Page 12 of Enemies to Lovers

It’s like I’ve swallowed an entire lemon, the acid building on the back of my tongue. “Uh…”

“She told me last night.” Joy pulls her feet up onto the Lazyboy, crossing them under her butt. The show goes on in the background, but it’s all just noise now.

“Then she lied through her teeth.” There’s not a world I believe in where Val Johnson is “into” me. She’s always in the way, always there, always looking at me like… Well, like she likes to piss me off.

“Dude, this is perfect for you, then,” Ransom croaks, pulling the blanket tight around him. “Ask her out.”

I choke on a popcorn kernel. “W-what?”

“Hear me out…” He twists, the cough drop in his mouth clicking against his teeth. “She’s up for the same internship, yeah?”

“Yes…”

“Ask her out, get her toreallylike you, then maybe she’ll just… take her name out of the running.”

A laugh bursts from my gut, and Hunter and Paxton join me. Joy takes a throw pillow and chucks it at Ransom, hitting him square in the face.

“I can not believe you just said that.”

Ransom takes the pillow and shoves it between his head and the wall. “What?”

“That’s so manipulative! Why can’t he get the internship on his own merits, hmm?”

Sammie, Emerson, and Hazel all nod, banding together, while the rest of us share skeptical looks. They know it, and so do I. Every time I’m up against Val, I lose.

“You have a lot more faith in me than I do,” I mumble, reaching for Hershey. I need to pet my pup to get rid of the niggles in my chest. My leg would bounce, but Hershey’s put it to sleep.

“Yes, I do. You work hard, Miles.” Joy tucks a lock of her long, brown hair behind her hair and faces me head-on. “You work harder than anyone I know. You deserve this, and you’re going to get it.”

The corner of my mouth twitches. It’s nice she believes that. It’s almost enough to make me believe it myself. “Look, I appreciate it, Joy. But… this is Val. She just… well, she gets whatever she wants.”

“That can’t be true.”

“Who has that spa gift certificate?”

She rolls her eyes and waves me off. I turn to Hunter, who has a frown set on his lips.

“It’s not hopeless, Miles,” he says, ever the word of wisdom. “Keep working as hard as you can. Don’t pay attention to Val.”

“Hard when she’s always around.”

Ransom coughs and shakes his head. “Just saying… she probably thinks it’s flirting—this competition thing you have with her. Just give her what she wants, and she’ll back off.”

“Ransom…” Joy scolds, and he puts his hands up.

“Won’t say anything else.”

There’s a beat, and my brain pummels me during the silence.

Val’s face appears… that expression settled there when we compete, when we shit talk, when we’re in the middle of it all. It always bugged the hell out of me because shesmiledthrough everything. Always smiling at me, never mean, seemed at ease, almost like she was throwing it in my face that she didn’t have to work hard for it.

Maybe she wasn’t doing that at all. Maybe she was trying to spend time with me? Impress me?

I shake my head. It better knock that nonsense clean out of it.

“Brewster, hold up!”

The pit mix yanks on the leash, dragging me down the sidewalk with his sixty pounds of muscle. It’s been a day, that’s for sure, from picking him up at the shelter to showing him around my condo and loving on him every second he’ll allow. He’s not a cuddlebug, but that’s okay. Maybe he’s just shy.

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