Page 51 of The Arrangement

“You know you don’t owe him right?” I asked hesitantly, keeping my eyes on the melting ice in my cup. “Your grandfather, I mean.”

Quinn shrugged his muscular shoulders and I dug in, feeling a bit emboldened by being in my own home.

“I mean it, Quinn, you’re a good…you’re a good person.” I wanted to say more, I wanted to say that he was more than that. That I could tell how much he cared for people and how much he gave of himself. It was on the tip of my tongue but I held back, because if I bared my soul this way nothing good could come of it.

Softly, a smile lit his handsome face, allowing the dimple on his cheek to deepen. “You’re not too bad yourself Clark.”

I was never one for small talk, and something that had been living in the back of my mind since 9th grade was pestering to break free as silence overwhelmed us.

“Why did you hate me in high school?” I quickly asked, ripping it off like a Band-Aid in case my resolution failed me. Quinn looked confused, his hand stilling over Hannah’s black and white frame.

“I didn’t hate you. Why do you think I hated you?” He seemed genuinely curious, something that irked me—because what do you meanwhy?

I groaned, dipping a chip deep into the dip a little bit aggressively. “You never, like,didanything, but you would always be…I don’t know,staringat me. Like you were trying to figure out why I was there. Like I was an insect or something. Then you forgot my name at graduation when I tried to extend an olive branch.”

Sebastian Quinn was quiet, his face softening as his gaze turned from confusion to contemplation.

“Well, I was a stupid high school boy, first,” he opened, shrugging a bit before shaking his head. “I can’t say I wasn’t trying to figure you out. I had everything in the bag before you showed up; the grades, the sports, the friends. You challenged me. Then after the injury, I was obsessed with winning Charles’ favor back—I guess doing the same thing you were doing. Proving my worth.”

He opened his mouth before closing it again and sighing deeply. “I was deeply unhappy, Clark, and in my head the way to happiness wasproving I wasn’t worthless to my grandfather. That I was better than my father. I think I was just trying to figure out how you did it all so effortlessly.”

I scoffed, “I hate to break it to you, but I had panic attacks daily over those grades. I ate lunch in the library because I was too nervous to talk to anyone.”

Quinn was quiet for a moment before his face broke into a morose smile. “To childhood trauma and a truce?”

I bit my lip, looking at his plastic cup suspended in the air, and lifted my own to tap it. “Truce, Quinn.”

He helped me clean, even taking out my overflowing trash and reminding me to ice my elbow. His eyes flickered to my lips, and my breath caught in my lungs at the motion. It was odd, him at the door like he was waiting for something and I longing to give it to him. Instead, Quinn smiled. “See you in a few days, Clark.”

Something ached inside of me and I swallowed hard, biting the inside of cheek to stop my myself from saying anything stupid.

He was gone without another word, leaving me with a bag of defrosting peas in my hands and a lovelorn cat winding around my ankles. I looked down at Hannah with narrowed eyes. “Traitor.”

Chapter 26

Sebastian

Itried to concentrate at work. I really did. The whole place was abuzz with a new big client coming in, but to be honest, I didn't really give two shits. Because tonight was filming night, and I was sweating through my fucking button-up shirt.

"You good man?" Fletcher asked, startling me from my reverie.

"Yeah, sorry, just spaced out for a minute. What did you say?" I asked, running a hand down my face, hoping desperately to clear my head. It was colder than it had been in a while, and between episodes of my mind running wild with tonight's filming, my shoulder decided to flare up unexpectedly, putting a damper on my mood.

"I said, do you want to come out to the city for my girl's birthday party?" The tall Viking of a man leaned forward onto my desk to grab my phone and tap something in the map bar. "Here's the address; we're getting a hotel, too. So we can get completely shitfaced."

I raised my eyebrow and picked up the phone to see the location just under an hour away. "Tomorrow?" I asked warily, adding, "I didn't even know you had a girlfriend."

Thomas grinned and stood. "I mean, she doesn't necessarily know it yet, but we're 'talking.' But I will stop at nothing to get this girl to add stupid little hearts next to my name in her contacts. So, I need youto come so I have someone from my friend group while we chill with hers."

I leaned back in my chair, the tiredness seeping into my bones. I had lain in bed with a fucking boner for over an hour, wishing it away before I finally jerked off, thinking of the feeling of Georgia Clark's skin underneath my fingers. My sleep after that was fucked.

"Remember when you pantsed me in the cafeteria?" he asked darkly, staring at me unblinkingly.

I huffed, "That was in 8th grade, Fletcher."

He nodded in concession. "It was, but the invisible scars run deep. However, this act of contrition would perhaps heal said wounds."

"Don't you have any other friends?" I groaned, knowing deep down I would be going whether I was excited or not.

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