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“Thank you.”
Jovan rolls his eyes. “That’s not a compliment, Hadley.”
“Sure sounded like one to me.”
I finish off my burger as he shakes his head and takes a sip of his wine. Jovan continues to eat, but he never looks away from me for long.
“You know, if you keep staring at me like that, you might just burn a hole through my body.”
He smirks and finishes his food. “You didn’t answer my question.”
“I need the money for school.”
Jovan scoffs. “It’s more than that. You say that it’s for school but you get this strange look on your face when you talk about it. That’s what tells me that it’s more than just needing money for school.”
“I told you. I had a shit childhood. I’m going to school to become a kindergarten teacher.”
“You want to work with people who are still pissing themselves?” He chuckles and sips his wine. “You know, you could do that in a nursing home and make a lot more money.”
“It’s not just about that.”
“Then explain it to me so I understand.”
I fiddle with one of the rings on my fingers, twisting it around and around as I look at the waterfall behind him. The blue lights are making the water look magical as it flows down the white stone wall.
“Teachers have the power to make a difference in a child’s life. If I had a teacher who cared enough to step into my life when I started going to school, things might have turned out differently for me.”
He nods for a moment and finishes his glass of wine. “You don’t seem like you’re going to tell me more than that.”
“To be honest, I don’t know why you would want to know more than that.”
Jovan gives me a smile that makes my heart skip a beat. “You’re not like anyone else that I’ve ever met.”
“That sounded like a normal person’s response,” I say as the waiter enters the room.
Jovan pulls out his card and hands it to the waiter. The waiter takes off with the card, leaving us alone again. As I watch him eat the last of the crab dip, I wonder if there’s more to Jovan than the life he’s crafted for himself.
When the waiter comes back with the card, Jovan gets up from the table and comes around to my side. He holds out his hand, waiting for me to take it.
Something shifts between us the moment I take his hand. I don’t know what it is, but it feels like I can’t turn back from whatever it is we’ve just started.
Jovan leads me out of the restaurant, his hand still wrapped around mine. My mind is racing a mile a minute, trying to figure out why he is acting this way and what he has to gain from it. None of this is making sense to me at all, though I desperately want it to.
He walks with me to my car, not prying for any other information. It’s only once we stop beside the car that he finally looks at me with that amused smile on his face.
“You know the other benefit to getting to know people is knowing how to destroy them,” Jovan says, leaning closer to me.
He stands in front of me, close enough that our chests are nearly touching. My breath hitches as he lowers his head, kissing me in a way that sets my nerves on fire.
When Jovan pulls away, my mind is reeling. I don’t know what this means or why he kissed me. I sure as hell don’t know why I let him. When he leaned in, I should have pushed him away and told him to get lost.
“Get home safely,” he says before turning and walking away.
I watch as he fades into the distance before turning and getting in my car. As I sit there, staring at the wheel, I know that I’m already in too deep.
Jovan has this way about him that draws me in and excites me. He’s like the high that my parents chased for years.
I need to stay as far away from him as possible.
