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I mean, that was only fair after I’d told him about Cosette, right?
“Yeah, I have a dog. Sergio.” He pulled his phone out and messed with it for a second before handing it to me.
I found myself looking at a gorgeous gray Pitbull with a goofy grin on his face, almost like he was posing for the camera.
“He’s so handsome,” I chuckled, handing his phone back to him. “I love Pitbulls. They’re such sweet dogs. I don’t know what people’s issue with them is. It’s how they’re raised, not what breed they are.”
Not unlike me. What happened to me had made me the way I was: broken, terrified, and alone in the world.
“Right?” he agreed. “I don’t get it either. Anyway, that doesn’t count as my random fact since I was just piggybacking off of you.”
“Oh? I get another tidbit about the mystery that is Ian Thomason?”
“Yep. And that tidbit is that I love your smile and I think you should smile more often. It lights up the whole room.”
I glanced up from the table to find him looking at me like…I didn’t even know what it was like. No one had ever looked at me like this before.
Was he trying to flirt with me?
No, that wasn’t flirting. Flirting was playful banter, like him teasing me about being a girl when I’d told him to tell me to buy shoes in Spanish. What he’d just said was something else altogether.
“Smooth,” I chuckled uncomfortably.
“That’s not some lame pickup line,” he insisted. “I mean it. Why deprive the world of that?”
“I haven’t had a lot of reasons to smile lately,” I admitted.
“Then I’m making it my mission in life to change that,” he said, like it was final.
“Right,” I muttered, grabbing my textbook and empty cup before standing up.
Ian followed suit, taking my cup from me and throwing it in the trash along with his.
As we walked outside, I headed to my car without even saying goodbye. I didn’t know what to make of the way he was treating me. We’d only exchanged brief pleasantries in our classes together, and now all of a sudden he was telling me he was making it his mission in life to make me smile more?
Had Max, Drew, and Tucker put him up to this? Was this their latest way of torturing me and making sure I never forgot what they put me through?
“Hey, Ky?” Ian called.
“Yeah?” I asked, turning back to him.
“Are you coming to the game tomorrow?”
“Nope. Football isn’t really my thing,” I chuckled weakly.
As far as I knew, he didn’t know about what I’d been through. Because Melissa was right. Until the spring semester of last year, he’d lived in Wichita. So I wasn’t about to tell him about why I hated our football team so much.
“Okay. Some other time, maybe. Hasta mañana,” he said.See you tomorrow.
“Bye,” I said, cracking half a smile.
Then I turned around and got in my car. Just as I turned the key in the ignition, my phone buzzed with a text. I sighed and checked it.
Ian: I didn’t just want you to tutor me because you’re good in Spanish and Pre-Cal. I did it because I wanted to get to know you. After today, I want to know you even more. You’re pretty great.
I felt heat rise to my cheeks, and I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face.
I didn’t even know why that made me so happy. I didn’t date. And I especially didn’t date people who were on the same football team as the monsters who had ruined my life.
Then another message appeared.
Ian: I just wanted to see that gorgeous smile one more time. Thank you. BTW, you’re cute when you blush.
Oh, dear God. What in the hell had I gotten myself into?
