Eminent Love Read Free Page A

better. Although, it didn’t mean I’d suddenly turned into a monk. By the middle of spring semester last year, I’d found someone to help with my needs. She had the same mentality I did when it came to dating—it was off the table. She used me, and I used her. It was mutually understood and beneficial.
    I knew how that worked.
    But this felt different.
    This felt like a date .
    Even though Colin and Drea had mentioned a movie and I had suggested I’d drive—knowing full well it would mean being alone for hours in a car with Drea’s sister—not once did I realize how it might be perceived. Nor had the thought ever crossed my mind how doing this could possibly put me in an uncomfortable position with Drea. From my experience, girls had a way of latching on to false hope. I had no interest in seeing Drea’s sister after tonight, but if she got the wrong impression and ended up feeling rejected, there was a good chance my life would be hell for as long as Colin and Drea stayed together.
    By the time we pulled up to the small Italian restaurant close to the campus, I began to contemplate driving away. The nervousness invading my system convinced me I should’ve been home studying, not out on a non-date with someone I’d never met before, or ever cared to see again. I mentally cursed at myself for having such an unhealthy need to know everything. I wished I could’ve been okay without the knowledge of why Drea’s sister had been in a funk. It was more than likely guy problems anyway.
    I parked and watched through the windshield as Drea jogged inside. As soon as she disappeared through the door, Colin casually strolled over to my window. I rolled it down, ready to tell him I’d changed my mind. But then he spoke, and what he said made me forget about running away. It fed into my inquisitiveness more. “Whatever you do, don’t say anything about her hair.”
    “Her hair? Why?”
    He glanced beyond me in the direction Drea had taken off and rigidly shook his head. “She’s a nice girl. I don’t expect you to be an ass, considering I’ve never known you to be one, but can you please remember this is my girl’s sister?”
    “You really need to give me more than that, Colin. You know I’m not looking to date—”
    “I know.” He smirked after cutting me off. “She just needs to have a little fun. I don’t care if you never see her again, or if you fall head over heels in love with her. All I care about is her having a good time tonight. She deserves it.”
    “This secrecy is really starting to piss me off. Tell me what I need to know.”
    “Always the lawyer, never the citizen.” He hung his head and swayed it from side to side as his rumbling laugh billowed though the open window and settled in the car around me, ratcheting my irritation. When he finally lifted his head, he glanced to the front of the restaurant and straightened his spine. With a quick rap on my door, he said, “Here she comes. She doesn’t have to ride with you if you don’t want her to. Just let me know now so I can get her in my car.”
    “Just fucking tell me already.” My tone was tense as each desperate word squeezed out through my clamped teeth. I hated it when he knew something I didn’t know and then refused to tell me, leaving me to figure it out on my own. Every time he did, it left me with extreme apprehension, like I was about to stagger into a landmine and had to make it to the other side all on my own.
    His gaze locked with mine, his expression sullen. “It’s not my story to share, man. Let her tell you. Don’t pry.”
    I conceded and turned my attention to where the two girls walked across the parking lot toward us. I made up my mind right then and there—I would drive her. It didn’t make any sense. Even from twenty feet away, she captured my attention. I was enamored. It could’ve been her hesitant steps, or the way she twisted her fingers in front of her as she steadily placed one foot in front of the