Chapter 5
CHAPTER
FIVE
MILES
“This has to be a joke.” I hand the printed ticket with my tutoring assignment back to the curvy redhead working the desk.
She shakes her head and refuses to take the ticket from me. “No joke. You’re the only student in our tutoring pool that’s passed the class. You’re the obvious choice.”
“That guy is an ass. I’m not gonna be the one getting blamed when a couple of tutoring sessions aren’t enough to help little Annie pass the class. Send her to someone else.”
“There is no one else.” The busty desk assistant crosses her arms over her chest, hiking her tits up in the low-cut v-neck she’s wearing. I swear when I spare a glance at her cleavage she puffs them out even more.
Desperate doesn’t appeal to me. My interest is already lost, so I drop the ticket on her desk.
“Look, you don’t really have a choice.” Mr. Johnson steps out of his office behind Red’s post at the front desk. He sighs wearily. “Your uncle is a good friend of mine and already warned me you might be difficult. I’m under explicit instructions to call him immediately if you don’t participate in your assignments.”
I didn’t realize he continued listening to the conversation once he retreated to his office after introducing himself to me briefly as the head of the tutoring center. The harried man already seems fed up with me.
If I’m lucky, maybe he’ll fire me when he realizes I don’t have the disposition for tutoring work. Then he can deal with the fallout from Uncle Luca on my behalf.
“I have to ask one more time for good luck—are you sure I can’t have a different student to tutor?” I joke even as I snatch the ticket back up from Red’s desk. Better not lose my charge’s number and email address before I even reach out to set our meetings up.
“We’re sure,” Mr. Johnson answers for both of them.
Having the two of them both staring at me with their fed-up expressions is comical. Both of them have their cheeks puffed out in frustration so they look vaguely like pet hamsters.
“Oh and lucky you, here comes your tutee now.” Red clasps her hands together demurely on top of the desk and flashes a bright smile at someone as they walk up behind me. She sure as hell didn’t greet me nearly as enthusiastically.
Mr. Johnson slithers away to his office again. Now I know that he leaves the door open to eavesdrop on the front desk conversations. I make a mental note to call the front desk line and talk on the phone if I want to argue in the future. I might be able to wear Red down without the boss interfering.
“Did you find anyone?”
I narrow my eyes at the desperation in the newcomer’s voice. I’m not going to be the savior she’s hoping for, though Red’s eyes betray me by sliding over in my direction so that the other woman turns and we make eye contact.
Wide, icy blue eyes stare hopefully at me for all of about two seconds until she takes in my messy dark hair, facial scruff, and full-sleeve arm tattoos.
I try not to be too obvious with my glee as her mouth slowly tips down at the corners.
The fact that I showed up here in a leather jacket and jeans while the other tutors are in khakis and button-downs probably doesn’t help either. If there’s a uniform for working in the tutoring center for barely above minimum wage, no one informed me.
“You’ve taken Professor Parks?” Blue Eyes asks, tucking a pin-straight lock of shoulder-length dark hair behind her ear.
I nod stoically.
“And he passed?” She turns to ask Red the question, disbelief obvious in her voice. She seems like a goody two-shoes type but I guess she takes exception to practicing good manners with a guy like me.
“With a ninety-eight percent,” Red confirms on my behalf. I don’t love her sharing my grade information so openly but I do love the way Blue spins back to gape at me.
She opens and closes her mouth like a goldfish several times before I’m bored with this whole thing. I glance down at the tutoring ticket in my hand again. Annie K .
“Yeah some of us are actually smart enough for the classes we chose to take as freshmen,” I taunt her. Better for her to keep thinking ill of me than expect me to help her produce a miracle.
Annie’s complexion is pretty fair so it’s almost impressive how pale her skin turns as my words sink in. She squeezes her eyes shut for a second and I brace myself for a lame comeback.
