



I sucked in the corners of my mouth and shook my head-‘no’.



“OLIVIA! You ruined the most important game of the season for him! You owe him.”

I sort of did.

“Fine. FINE!!” I shouted, meeting her tone. I grabbed a hoodie from my closet and violently pulled it over my head. “But this is it, okay?” I said, stabbing my finger at her. “I’m meeting him in the library, and then I don’t want to hear another word about it from you or him or that damn cheerleading squad!”

Cammie beamed. “Make sure you remember every detail and try to mention my name.”

I slammed the door on my way out.

At nine thirty on Friday night, the Dart Library was practically a ghost town. A crusty-faced woman was standing behind the checkout counter glaring at two freshmen who were making out. I passed a picture of Laura Helberman on the wall with information to contact authorities if she was seen. She was pretty in a Daisy Duke kind of way. Blonde hair, lots of mascara, and puckered lips that looked like they had just sucked on a lollipop. She had been missing for sixteen days and her story was being covered by Nancy Grace—my hero.

I sighed. I was early. I decided to take a stroll to the fiction section to see if there was anything worth checking out.



Caleb found me there a few minutes later.



“Hello, Olivia,” he strolled up to me with such ridiculous confidence that I wanted to stick my foot out and trip him.



“Caleb,” I nodded at him curtly.



He was wearing a black pea coat over an expensive looking cream sweater. My heart did a little gallop. I disciplined my heart, calmed it down and turned to face him. His hands were tucked causally into the pockets of his corduroys. Very GQ. I had expected him to show up in one of those silly basketball jackets and a dingy pair of jeans.