Page 42 of Villainous Summer

Engineering was a mystery to me. The upside was that the lame talk had to make him less attractive, or I was in big trouble.

“Okay. Yeah, of course. You name the time and place. As long as I don’t have work.”

He knocked on my doorframe twice before stepping back, a big grin stretching his face and that damn dimple on his left cheek peeking out.

Dimples were supposed to be for babies and plush dolls. Not for sexy men who knew how to fix my car and smelled like soapy lemon.

“See you soon, Sunshine.”

I left him standing alone in the driveway, my hands shaky on the steering wheel. A few blocks down, I pulled over to the side of the road to catch my breath.

I couldn’t be distracted by Van. Yes, he was hot, and I was more than a little obsessed with the way those muscular arms felt around me. His lips were ultra soft against mine, and he certainly knew what he was doing with his fingers when . . .

Nope. Focus. This summer was not about getting all heartsick over some guy.

It was about making Cory pay.

Grabbing my phone, I pulled up the fake account.

No new notifications yet for Candy. This had to work. I needed more concrete proof that he was a cheater if I was going to go to Cory’s fiancée.

Swiping away Instagram, I navigated to my messages to shoot Van a text.

Summer: Keep that foot up. I need you in top boyfriend shape

Tilting my chin up, I stared at the dirty ceiling of my car and wondered if I was making a mistake. Whatever Van wanted out of me might have been fake, but I couldn’t help but admit this attraction was very real.

Van

Someone was in my office.

My steps faltered as I crossed the threshold to find a woman from R & D sitting in my chair, studying my daily fun-fact calender, a pencil in hand.

“Hi, Savvy. Welcome to my desk,” I said, setting my cup of coffee down.

She dropped the pencil and the calender. “Van! You scared me.”

“At my own desk?”

Her face turned red, and she stood, my chair skittering back.

“Sorry, I was going to leave you a note and then I saw the calendar, and I have a Pomeranian. I had no idea two escaped the Titanic. You must like them, too, right . . .” Somehow, her pink cheeks got even redder. “Obviously, you do.”

She moved around the desk, and I mirrored her movements until I was standing behind it, and she was in front.

“It’s a basic fun-fact calender. My mom gets me one every year.”

She had folded the page up, which had a little pencil smudge in the corner.

A flare of annoyance shot up, but I tamped it down.

Savvy was a nice enough woman, albeit a little enthusiastic.

“What can I hep you with?”

“I was wondering if you’re coming to the bar tonight? A bunch of us are going for happy hour, and you haven’t before, but I wanted to make sure you knew you were invited if you want to come.”

I considered the offer. Aside from seeing Xander a few times and my brief run-in with Ana at urgent care, I hadn’t spent much time outside of work with anyone. It would do me good to make acquaintances and build rapport with my coworkers.

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