Page 17

“So, you admit you’re a bad boy?” I asked, putting down my pen in the spine of the book and closing it in front of me to hold my place.

“I admit nothing,” he said with a smirk, tilting his head and sitting back again. “I was simply walking around downtown. I decided I would check this place out. It just so happened you were here too,” he acknowledged with a wave of his long hand in my direction.

“Yeah…ok,” I agreed skeptically. We seemed to be having a lot of perfectly calculated run-ins this week, for it only being a Wednesday.

“What are you doing here, firecracker? Studying?”

“Yes…typically people need to study in order to get good grades. Maybe you didn’t get that memo seeing as I’ve never seen you with so much as a backpack,” I pointed out with a raised eyebrow.

“You’ve been watching me, then.” His smirk deepened.

I realized my mistake too late and felt a hot blush creep up my neck. Having a fair complexion and wearing my embarrassment plainly on my skin was going to be the absolute death of me.

“That’s because I don’t need to study,” he continued, “I have it all up here,” he tapped his forehead.

“Sure, you do…” I trailed off, opening the book again and starting to read where I had left off. I shouldn’t be playing into this. I should be finishing this assignment.

“You can’t possibly be this boring,” he said, gesturing to the book in front of me.

“Who says I am boring?” I asked, feigning offense as he had earlier.

“Me. I say you are boring. And I am an authority on most things. What are you doing tonight, firecracker?” he asked with a smile.

Well…I did have plans tonight, but I couldn’t exactly tell him that I was planning on casting spells in the living room with my BFF to see if I had some hidden magical powers.

“Nothing,” I responded, biting my lip. I guess I did sound boring to an outsider. I never went out, skipped all the high school and college parties I was invited to, and mostly kept to myself and my hobbies.

His mouth fell open.

“How can you claim you aren’t boring, and yet you have no plans?” he asked.

“I do have plans, actually. They just don’t include you.”

“Ouch, Diana. That hurt,” he replied, holding his hand to his chest. How did he know my name? Had Tess said it in front of him? We had never been formally introduced before. “You should come down to Elixir tonight. A few of my friends and I are going.”

Elixir. That’s just perfect. Here I am, thinking maybe I have some hidden magical abilities, and the name of the new dance club in town is calledElixir. What were the chances?

“Elixir? On a Wednesday?” I asked.

“Why not?” He shrugged. “But don’t bring Tess.”

“And why not?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me. I had no intentions of meeting him at Elixir…ever…but why did he want me alone?

“Because she’s shallow, vapid, and annoying,” he replied, deadpan.

“That’s not very nice. She’s my best friend. And you don’t know her at all,” I replied, internally seething. Who was he to say anything about Tess? He had never met her, let alone had a conversation with her. Why was he sorude?

“Which makes absolutely zero sense to me,” he added with an eye roll, “what could you two possibly have in common?”

“You don’t know me at all…” I pointed out, “and as I said, I already have plans tonight.”

“Your loss,” he replied with a shrug. I started to read my biology chapter again, but he didn’t get up to leave. I could still feel his eyes on me as I read the same sentence over and over again. What was he thinking? What was his interest in me? If I was soboring,then why even bother? I heard the bells on the door chime again as someone else came into the bakery.

This newcomer was dressed just like Nik. He was tall, definitely over six feet, with a black leather jacket and matching black Henley shirt. He wore black jeans although his were not ripped, and his hair was gelled back to keep the curls out of his face. The stranger lingered at the door, glancing around the empty bakery until his eyes rested on us. Was this some type of bad boy uniform I didn’t get the memo about? I knew almost every person in this small town, but this made for the second stranger I’d encountered this week.

“What are you doing here?” Nik asked, not taking his eyes off me. How could he see who had come in? His back was to the door...

“Oh, you know, just checking in. Making sure good ol’ Kolya hasn’t gotten into any trouble,” he said, grabbing a teal chair and dragging it over to our table and sitting backwards on it. Kolya? Was that a nickname for Nikolai?