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“Let’s go, kids,” Aunt Penny said. She grabbed Uncle James’ arm.

He nodded and turned around.

Scarlett hurried over to me. “Thank you.” She hugged me into her side. “I don’t want to be grounded ever again.”

I laughed. “No problem. Besides it was true.”

“We really didn’t think this stalking our teachers here thing through, did we?” she said.

“Yeah.” We’d totally forgotten that her dad was also a teacher at Empire High. Which meant he’d been invited too. It was so awkward to be at the same club as Scarlett’s parents. And I would have been a little embarrassed about being escorted out of the club, but tonight had been a win. A win after a string of failures. A win I’d desperately needed.

No, Mr. Halifax hadn’t touched me. But he’d been watching while someone else did.

I looked over my shoulder before we walked out. But I wasn’t sure if I was looking for Mr. Halifax or my mystery man in the crowd. Not that I knew what my mystery man looked like.

But I felt my skin prickle. And I had a feeling he was watching me.

Chapter 4 – Shrek

Monday

My dad didn’t get upset. He high fived me. And then I spent the rest of the night in my room researching Aphrodite.

Aphrodite had been forced to marry Hephaestus. I was pretty sure my mystery man thought Mr. Halifax was my Hephaestus. A mistake.

And his words had left a pit in my stomach. I’d grabbed a book from my mom’s office and spent all Sunday reading about Greek mythology.

Aphrodite had affairs the whole time she was married to Hephaestus. She’d slept with other gods and mortals. I’d asked my mystery man who he was if I was Aphrodite. He’d said he was a mere mortal.

Which meant he thought he’d make me happier than Mr. Halifax.

But what did a stranger who thought I looked like someone else know? He didn’t. He didn’t know me and he didn’t know the situation.

We’d shared a dance.

One very heated dance.

That was it.

I didn’t know what he looked like. I didn’t even know his name.

And honestly, I was a little pissed off that he’d judged my relationship with Mr. Halifax. My mystery man was a mere mortal. He’d said it himself. And Mr. Halifax was a freaking god. We weren’t doomed. He wasn’t a mistake. Screw my mystery man with his judgy attitude and sinful touch.

He was pining over someone else. So why judge me for pining over someone who wasn’t mine? My mystery man was a hypocrite.

I just wanted him out of my head. But every time I closed my eyes, it was like I was right back there on the dance floor pressed against him. I slammed my locker closed.

“Oh my God, you have a hickey,” Scarlett said.

It was the only evidence that Saturday night had even happened. I remembered the way my mystery man’s lips felt against my skin. How his hands had held me tightly against him. I tried to push away the thought.

“Who gave you a hickey?” Jacob asked as he and Axel joined us.

I swatted Jacob’s arm. “Where were you Saturday night? I texted.”

He smiled. “Sorry. I was just hanging out with my family. We were doing a boardgame night thing. Where were you yesterday? You never miss a Giants game.”

“I had some...research to do.” I didn’t want to go into details about how I was so caught up in my mystery man thinking Mr. Halifax was a mistake that I’d spent an entire day trying to figure out why he thought so. Or maybe I’d been trying to find proof that he was wrong. I wasn’t sure why I’d let him get so in my head.