Page 18 of Certified Heartthrob

Since nothing else I had done that day seemed sufficient to shake off all the gross feelings that were settling in, I resorted to reaching for my phone and pulling up her name in my contact list. I had saved it from the time she called to set me up on her hand-picked dates.

Mark: I’m sorry. I’m not a morning person. Maybe I can make it up to you sometime?

I cringed the moment it was sent. What was I doing? This couldn’t lead anywhere good. But that didn’t stop me from jumping at the chime sound, signaling her response.

Camille: I know the perfect way for you to make it up to me: get off our app and leave us alone.

My hand gripping the phone dropped to my chest. I deserved that.

Mark: If I do that, would you go to dinner with me again?

Her response took longer this time. I watched the three little dots pop up on the screen and disappear again, over and over. I had given up and let the screen fall dark when, finally, the phone dinged again.

Camille: I’ll think about it.

The promise made me smile...which made me feel like an idiot. Was this how it had happened with my ex? The happy memories had been buried beneath all the hurt for so long, I couldn’t remember anymore. I had a sneaking suspicion that these were the breadcrumbs that led straight to disaster. You see one, then another...until it’s too late and you’re so far in you can’t see your way out.

But at least, for the moment, it was enough to let me put the phone away and get some sleep. The butterflies in my chest...the knots in my stomach...the sexy, hot flashes of memory filling my brain and making me sweat...It was everything I hated, everything I wanted to avoid. How could my mission to run from all of it send me crashing right into it again?

The next morning, I went about my usual volunteering obligations, doing my best to stay busy and keep Camille off my mind. I figured she could use the time to cool off and think things over. For that matter, so could I.

But that afternoon, when I stopped for lunch, I found myself getting sucked into a deep wormhole of internet articles about her brother’s marriage. Could she have been telling the truth? Did Lucas Meadows really love his high school sweetheart and accidentally end up with her after what had started as nothing more than a scam to fix his reputation?

I could see now how you could set out to do one thing and end up accomplishing the opposite. That’s exactly what seemed to be happening with Camille and me. She’d tracked me down to get me off their backs and somehow just pulled me in deeper. I had set out to prove my point about love being a hoax and was already feeling the initial seed of it all over again....whether I liked it or not.

9

Camille

Many of the things I’d believed to be true about Mark Silver had proven to be true. He was bitter, self-righteous, and arrogant. Which was exactly why I had no problem telling him to fuck right off in our last text message exchange.

But then when he proposed us having dinner again...why did my heart flutter like that? Maybe because while all those things had proven to be true, he was also giving, funny, drop-dead gorgeous...and was so good in bed that my toes curled just thinking about it.

I had the upper hand. He obviously felt bad for the way things went down between us, and maybe—just maybe—he was starting to feel bad for trolling our app in the first place. So, when I told him I would think about it...what I really meant was,I want to bask in my momentary victory while you sit and stew in your regret until you feel bad enough to start rethinking your actions.

It left me with a proud, satisfied smile that morning as I sat at my desk, tending to my usual daily task list. I was feeling pretty damn good about everything until my oldest brother, Lucas, came knocking on my door.

“Mind if we chat for a minute?” He flashed his usual nonchalant smile, like everything in the world was perfect and he was without a care.

But he wouldn’t be asking to chat unless something was wrong, so I wasn’t falling for it. Did I mind if he took up some of my time? Truthfully, yes, I did. But I also had that floaty cloud nine feeling, which I knew in the back of my mind only came from having a new crush—which was a fact I wasn’t really ready to face yet. All the more reason to embrace my brother’s visit as a welcome distraction.

“Sure thing. Come on in.”

He strolled in and shut the door behind him, taking the seat across from my desk. “Jack tells me you’ve been handling this internet troll business.”

So, maybe it wouldn’t be so much of a distraction after all.

“Yes, that’s right.” I smiled tightly.

“And Joshua tells me that you...actually went and saw the guy in person?”

I rolled my eyes in a huff. “Joshua has a big mouth. Yes, I did. But it was all a part of the plan. Everyone needs to just trust me.”

He grumbled under his breath and shook his head. “Oh, no...he told me that, too. He said you were convinced you could change the guy’s tune. Set him up on a date worth his while and spin the whole thing to our advantage.”

I suddenly felt like I was on the chopping block and was finding it difficult to swallow. “Yes, that’s correct.”

“Uh-huh.” His eyes burned into me from his blank expression, showing only a subtle, smug grin. “And how’s that going?”

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