Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 67160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67160 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 336(@200wpm)___ 269(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
“What job? What are you talking about?”
“Assistant analytic advisor…Bailey, Barnes, and Cohen. Ring any bells? I applied for the position and spoke to Harry Cohen’s secretary. He called me back himself, offered me the gig, and asked if I knew his son. I didn’t know he was your dad, but—”
“Harry’s not my dad,” I intercepted.
“Okay. Well, he said you might be in one of my classes. I couldn’t figure out who he meant until he described you. Then I was like, ‘Oh yeah. That’s the guy who accused me of cheating.’ ” He paused to scowl at me. “I didn’t cheat, by the way. I never cheat. I tried to talk to you a couple of times, but you’ve ignored me pretty hard.”
“I didn’t ignore you,” I lied.
“Yeah, you did,” he scoffed. “But if we’re going be working together, it’s probably a good idea to clear the air. What d’ya say?”
Nothing. I had nothing to say. I was speechless. This was like winning the reverse lottery. What were the chances that out of the hundreds of students in the econ department, Harry would hire the one guy I didn’t want anything to do with? Fucking Harry.
I narrowed my gaze. “Why?”
“Why…what?”
“Why everything?” I threw my hands in the air and paced a couple of steps away before I exploded. “Why that job? Why now? Who are you? Do you even go to school here? And call me crazy, but I think it’s reasonable to be concerned about training the guy who cheated off my test to take over my position. Harry obviously doesn’t know about that or he’d—”
“Sure, he does. I told him,” Sky replied matter-of-factly.
“Whoa! You told Harry you cheated on me, and he still hired you?”
“Yeah, but we’re not boyfriends, and I didn’t go home with another guy,” he teased, quirking his lips in amusement.
My mouth dropped open. Boyfriends? “What’d you tell Harry?”
Sky gave me a Cheshire cat grin and shrugged. “Nothing much. I said we had a misunderstanding.”
“It was more than a misunderstanding,” I snapped.
“Oh, come on,” he scoffed. “It was bad timing, and you know it. I looked at you, you looked at me, and TA Dorkman looked at both of us at the same time…during a test. I’m sorry he called you out. I apologized to you afterward, but you were a little feisty. So I talked to the TA separately. He told me…and I quote, ‘Mr. Fischer has not been penalized.’ ” Sky let out an amused half chuckle. “Just so you know, he enunciated every syllable so ‘penalized’ sounded like ‘penis-sized.’ I had to bite my tongue not to laugh and ruin the moment ’cause I was seconds away from asking if you either had a penis problem or needed dick.”
His eyes sparked with ready humor. I studied his full lips and licked my own before meeting his gaze and…there it was again. That woozy, “butterflies in my stomach” feeling I’d only ever gotten around insanely pretty girls I didn’t know how to talk to. Yeah, I knew what it meant. My body had gone rogue and decided it was okay to react to Sky the way I had around Sarah Bernardo our senior year of high school. She sat next to me in Trig and didn’t give me the time of day until she needed help with an equation. I didn’t take it personally. She was a popular cheerleader who hung out with the football crowd, and I played a sport she didn’t understand. But I didn’t trust people like her. Or Sky. Or anyone who used their looks to get what they wanted. And if I couldn’t trust Sky, neither could Harry.
I smiled weakly and tried to think of a response to his penis quip, ideally without blushing or popping wood. It wasn’t gonna be easy because I’d actually felt his dick…against mine, no less. And I hadn’t hated it. That was the part that scared me most. Was I gay or bi or curious? Or just a guy on the verge of a nervous breakdown? And what were we even talking about?
Oh, yeah. The job.
“Why do you want to work for Harry?” I glowered.
“It’s not personal. I need a job. My season doesn’t start till January. I’m a fifth-year senior. I have two classes and way too much time on my hands. Oh yeah, and I’m broke. My student loans don’t kick in until late August.”
“Hmm. Still seems weird.”
Sky huffed. “How is it weird? It’s just a job.”
“It’s weird because I never saw you on campus before this summer. I don’t know you, and I don’t trust you. And Harry is too nice for his own good. He probably offered you something the second you said you were in my class. I bet he didn’t ask any important questions.”
“Sure, he did. We talked about software programs and analytic data and he asked about some econ theorems and…you know, accounting stuff,” he said with an irritated shrug.