Chapter Eight Summer #2
“Yeah. Fine.” His lips curve into a smile that isn’t all that convincing.
“You’re not fine. Or if you are, then you’re a robot with no emotion.”
“Beep. Beep. I am Rowan,” he says in a mechanical voice while moving his arms like a Ken doll. He’s smiling again—a real one.
“Why don’t you just talk to her and tell her you want to get back together?”
“She’s talking to Ronnie.”
“Maybe, but she’s obviously jealous.”
“How do you get that?”
“Please. Why else would she talk to me when you’re sitting right next to me? She’s acting like she doesn’t care, but that’s twice now she’s basically given me the green light to date you.”
Rowan quirks a brow. I already told him she thought we were talking, but not the complete story.
“At practice last week, she asked if we were talking and said it was fine if we were. I told her there wasn’t anything going on between us,” I clarify quickly. “But I’m not sure she believed me.”
“Made worse by my coming over here.” He groans like he’s just realized how it must look that he keeps hanging out with me.
I’m still not sure why he does either, but it feels like a bad time to pile on by asking him.
“She also mentioned that you weren’t really into relationships.”
He huffs a laugh. “Yeah, well, that part is true.”
“I’m not sure I believe you.”
“We were never official, Amanda and me.”
“But you wanted to be?”
Instead of answering my question, he poses one of his own. “You know who else thought you and I were a couple?”
While he waits for my answer, he picks up a fry and tosses it in his mouth.
“Who?”
He finishes chewing and then says, “Kristy from FLU.”
“Oh my gosh, why?”
Rowan shrugs. “I guess she assumed that was why I asked you to hang out and why you stayed even though you weren’t being paid.”
I stayed because talking to Val was the single most exciting thing that’s happened to me in weeks…maybe months.
“She asked me to invite you to work at the next event. It’s at the Frost Lake career center. Same sort of thing. Four hours, a hundred bucks, not a bad gig.”
“Really?” I try and fail to contain my excitement. Getting paid will be nice, but it’s more time with Kristy that has me giddy. If I can impress her, surely that will help my chances at getting into FLU.
He shoots me an amused grin. “I’m guessing by your reaction that you’re in?”
“Yes. Definitely.”
“Cool, I’ll send you the details.”
“Wait. Do I have to pretend to be your girlfriend while we’re there?”
“Nah. Unless you want to. That could be fun.” He winks.
I roll my eyes, and he chuckles softly under his breath.
This is great. I need to check the schedule at the club and make sure I’m not working that day or find someone to switch.
When I look back at Rowan, he’s glancing around the cafeteria. I follow his line of sight to Amanda sitting next to Ronnie at another table.
“If you want her back, then you should just ask someone out for real,” I say.
He blinks like he didn’t realize he was staring and looks back at me. “Why would I do that?”
“If she’s this jealous that you’re hanging out with someone, imagine if you were really talking to someone else.”
“I don’t know.” He’s skeptical. Bless his clueless boy heart. It isn’t his fault. The complicated workings of the teenage girl brain should be studied.
“I promise you. She cares.” She only talked to me at practice after he hung out with me at Boone’s party and then today when he’s sitting next to me. “She wants her cake and to eat it too.”
He squints. “I never understood that saying. Who has cake and doesn’t want to eat it?”
I laugh softly. “My point is, she wants you to want her even if she’s with Ronnie.”
“But she could be with me if she just stopped talking to him.”
“I didn’t say it was logical.”
He laughs again. “She wouldn’t buy it. I’ve never dated anyone else. Not like that.”
“Which would only make her more jealous,” I argue. “Just ask someone out and see what happens. I agree it isn’t the most mature plan, but it’d be a quick way to see how she really feels. And in the meantime, maybe going out with someone else will help you realize that she isn’t that great.”
Seriously, Amanda is pretty and she’s a good soccer player but otherwise, I don’t see the appeal.
