Best Served Cold (16 page)

He grinned. “Sure, anytime. There’s a lot more to see and learn. The next match is about to begin.”

“Yeah, I see. But unfortunately I have a few things I need to get done today. So I’m going to have to head back to my dorm. Thanks again. It was...interesting.”

Dean seemed to look at me a little more closely than he had since we entered the gym. “You know, I’m down here quite a bit. I’m work for a financial services company, and I travel. Maybe some time I could call you up, take you to dinner?”

Oh, dear God, the last thing I needed was another male in my life right now.

Aloud I said, “Thanks. That’s nice of you. Let’s see what happens, but I’m kind of, um, seeing someone else right now. Sort of. I mean, it’s new.”

He nodded. “I get it. Is it the guy you’re trying to make jealous? ‘Cause I’m not an expert or anything, but that doesn’t seem like a good way to start off.”

“No. That’s someone else. He’s—well, it’s complicated.”

“Sounds like it is. Well, it was nice meeting you, anyway.” He smiled as the next match got underway.

I climbed down the bleachers and headed toward the exit. The hallways beyond the gym were quiet, and with tremendous relief, I pushed open the doors to fresh cold air and freedom. I stood for just a moment, glad that was over.

“Julia.”

“Oh, my God!” I jumped as Liam stepped from around a column. “You scared the crap out of me. What are you doing?”

“Waiting for you.”

I swallowed my nerves. “I’ve never had a stalker before. It’s creepy. You should give it up.”

“I’m not stalking you.” Liam’s lips were drawn together and his eyes dark.

“Then why are you skulking behind columns outside the gym, waiting for me?”

“I wanted to talk to you.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’ve spent more time wanting to talk to me in the last few days than you did the entire time we were dating. Doesn’t that strike you as odd?”

He ignored me and grabbed my arm. “Can we go somewhere and sit down? It’s cold out here.”

“Liam, I don’t have time for that. I’m sorry.”

“Why? Got another date waiting for you?” His tone was suggestive and snide at the same time, and I held back a wince. This was what I’d been working toward, wasn’t it? Getting Liam’s attention, making him want me again?

“Not this morning.” I tossed it back to him. “I’m going to hang out and study with Ava.”

It was Liam’s turn to react as though I’d smacked him. His frown deepened, and I saw his throat work as he swallowed.

“I just want a few minutes. Look, come sit in my car. It’s parked right over there. I promise, I only want to talk.”

I threw up my hands. “Fine. Whatever. But five minutes, tops. Then I need to get back to my room.”

He nodded and turned toward the parking lot. I followed him to where the black BMW was parked and climbed in when he clicked the button, aware again of the differences between my ex-boyfriend and Jesse.

He didn’t say anything as he turned the key and upped the heat. When he did shift to face me, I was surprised by the conflict in his eyes.

“Julia, I wanted to talk to you about all these guys you’ve been...with. What’s going on?”

I raised one eyebrow. “What do you think is going on, Liam? And why is it any of your business?”

“Because I think it’s my fault. I think I broke your heart, and now you’re trying to get attention wherever you can, but you’re not thinking about this right, Julia. You--”

“Whoa.” I held up one hand. “Stop right there. You know, just when I think I’ve reached the bottom level of your jerkiness, you show me that you’re even more of a dick than I thought. You broke my heart? Really?”

He looked away, uncomfortable. “Yeah, I think I did. I mean, I did what I needed to do, but I can see that it must have been hard on you.”

“My God, Liam. You are incredible. You
needed
to do that? You
needed
to humiliate me in front of our friends, and even some strangers? Explain that to me, please.”

He lifted one shoulder. “It was time. Things had gotten too serious between us. I was ready to move on.”

“So you’re ready to move on. Fine. I get that. A normal guy would tell his girlfriend that. He would man up enough to actually break up with her. You are so damaged, Liam. I really don’t know why I wasted ten months of my life on you.”

“You weren’t complaining at the time. I think you liked being Liam Bailey’s girlfriend. Which is why I had to do what I did. At the party. If I had talked to you, there would have been drama and tears and shit. This way, it was done. Like a surgical strike.”

I reached for the door handle. “You know what, Liam, we’re done here. I don’t have anything to say to you, and I definitely don’t want to hear any more from you.”

“Wait.” He grabbed my shoulder.

I glared. “Get your hand off me unless you want your arm back without it.”

He sighed. “Why does everything have to be so complicated, Julia? I just had something to say, and you made this into a big deal.”

“So say it.”

“Okay.” He took a breath and looked out the window beyond me. “You don’t need to chase after all those guys. If you’re missing me, we can work something out. You know, nothing serious. Like friends with benefits.”

I’d heard of people being choked with rage, but I’d never had it happen. I did now.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I hissed the words, too angry to yell. “You think that’s why I’m...God, Liam. Your balls are bigger than even I thought. And when were we ever friends? Tell me that. Benefits we had, but friendship, not so much.”

“Hey, hey, I’m just trying to help you out here--”

“Yeah,
help me out.
I’ll just bet. How selfless you are, Liam. It just brings a tear to the eye. Umm, let me think. No. I’d prefer the self-service plan to your benefits any day.”

“Nice, Julia.”

“The truth hurts. You’re worried you broke my heart? Here’s some news for you. You never had it to break.” I had said the same thing to Jesse the night before, and I was struck anew at how true it really was.

“That’s bullshit. You’re just still pissed about my birthday, and I get it, but come on. Try to be a grown up about this.”

“It’s not bullshit, it’s the truth. Think about when we first started dating. Tell me about that. Who was after who?”

He shifted in the driver’s seat again, looking decidedly ill at ease. “I don’t remember.”

“Liar.” I pointed a finger at his chest. “It was you. You stopped me outside biology that day and asked me to go to some frat party with you. I said no. So then two days later, you asked me to some movie thing on the campus green. I said no.”

