Holly
Iknow the moment I’ve gone too far.
I see it in his eyes.
I know that no matter what he says, he’s not fine. Whatever crap his parents put him through, he’s not at all fine with it.
I know people well enough to know that.
I also know people well enough that I should know better.
When someone who is smart and proud and hurt says they’re fine, that is absolutely the time to nod, agree, and walk away.
Because smart, proud, and hurt is a tough combination to crack.
But do I nod, agree, and walk away?
No.
That would have been the prudent thing to do.
Instead, I do the really stupid thing.
I reach out my hand and take a step closer to him.
What’s the plan here?
Am I going to hug him and stroke his hair and promise it will be okay? Have him curl up in my lap and read him Harry Potter, which his damn parents clearly should have done when he was a kid?
I don’t know.
I don’t have a plan beyond the mindless urge to touch him. To comfort him somehow.
To connect and soothe.
And that’s my mistake right there.
Because I should know by now that Max Ramsey isn’t the kind of guy you soothe. He isn’t the kind of guy you connect with.
Shitty parents or not, brilliant or not, wounded or not, the guy is an asshole.
The second I reach out to him, he steps back, his gaze narrowed in anger.
“I don’t need your pity,” he says darkly. “I don’t need anything from you but your fashion sense.”
Okay. That stings a little. Because, yeah, at a university like this one, there are plenty of people who assume I’m just a pretty face. Particularly because I used to be Mrs. Thorndyke and I only have my master’s. I’ve got a lot going against me.
But if Ramsey thinks that little jab is enough to send me running in tears, he’s got another thing coming.
I cross my arms over my chest. “You’re going to have to do better than that.”
His gaze narrows just a little. “Am I?”
“What? You think you’re the first arrogant professor on this campus to dismiss me solely because I’m a woman? And because I know how to pick out clothes? Think again.”
“Don’t kid yourself. It’s not just you I dismiss for caring about clothes. And it’s not just women, either. I understand there are plenty of people in the world who aren’t smart enough to study the world’s big problems. But those of us who are shouldn’t be judged by the asinine standards of people like you.”
People like me?
