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He smirked and flipped a strand of my hair. “Ah, then you might actually show interest in me.”
I shook my head. “Wow. Okay. I’m not the same person I was freshman year.”
“And yet everyone you’ve dated is an asshole.”
“So, you want to do this? What about you, Maddox? What about the girls you’ve dated since me? The mousy, brainless girls that you’re way too brilliant to have any interest in, but none of them push you. None of them balance you,” I spat back at him. He stiffened at my words. But they weren’t untrue. “Two can play at this game.”
“I don’t want to do any of this, but thank you for reminding me why this didn’t work.”
I grasped his sleeve before he could leave. “I didn’t come out here to fight.”
“Could have fooled me.”
“I just … I missed you.”
His gaze swept down to where my hand still rested on his sleeve. We’d been so good together over the years. So good that I hadn’t appreciated it. I wanted some of that back. I felt like a fool, asking for it, but I knew he felt the same. He had to.
His hand clasped my cheek. “Oh, Josie.”
“Maddox,” I whispered.
His thumb dragged across my bottom lip. And everything in me tugged toward him.
“We’re just too different,” he told me baldly.
“We don’t have to be.”
“But we are,” he said, removing his hand from my face and leaving me bereft as he left the boardwalk with my heart in his hand.
PART II
8
SCAD
JUNE 5, 2010
“Okay, Josie, you can do this,” I said, giving myself the tenth pep talk since I’d decided on this harebrained idea. “He’s going to say yes. That’s all that matters. It’s too important. You can do it.”
I punched in the six-digit code to enter the visual effects computer lab. I’d gotten the code from a friend who minored in graphics. She’d been more than willing to help me out with my scheme. Anything to avoid working with the most obnoxious graphics guy on campus, Tuck Underwood. Anything.
I took a deep breath and then sauntered into the lab as if I belonged there. I’d taken the same drawing classes required of all film majors, but it hadn’t gone well freshman year. Art was hardly my forte. It had always been more conceptual for me. And then I’d avoided any of the computer graphics classes like the plague.
My dream was to become a director. We needed more female directors in the world to actually get women correct and not just overly sexualize them for profit. Which was why Maddox and I never had classes together and rotated in completely different universes at SCAD. I saw him sometimes in passing when I was out for lunch with friends, but we’d dodged each other for the last couple years.
When I found him hunkered over the high-tech lab equipment, my feet stalled. It had been a long time since I’d been able to just look at him. His curls were as unruly as ever, falling forward into his eyes as he stared down at the keyboard, tossing his head sideways to get them out of his way when he looked up at his work. His jeans were black and ripped, and the matching black T-shirt molded to his muscles.
A memory of all our kisses during our freshman year filtered through my mind. Until it had all crashed and burned. The vibrant sunshine girl hadn’t ended up with the grumpy guy.
I swallowed. That was what my roommates had said when it completely fell apart. It was basically what Marley had said when I’d confessed to her over summer break. Afer she’d gotten out her ‘I told you so’ of course. I hated the assessment, but I still wasn’t sure if it was untrue.
I cleared my throat when I finished crossing the room. “Hey.”
“I’m busy. Give me ten minutes.” Maddox didn’t even look up when he said it.
I tried again. “Maddox.”
“Ten minutes,” he blurted out, typing furiously.
“Well, all right then.” I dropped into the seat next to him as he worked out his problem.
No one else was in the lab at this hour. Spring session had ended yesterday in the middle of a vicious thunderstorm, and the start of summer session wasn’t for two weeks. Everyone was celebrating on Tybee. My roommate had invited me to do just that, but this was more important. I had all summer for the beach.
Finally, ten minutes later, Maddox came up out of his trance. His gaze locked on me, and he startled, rocking his chair backward.
“Hi,” I said with a little wave.
“What are you doing here?”
“Why, Josie, it’s been so long since we’ve seen each other. It’s good to see you,” I said sarcastically for him.
He just steadied his chair. “Josie, why are you here?”
“I can’t come to see you?”
He shot me a don’t bullshit me look. Oh, how I’d missed him. “What do you want?”