He doesn’t look convinced at first, but he shoves in three more fries and looks around contemplatively as he chews.
Finally he bobs his head. “Yeah. You’re right.”
He’s still staring off into space like he’s deep in scheming thoughts.
“That’s a great idea.”
“It is?” Now I’m surprised. “Great” might be a stretch, but I have no doubt it’ll work.
“Yes.”
“Glad I could help.”
He looks at me now. His smile slowly stretches wide until he’s grinning at me. It’s a little unnerving having his complete focus on me while he looks so happy. My stomach flips and warmth pools low in my belly.
And he keeps on smiling at me.
He’s looking at me like a man with a plan. A man with a plan that involves me in a way I’m not going to like. That happy, light feeling vanishes and dread takes its place. “Oh no.”
“Why not? Everyone thinks we’re talking anyway.”
“But we aren’t. I barely know you.”
“Then you can get to know me.” Rowan shrugs like this is a great bonus to an already amazing plan.
“You’re asking me out to make your ex jealous. Gee. I feel so special.” I let out a short, dry laugh. “Why would I want to get to know you?”
“I don’t know, maybe we could be friends or something.”
“Friends?”
“Why not? I’m a good friend. All my friends say so.”
“My brother hates you, for one.”
“Do you hate everything and everyone your brother does?”
I consider that, but only to make a point. “Everyone, yes, but I refuse to hate peanut butter just because he thinks the texture is ‘icky.’” I air quote the last word, and as I do, I picture Silas shuddering as he watches me take a spoonful of peanut butter from the jar.
Rowan laughs. He’s back to looking like a happy, carefree guy. This version is hard to resist. His expression shifts and he regards me seriously. “It’s only for a little while, and when we break up, it’ll give you and your brother more ammunition to talk shit.”
His logic, while perhaps true, doesn’t make this scenario any less bizarre.
“This is absurd.”
“Is it? You get to spend time chatting up Kristy at all the FLU events your heart desires, and I can show Amanda that I’m the kind of guy who can be in a relationship and find out how she feels about me.”
My mind whirls with too many thoughts to articulate a single one. I do want to spend more time with Kristy, and I was the one to suggest he ask someone out. I just didn’t mean me.
“And I will introduce you to everyone else at FLH. If what you say is true, that people are nicer to you when I’m around, then six weeks should be plenty of time to introduce you to everyone I know and make them like you.”
“Six weeks?” I was picturing a single date. Maybe a week of sitting together at lunch.
“That spans the recruitment events this fall, and it’s plenty of time to introduce you to people at school, games, and parties.”
“I don’t know. What if she takes her jealousy out on me and starts being a jerk in practice again?”
“Fair point. That would suck.” He seems to consider that for a moment.
“I don’t think that will happen, but if it does, then we’ll stage a breakup immediately and call it good.
” He tips his head to my teammates around the table and lowers his voice even more.
“Hopefully by then the rest of the team will have had a chance to see how awesome you are.”
I wonder if he means that or if he’s just trying to convince me to go along with his plan.
I don’t get the feeling that the other girls on the team think Amanda and Rowan are good together, so I doubt they’d think it was weird.
Plus, it isn’t like Amanda and I are friends.
Still, dating a teammate’s ex is a weird line.
“If for any reason one of us wants to stop sooner, we call it,” he reiterates. “I’ve got your back.”
My throat is thick and my heart rate increases. I can’t believe I’m even considering it.
“How awful could it be? You get to hang out with me. I’m awesome.” His cocky charm only makes me more hesitant.
He wants to win Amanda back, and I want to survive this year without everyone looking at me like the enemy.
Is it possible this will get us both what we want?
I look around at MJ, talking and laughing with Rina.
I think I could be friends with these girls.
And more importantly, I think we could be a good team.
When I glance at Rowan again, he’s still smiling at me, brows raised slightly. He looks so hopeful that I can’t help but feel some of it too.
“Okay. I’m in.”