Love, Lies, and Deception(8)



“I’m going to miss you, too, and yes I will definitely come visit you. I can’t let you and Emily have all the fun now can I?” he agreed with a mischievous grin on his face. He was up to something, I could tell, but what I wondered.

When we got to our first class, Kristian and I separated and took our seats. It was a long hour and a half, but I was able to get by and take notes. When I glanced over at Kristian he was staring at his notebook with a blank expression on his face.

He seemed fine earlier, but I was sure he’d tell me if it was something serious. Surely, he wasn’t mad about me and Alec, was he? Kristian had never shown any romantic feelings for me before, so why would he have a problem with me and Alec? He was hiding something, and I could feel it. I just needed to find out what it was.





All during class, my mind wandered to what my evening would be like with Alec. What would I wear? What would we talk about? What were his intentions? It was all bombarding my mind, but my train of thought was interrupted when my cell phone buzzed with an incoming text. It was from Kristian.



Kristian: Pay attention and stop daydreaming!



I peered over at him sitting beside me and mouthed the word ‘sorry’ to him. It took all I had to try and pay attention to my professor and take notes. I could already tell Alec was going to be a bad influence on me.

After a long day of classes and the silent treatment from Kristian, which about killed me when he wouldn’t talk to me on the way back to the apartment, I was a wreck. He left with a simple ‘see ya’ and turned his back and walked away. Determined not to let it get me down, I stumbled into my apartment and headed straight for the refrigerator where I had a bottle of my favorite German Riesling chilling in the side door.

I fetched a wine glass from the cupboard and poured the cool liquid until it was rimming the top, just the way I liked it. I flung my bag of books onto the floor—out of the way—and took a seat on the sofa with my wine glass in hand, sighing as the first sip went down my throat.

Emily finally made an appearance, and when her gaze settled on me she said, “Uh oh, it’s not even five o’clock and you’re already drinking? What happened, babe?”

Taking a huge gulp of my wine, I let the crisp, fruity chill of the liquid slide down my throat before responding. “For starters, I’m nervous as hell about my date tonight, and secondly, Kristian is acting funny around me. I don’t know what his deal is.”

Emily’s eyes grew wide and she cackled. “Wow … um … I don’t know where to begin.” She poured herself a glass of wine and joined me on the sofa. “Although, I did already know about the date,” she informed me with a gleam in her mischievous eyes.

Choking on my wine, I gasped and turned my head to face her. She pounded on my back thinking it would help, but all it did was made my coughing worse. “How did you find out about the date?” I asked, sputtering.

Sheepishly, she grinned and lowered her voice. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you, but you know I can’t keep secrets from you. Anyway, hottie from downstairs came up here after you left this morning and banged on the door. I thought it was you, thinking you left your keys or something, but nope … it was him and he saw me all clad in my flannel pajamas and my hair in a hot mess. Needless to say, I wanted to crawl under a rock.”

I giggled at the image of her in my head wearing those ratty flannel pajamas while Alec stood there all sexy as hell. “What did he want?” I asked curiously.

She grinned. “He told me you agreed to have dinner with him so he wanted to know what your favorite foods were. I about died when he said he could cook. Justin can’t cook for shit.” My mouth fell open and I almost dropped my wine in shock.

“Really?” I squealed in disbelief, beaming as the smile stretched across my face. “What did you tell him? Please tell me you didn’t say my favorite was liver mush.”

Emily rolled her eyes and patted my leg. “Now why would I do that to you? I told him your favorite was pimento cheese.”

“What?!” I hated pimento cheese with a passion.

Emily cackled and a tear escaped her eye. “I’m just kidding, Rissa. Geez … calm down. The guy is showing some genuine interest in you and I don’t want to come between that, even though I’m a tad bit jealous. Maybe I should tell Alec your sick and take your place.”

“Hey, you have Justin!” I shouted incredulously. “I don’t think he’d like you doing that.”

Giggling, Emily held her hands up in defeat. “I know, I know. You can’t blame me for at least trying. Anyways, I don’t know of any guy who would’ve done what he did. If it doesn’t lead to anything serious, I’m sure you both could use the action if you know what I mean, especially you. With a body like his I’m sure he could do things I know boring ole Jason couldn’t do. Live a little and enjoy the last few months we have being free.”

Exasperated, I shook my head. “You’re a nut, you know that?”

“What? It’s true. You really need to get laid, Rissa. You’re much easier to be around when you do. Just use that pent up aggression on Alec. Besides, he told me you were making brownies and I know what chocolate can do to a person’s libido. Just spread that chocolaty goodness all over his body.”

“Is that all that’s on your mind these days? You and Justin must have a crazy sex life.”

L.P. Dover's Books