Page 70 of Playboy For Hire

“Oh. Right.” He shook his head. “I don’t know where my brain is these days.”

“What were you doing yesterday that had you so busy?”

I couldn’t help asking, but I said it with a smile, like I didn’t care about the answer and wasn’t imagining Ryder spending lastnight with some super hot guy who made him come twelve times and whom he was planning on marrying next week.

“Oh, nothing important.” Ryder waved his hand.

“It must have been a little important. You didn’t respond for a while.”

“I was out with a client. Didn’t see your text for a bit.”

A feeling I couldn’t quite identify ran through me. Relief mixed with…was that jealousy? That was ridiculous. Ryder being out with a client didn’t mean his feelings about me had changed, and I wasn’t supposed to care about his feelings anyway. Damn Jae-won for getting in my head.

“Cool.” I grinned. “I hope it was a good night.”

“It was fine. Nothing to write home about, but that’s how most clients are.”

That brought a rush of pleasure. Whoever the client was, Ryder clearly didn’t care about them like he did about me. But did he still think of me as a client?

“Anyway, I’m glad you’re here. You’re giving me an excuse to stop staring at this.” He gestured at the surface of his desk.

“What is all that?” From the textbook, it had something to do with math.

“Homework. I should never have pushed this class off ‘til my last semester.”

“What class is it for?”

“Macroeconomics. A requirement. I put it off because micro was such a pain in the ass.” He slammed his laptop shut and spun hischair around to face the rest of the room. “I don’t even know why I bother. It’s not like it’s gonna pull my whole GPA up, and no one’s hiring me anyway.”

“What do you mean?” I walked into the room and sat on the edge of his bed.

“Just that. I’m not going to get a job, so it doesn’t matter. All I need to do is pass the class. My grade isn’t going to make a difference.”

I frowned. “Have you not applied for any jobs after graduation?”

This didn’t make any sense. Ryder was so confident. Even if he was worried about his grades, I couldn’t figure out why he was so convinced no one would hire him.

“Oh, no. I’ve applied to like, hundreds. But then I found out that I might as well not have bothered because there’s a black mark next to my name on some industry-wide memo that says, ‘Don’t hire this loser, he’ll fuck up all your shit.’ So, you know. It really doesn’t matter.”

“What? Why?”

“Because they’re right.” He spread his hands helplessly. “I mean, it was a mistake. If I’d been paying more attention, if I could actually use my brain for something useful, it wouldn’t have happened. But since I’m a dumbass and incapable of doing any of that, they’re probably right not to hire me.”

“What was the mistake?”

He ran a hand over his face, stretching his features out. “It’s too embarrassing. If I tell you, you’re going to think I’m an idiot. Which, for the record, I am. But then you won’t want to be friends anymore.”

“Ryder, we already are friends. Did you kill a puppy with your bare hands?”

“No, but—”

“Then I don’t think whatever you say is going to change my mind. So, come on, tell me this horrible thing you did.”

He sighed, then looked up at the ceiling. “Do you know Wadsworth & Lowe? The consulting company?”

I thought for a moment. “Not really, but the name sounds a little familiar. Why?”

“Because that’s where I worked last summer. And you probably know their name because of what I did.”

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