Page 73 of Carter

“Are you sure that’s the real reason you’ve cut back your hours?” Carter suddenly said, his voice thick with doubt.

I stared daggers at him, challenging him with, “What other reason could there be?”

He shrugged, setting his hand casually on the girl’s thigh, causing her to lean into him even more. “You glare at me an awful lot. It’s almost like you’re avoiding me.”

“If I’m avoiding you, Carter, it’s probably because my brain cells can’t afford to die off more than they already have around your cocky egotism.”

Jared laughed, and to my surprise, so did Carter. He nodded at me. “Maybe. Or you can’t hack wanting what you can’t have.”

Now Jared’s laughter completely died off and his eyes widened. He stared between the two of us. I gazed at Carter for several moments, thinking of a million things I could say to tear that ego to pieces, but then it would make me look petty, and the last thing I needed was for him to win and think he got to me.

I just smiled at him instead and turned back to Jared, asking him sweetly, “Anything else you need, Jare?”

He shook his head. “Nah, Leah.”

“Good night, fellas.”

I was about to turn around when Carter let out sharply, “I’mnot done with you.”

I crossed my arms and turned to him. “I thought we had this conversation.”

He chuckled scathingly. “No, Angel, I’m not referring to our talk about you depreciating me into your roommate. I’m talking about the fact I’m thirsty.”

I clenched my teeth and resisted cursing at him. “Right, and what are you thirsty for, Carter?”

His eyes lazily skimmed me. “Somethingwet.”

“Something wet?”

“Unless that’shardfor you.”

Motherfucker.

“Well, lots of drinks are wet, Carter, is there anything youparticularlywant?”

He leaned back, staring at me intently as he replied, “How about you tell me what you prefer to wrap your lips around?”

My eye twitched. This guy. He was trying hard to wind me up in the hopes of watching me explode. Where had this come from? In hindsight, I knew he was prodding because he wanted to know where I was at. He needed to know if I was moving on. He wanted me angry so that he could see that I wasn’t. But that wasn’t going to happen. Didn’t he know me by now? How insulting.

“I’ve been tryingdifferentdrinks lately, Carter,” I sweetly replied with a fake smile, “and my lips have taken a great deal of pleasure wrapped around avarietyof them.”

His face fell and his lips parted. He was stunned silent, and it was my turn to smirk at him and add, “How about I get you our new drink? The Dried-Up Pussy cocktail. Maybe it’ll bewetenough for you.”

I turned around and hurried off, hearing Jared burst into laughter as I went. I was shaking in anger, pissed off beyond belief and seriously contemplating quitting this job altogether on my way to Mel. She had watched the exchange, and when I shot her an angry look, she knowingly looked over my shoulder and glared daggers at Carter.

I felt his eyes on me the entire night. Mel had updated me throughout, telling me he’d ditched the girls, or maybe they had ditched him after he’d shut down as soon as I’d left him. He was moody, and when Jared eventually left him, he sat alone, drinking and… staring.

I could hardly focus from all this sudden attention.

When my shift ended, I cursed as we got ready to leave and said, “I don’t know how I’m going to survive Winter Break awayfrom classes. I’m going to be on the verge of a breakdown if I’m not busy doing something.”

“Come out and party with me then,” she urged with a wink. “It’ll take your mind off the dick and your break will fly by when you’re too busy having fun.”

“Somehow drinking doesn’t sound all that great right now.”

“You say that, but when it comes time, you’re going to be glad you did. Sometimes it’s nice to just forget.” She said this with a strange look in her eye that had me wondering what problems she was having.

“Come on,” she pleaded. “We’ll have a night out in town and who knows? Maybe we’ll have so much fun, it’ll be our thing.”

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