“Yeah, you played hard to get.”

“I wasn’t playing, Liam. I didn’t want to go out with you. I didn’t like you. I thought you were pretty much what I think about you now.”

He frowned at me. “Then why did you finally say yes?”

I sighed. “Because...you seemed so subdued and quiet when you asked me the third time, to go out to dinner. And you hit me on a bad day. Someone else I really liked had just started dating a girl I knew. I thought, why not go out with someone else?”

He rubbed his hands across the steering wheel. “So I was convenient.”

“Maybe. Wasn’t I convenient for you? And we had a good time that night, remember? I came home and told Ava maybe you weren’t that bad.”

“Please, Julia, don’t try to flatter me. You know what? None of that matters. Why we started dating, why we stopped, it doesn’t matter. It’s the here and now I’m talking about. You’re hanging around with all these guys, and people are starting to talk. I mean, Jack Duncan? Seriously.”

I gritted my teeth. “Jack is a decent guy. You wouldn’t know about that. And I’m fairly certain I said before...it’s none of your business. You were done with us, right? Move on, Liam. I have.”

He smirked, that maddening half-smile that always went right up my spine. “It’s my business because you were mine first. Or should I say because I was your first?” He lifted a shoulder. “Let me put it to you this way, Julia. Letting you screw around with these other guys would be like me going to a gourmet restaurant and then giving my leftovers to the bums on the street."

The fury was back, full force. I grabbed the latch and swung out my door. Scrambling out wasn't exactly as satisfying as storming off, but it was all I had. I leaned back into the car for a moment.

"Liam, you're not worth my energy. Stay away from me. You might have been my first, but let me tell you, you're not the best. You're not even in the top ten."

I slammed the door full force, knowing how much he hated that, and wished that he and his precious car would go off the nearest cliff. In fact, I spent the first part of my walk back to the dorm picturing how glorious that would be.

The second part of the walk, I spent plotting.

Ava was up and in sweats when I came into the room. She sat on the floor with books spread all around, a pencil behind her ear, and her laptop to the side.

“Hey...” She trailed off, her forehead crinkled. “What’s wrong?”

“Liam Bailey is what’s wrong. He’s very, very wrong.” I tore off my coat and tossed it up on hook, not caring if it caught or not.

“So I take it he was there? At the match?”

“It’s called a meet, and yes.” I dropped to the edge of my bed. “I spent over an hour learning more about wrestling than I ever wanted to know. And then when I finally escaped, made it outside,
he
was waiting for me. Turns out he’s come up with a great idea. A really selfless plan designed to help me out. He’s willing to sleep with me, just out the goodness of his heart. Isn’t that big of him?”

Ava’s already-ivory complexion seemed to go a few shades lighter. Her eyes got huge, and her mouth dropped a little.

“He what?” She almost whispered the words.

“Yep, you heard me right. Sex without any of the annoying strings attached. That’s what he’s offering me.” I gripped the sheets. “I just want to scream. I haven’t been this mad since right after his birthday party.”

“I don’t blame you.” Ava hugged her knees up to her chest. “That’s...that’s just horrible.”

“You know, the sad part is that I had started to second-guess everything. I was planning to back off the whole revenge plan. Not now. Now, I’m upping the ante.”

“What are you going to do?”

“No more playing around with Giff’s plans. I’m going to tell him what his precious best friend said to me. And then I’m going to write out the whole sordid story, from the time he asked me out, all about the birthday party and then about today’s mess. And I’m naming names.”

“Jules, really? Is that going to solve anything? And what about Jesse?”

I cringed a little. “I know. I thought about him right away. But God, Ave, Liam deserves some kind of payback for everything he’s done to me. This is totally separate from Jesse and me.”

“Can you keep it that way? Don’t you think he’s going to find out and maybe not be happy?”

I blew out a breath, pushing my hair away from my face. “I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.”

Jesse called me right after dinner. Ava and I had decided to eat in, mostly because I didn’t want to chance seeing anyone I knew at the dining hall or the student union food court when I was still so mad, and Ava said she wasn’t feeling well. And come to think of it, she looked pretty rough.

We were sitting on the floor, various containers of take-out food opened around us, and
You’ve Got Mail
on TV, when my phone buzzed.

“Hey.” Even his voice made me smile. I must have looked pretty goofy, since Ava rolled her eyes, even as she tried to hide a grin of her own.

“Hey, yourself. So you survived Des duty?”

“Oh, yeah. I bribed him to stay in bed a little longer with Spiderman cartoons and chocolate chip cookies. I laid down next to him and slept.”

“So you probably got crumbs in your bed and a hyper kid.”

“Definitely, but an extra hour of sleep was totally worth it. How was your day?”

“Ehh.” I stood and moved into the hallway so Ava could hear the movie in peace. “It was okay.” I hesitated a moment and then plunged ahead. “Actually, it kind of sucked. I had a run-in with my ex-boyfriend, and I spent the rest of the day trying to work off my mad.”

“Ah. Gotcha.” I heard him suck in a breath. “Okay, no, not really. I don’t know what you mean. So you want to tell me, or should I mind my own business?”

I leaned against the wall and slid down to the floor. Damn, but this guy was like the polar opposite of Liam.
Thank God
.

“He was a pig. Let’s leave it at that. He was insulting and rude, which he does very well. But you know what, talking to you right now makes me feel better than I have all day.”

“Good.” I could practically hear those dimples pop out. “I feel like I should offer to, I don’t know, beat him up or something. Like, defend your honor?”

“That’s sweet, but I defended it just fine on my own. If it comes down to it, I’ll let you know and you can totally take a swing at him, okay?”

“It’s a deal.” There was enough warm humor in his voice to make me melt.