Page 57 of Bookworm
I started to stand but before I could reach for my spritz, Addy clamped down on my wrist. “You arenotactually going over there, are you?”
“It feels weird not to,” I said. “I mean, I’m dating his son. Maybe I owe it to him to at least be cordial?”
“You don’t owe that man shit,” Enzo said.
“Not him,” I clarified. “Adam. Maybe I owe it to Adam to be polite to his father.”
“It’s never a bad idea to take the high road,” Haylee said.
Addy and Enzo whipped their scowls to her like she was a regular Benedict Arnold. But I seized the opportunity to slip from their grasps and with my spritz in hand, I made my way across the bar, carefully sliding into the seat beside Elijah.
I didn’t dare take my eyes off of him. Like a snake, I knew the second I did—the moment I let my guard down—that’s when he would strike.
“Mr. Stone,” I said.
“Harper, please. We’re both adults now. You can call me Elijah.”
It felt like a trap, though for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why. “How are you… um, Elijah?” His name felt weird in my mouth. Foreign. Like a four letter word. But despite that, I was impressed with myself that I managed to keep my voice steady, especially considering how badly my hands were shaking.
I slipped them beneath the bar, squeezing my fists against the sides of my pants to try to calm down my trembling fingers.
“Very well. You know, I thought I was seeing a ghost the other day in the faculty cafeteria of Dartmouth. I saw you comein, but I thought to myself,No, Harper couldn’t be here at Dartmouth.”
He laughed. Laughed right in my face. At the thought of me being at Dartmouth… again.
In spite of the comment that on the surface seemed so innocent. But we both knew what he really meant by those words.Harper couldn’t be at Dartmouth. She’d never be accepted as a student here, let alone faculty.
I gave him a tight smile. “You’re right. After getting my masters degree from Oxford, Dartmouth is the last place I ever expected to be, too.”
“Oxford,” he repeated, his brows lifting from behind his dark, plastic glasses.
I rolled my shoulders back triumphantly.That’s right, you pompous ass. Oxford! Put that in your arrogant Ivy League pipe and smoke it!
“Well,” he continued after a sip of beer, “Mummy and Stepdaddy must have had a hand in getting you in there, right?” He said the latter with a terrible British accent.
Do not punch your boyfriend’s father in the face… do not punch your boyfriend’s father in the face…
“Actually, I didn’t ask for their help at all. I did it all on my own.”
A grin twitched at the corners of my mouth as shock registered on his face. I’d waited years to see that face. Years of dreaming what it would be like to look into the eyes of the man who underestimated me and tell him just how wrong he was.
“Well, then,” he said after recovering for a moment. “I think you owe me athank you.”
“I oweyoua thank you? What the hell for?”
“Oh come on. All those years ago when Adam and I were on Facetime, I could see you there in the background listening in on our conversation.”
My throat dropped into my stomach. “You… you knew I was there? You said all those horrible thingsknowingI was listening?”
Elijah rolled his eyes. “Always so dramatic. I spoke the truth. It’s not my fault if the truth was horrible. And it sounds like it was the kick in the pants you needed to make something out of your life. So…you’re welcome.”
I sat there, my jaw gaping open. “I waseighteen. You broke my heart. Dammit, Elijah, you brokeyour son’sheart.”
He snorted. “First of all, don’t flatter yourself. And second of all,youbroke my son’s heart. No one forced you to ghost him. You could have ended things. Said goodbye.”
Adam’s dad was such a bastard. Such a smug, self-entitled, arrogant bastard. “What were you doing with Jasmine in the faculty cafeteria?” I snapped, asking him point-blank.
His smirk grew, like he was just waiting for me to ask that. “Oh, I’ve known Jasmine for years. She and Adam have been close for a while.”
