Page 24 of Call My Bluff
Noah:Alright, fine. He’s lost his mind over a girl, and he’s going to further destroy my house because of it.
Noah:Better?
Olivia:Much.
Noah:I guess this makes me the enemy, huh?
Olivia:Yeah. It does.
Noah:Well, that could be fun. ;)
Olivia:I wish you could see how hard I’m rolling my eyes right now.
Noah:I can be there in ten minutes.
Olivia:Go to bed, Campbell. I’m not allowed to have wild animals in the house.
Noah:Aw! But I’ll sleep at the end of your bed, and I’m totally housebroken.
Olivia:Well, that’s something at least.
Noah made hisway quietly along the next-to-last row of bookshelves on the library’s second floor, an odd buzz of anticipation coursing through his veins. He’d finished his last final exam that morning. He had the night off work. There was absolutelynorational reason for him to be on campus again until the end of January... but he couldn’t help it. He felt like an addict who needed another hit—justone more nightto get him through the holiday break.
He paused at the end of the ancient history section when Olivia’s table came into view. There she was, just as he’d expected—her books spread out on the wooden surface and herhair secured almost haphazardly with a bright-red clip along the back of her head. Several tendrils had already escaped, and they hung like wisps around her face as she leaned forward, her chin resting on the heel of one hand. There was something about that look—the one that was both careless and intentional—that drove Noah crazy. Maybe it was the idea that such a put-together woman could come undone.
Olivia reached for a neon-green highlighter and moved the tip across a sentence in her book. “I know you’re standing there,” she said, without looking up.
Noah shook his head and made his way toward the empty seat across from her. “Were you waiting for me, Pix?” he asked as he sat down. He reached his hand hesitantly toward her open bag of popcorn, which he noticed was now out in the middle of the table. It had started the week securely in her lap, so in some small way it felt like he was making progress.
“I’ve made peace with the inevitable,” she mumbled. She glanced up, and her gaze caught on his hand as it inched toward her snack, but she made no move to stop him.
Noah grinned and tossed a handful of still-warm kernels into his mouth. “You know, if you really wanted to get rid of me, you would sit somewhere else.”
“Too much work,” she acknowledged with a sigh.
“Or maybe you don’t actually want to get rid of me that badly,” he suggested.
Olivia made a noncommittal sort of noise that wasn’t an agreement or an objection.
Noah decided to take it as a win. He watched as she returned to her book, and her lips moved ever so slightly, like she was reading to herself. She frowned again and circled something withher highlighter. He wasn’t cruel enough to distract her while she was legitimately focused, so instead he contented himself with eating her food and watching people stroll through the quad out the large window behind her.
It was creepy to stare at a person while they worked, after all.
But, despite his best efforts, his attention kept drifting back to her, like a magnet intent on finding true north. Her fruity perfume burrowed into his brain and wrapped around the memory that had lived there rent free for nearly three weeks: the quiet hush of that thrift store; the way the pulse in her wrist had pounded; the blaze of fire in her eyes when he’d leaned in.
“Don’t kiss me,”she’d said. How was it that three simple words—and negative words, at that—could play on repeat through so many different daydreams? He still wasn’t sure how he’d managed not to pin her against a wall and kiss her until she couldn’t walk a straight line. He’d only meant to get under her skin—maybe give her a reason to think about him after the afternoon was over.
Talk about backfiring.
Olivia finally sat up straight and shook her arms out by her sides. “I need a break,” she muttered.
“I give massages,” he offered, but Olivia met his hopeful expression with a skeptical one of her own.
“No thanks.”
Noah pushed his lip out in a childish pout. “But what’s the point of having me here if I can’t help you with anything?”
“I’m still trying to figure that out,” she shot back, and he couldn’t help but grin.
