Page 29 of The Charade

But fake or not, I knew one thing: Ava Cohen was trouble.

And tutoring her this year might just be a lot more fun than I'd originally thought.

10

Carter

The next hourwas spent listening to our teacher, Mrs. Johnson, as she went over the course curriculum. The class seemed interesting enough. The Adult Roles class was only offered to seniors at our school—a class that was supposed to prepare us to go out into the world and act like upstanding, responsible citizens.

I'd mostly signed up for this class because I wanted an easy A to buffer the rest of my intense schedule. But who knows, maybe learning more about building healthy romantic attachments, and the responsibility of raising children later, might come in handy a few years down the road when I would be settled into my future position at Hastings Industries and would have more time to think about these things.

After the final bell of the day rang, Ava turned around in her seat and slid a folded-up piece of lined paper across my table. "This is for you," she said with a wink. "Wait until I leave to read it."

Before I could even open the note, she left the room with her skirt swishing around her long legs.

When I looked sideways at Mack to see what he was thinking about Ava's shenanigans, he had a stunned expression on his face. "Now, what exactly did you two do at lunch?" The way he swallowed told me that he too had noticed the sexy way Ava's hips had swung as she'd walked away.

"We just ate enchiladas and worked on our assignment," I said, knowing I probably looked as stunned as he did.

"Well, either you’re remembering it very wrong, or she just interpreted things differently because that girl’s not being subtle at all."

"Yeah." I blinked as I flicked the edge of the note she'd given me. "I think she's just trying to help me out with Sofia. But who knows, maybe she's crazy."

I really didn't know the girl yet.

Mack chuckled. "Well, if that's the kind of crazy the new girls are bringing with them, sign me up."

I shook my head and decided I might as well satiate my curiosity by reading what she'd written in her note.

Inside, in the same flowing cursive that she'd used on my hand and on my contract, was a note that read:

To Mr. Haughty McHot-Hot,

Pretty sure Sofia was trying to burn a hole in the back of my head all throughout class with her death glare. So…you're welcome. We'll talk more about how I want you to return the favor in the library.

xoxo,

Ava

And in a smaller script with an arrow pointing to the word "haughty" was a note that said:Yes, I spelled that right.

Oh Ava. You’re going to be quite the handful, aren't you?

I madeit to the library first.

Apparently, for all of Ava's antics in front of our class, she hadn't actually been as excited to meet up with me as she'd pretended.

While I waited for her to show up, I pulled out my AP Psychology textbook to get started on the reading assignment my teacher had given us for chapter one.

I had only made it through the first page before I noticed Ava appear at the entrance to the library with Nash at her side.

She laughed at something Nash said to her, and then after another short exchange where they smiled more than I ever could without it tiring my underused smile muscles, she handed him her phone to type what I assumed must be his phone number. And then she waved goodbye to him.

I set my psychology text aside and opened my math notebook to the page I'd written the answers to our interview questions earlier as she walked toward me in the back corner of the room.

"Looks like Nash didn't buy your little production from last period," I commented when she took her seat in the chair beside me at the small round table.

"I think it was more your side of it that he didn't buy." She shrugged. "He knows all about the no-dating clause in your contract and somehow figured out that you'd only flirt back with me if it was already known that nothing would ever happen between us."

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