Instead, she seems calm when she opens her eyes again and she takes a step closer to me. “I already have a rough outline for my next essay that I put together after meeting with Professor Parks yesterday. If we go over that today, I can revise as needed after his lecture tomorrow and then write my first draft over the weekend.”
“You wrote an outline?” My eyebrows rise high on my forehead as I stare at this alien of a coed in front of me. I expected her to crumble, not forge onward. “I’ve never heard a college student say they outlined anything.”
“I take my schoolwork very seriously.” Annie seems self-conscious as she tucks strands of hair behind her other ear. She doesn’t wear any makeup. With her hair pushed back to expose her entire face, it’s hard not to notice how delicate her features are.
At first glance, I might have called Annie cute at best. Up close, she’s almost uncannily attractive. As if someone AI-generated a beautiful woman with a perfectly symmetric face. So pretty she could be a science research topic.
The fact that I notice is off-putting.
“If you took your schoolwork seriously, you wouldn’t need me to tutor you.” I roll my eyes and turn, walking away from her so that I can take a break from studying her facial features. I don’t need her getting any ideas just because I find her looks briefly disarming.
“Sorry about him but he really is your best option,” Red apologizes to Annie as I make my way to the door.
Annie hastily responds, “I’ll make it work. Thank you.”
She moves quickly to catch up with me just outside the door, falling into step by my side as I make my way down the hall back toward the main part of the library building. The tutoring center is only a small corner of the college library. Red warned me while she was printing off my tutoring assignment info that the few private tutoring rooms in the center have to be reserved usually weeks in advance.
“My name is Annie.” Blue offers me her hand which I studiously ignore.
“Miles,” I grunt out in return.
She seems unfazed as she drops her hand and continues to chatter at me. “I have Professor Parks for Literature & Mythology on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I’ve turned in all three essay assignments so far but I haven’t…” Her pace falters for a few steps and she drops slightly behind me. “My assignments seem to be getting worse instead of better.”
I look over and laugh right at her face. People who genuinely try don’t get worse over time. That’s ridiculous.
“You know, it would be helpful if you at least tried to pretend you were interested in helping me.” Blue tips her chin up and straightens her shoulders. She looks like a little kid trying to be taken seriously.
“I’m not tutoring for fun, Little Orphan Annie. I’m here because I have to be—just like you.”
She exhales a strangled breath. “Such an original nickname. I’ve never heard that one before.”
I snort a bemused laugh. She’s more interesting when she gets snippy and bothers fighting back.
“Look, Blue.” I stop abruptly and watch her take a few extra steps past me before realizing and turning back. “I already took Professor Parks’ class. I’m not interested in pseudo-repeating the course because I’m stuck holding your hand through your assignments for the rest of the year. So whatever outline you put together yesterday, throw that shit away. Start over from scratch with a new outline and this time try a little harder, why don’t you?”
“You haven’t even looked at the outline I have. That’s not fair,” she protests.
“Life’s not fair.” I step around her and start walking again, fully intending to bail out of the library and head back to my apartment.
Blue grabs my forearm. There’s not enough force in her pull to yank me back but I stop short anyway to glare at the offending hand.
“Sorry.” She quickly withdraws her hand. “I scheduled a session for right now with the tutoring center, though. So I want you to know that if you leave right now instead of sitting down with me, I’m going back in there and asking for someone else.”
I want to tell her I don’t care and get the fuck out of here. I want her gentle threat to be meaningless.
Unfortunately, Luca’s warning about my college experience is too fresh. I have two and a half years left of college tuition to consider. I have some academic scholarships but not nearly enough to cover the costs of tuition. Not to mention I’m currently renting an apartment that Uncle Luca owns to avoid living with my dad and his newest leech of a wife.
“You’re already proving to be a real pain in my ass,” I grumble to Blue.
“I don’t care,” she throws back with a refreshing amount of sharp honesty. “I’ll do whatever I have to in order to pass this next assignment.” She hesitates, something dark passing over her expression before she qualifies her statement with, “Well, almost anything.”