Page 100 of Apparently, I’m Trouble

I couldn’t even say it, let alone do it.

His stare burned into my skin. He came closer, his steps slow and careful. “Then don’t. I’ll do whatever you want to do. Just… stay. Please. I’m not done yet.”

Nervously, I uncrossed my arms and fidgeted with the clasp of my bag. My mouth felt dry, and I tried to buy some time by pulling out my small bottle of water. Instead, my fingers brushed against the two boozy bingo cards I’d made last Sunday.

I’d crossed out twelve squares this week. Which meant I got to drink six shots of whatever I wanted. The other six were usually for Lilly.

God, I missed her. It had been weeks since I told her that lie after our meeting with Ashley, and I’d felt on edge around her ever since. I just wanted to be able to tell my best friend about this thing I did. This six-foot-three, oddly charming thing.

And I wanted to do it over a drink.

I held up the cards. “Will you boozy bingo with me?”

Theo frowned, then came close enough to read one of my crossed-out boxes. “‘Drink whenever Gem calls one of the students a telenovela star in the making’?”

I let him take one of the sheets. “She loves telenovelas. They’re her thing.”

He raised a brow at the card in his hand. “And drinking whenever Lilly gushes about Shawn’s thighs is a thing too?”

I pointed at the paper. “That’s Mr Jackson, one of our other teachers. They’re dating, and she gushes about his thighs a fair bit. Honestly, it’d be weird if I didn’t drink.”

He turned the sheet around in his hand, looked at me, and asked, “You’ll stay if I play this game with you?”

I nodded. “First, we drink the twelve drinks I’ve earned, then I make new cards for next week.”

He frowned. “This is… an odd game, Mia.”

I gave him what had to be a flustered little grimace, then held my hand out for the card. “That’s me. I’m odd and sarcastic and probably too inappropriate to be what you’d call a proper teacher, and I’m fine with that. If you don’t want to play, then–”

He kept the card out of my reach and said, “No. That’s not what I meant. I want to do this with you.”

Chapter 40

Theo

THEO’S APARTMENT

Sunday Night

I started singing and Mia begged me to stop.

Sticking her fingers in her ears, she said, “Oh god, you are horrible. How can someone with such a growly voice sound this bad?”

I grinned, put my mouth to her ear, and sang again. She screeched, whirled in her seat, and pushed my chest. I pulled away and laughed.

“You weren’t kidding about those singing lessons. You really can’t sing for shit,” she muttered, picking up her pen.

At seeing the slight smile on her lips, I started humming instead.

Dusk turned to night as I read out my last square, then threw back my final shot. It burned on the way down as Mia, already finished with hers, drew up a new set of bingo squares for next week.

Feeling warm and a little too comfortable, I pressed my shoulder into hers and read the two squares she’d already filled in.

“You wrote ‘Don’t make out with Theo’ and ‘Keep it in your big boy pants’?”

“Well, obviously,” she said, her voice soft and rounded. “If I can get through this next week without pulling off your trousers, I deserve a drink.”

I hooked a hand under her chair and dragged her closer to me. This game was fun. And it was very Mia.