Page 77 of Love to Hate You

Chapter Twenty-Four

Daisy

I plunk my messenger bag on the floor next to the table Olivia has commandeered at the library and drop onto the chair across from her. Other than a quick text letting me know that she’d made it home safely, we haven’t spoken about last night. I’m dying to know if anything happened with Tanner.

I pray for her sake that it did.

In true Olivia fashion, her books are spread out on the table in neat, orderly piles. Olivia has always been studious. I suspect that she has channeled all her sexual frustration into her classes.

When she doesn’t immediately launch into the details, I throw my arms wide. “Well? Don’t keep me in suspense. Talk to me about last night!”

A few people turn and shush me.

I lower my brows and shush them right back.

Give me a break.

It’s noon on a Sunday and these people are already hunkered down at the library. Clearly, they have no lives.

Present company excluded, of course.

I’ve only dragged my butt here to meet up with my bestie. Olivia informed me that she’d be camped out here for the foreseeable future. She’s a freak about her grades. Nothing less than a solid A will do.

From what I’ve pieced together over the years, Olivia’s parents ride her pretty hard. They weren’t happy with the degree program she chose, but I’m proud of her for sticking with it and not caving under their pressure. I figured she’d apply to medical school like her father, but that hasn’t happened.

The summer internship in California did Olivia good. She was able to stop living under her mom and dad’s thumb. Too bad she didn’t find a nice guy to rid her of her virginity. Hence her delving into this school year and making the library her second home. Olivia is wound so tight, that I’m afraid if she doesn’t get laid soon, she’s going to self-combust. And I’d really hate to see that happen.

Which brings us back to her impromptu date last night.

“So, any chance you let Tanner deflower you?” I ask.

Heat suffuses her cheeks and I grin. She’s so easily embarrassed. I probably shouldn’t delight in tormenting her but it’s kind of fun.

And that’s what friends are for, right?

Probably not, but oh well. Olivia is stuck with me. We’re lifers, baby.

She glances around to see if anyone overheard me say the word deflower before grumbling, “I hate you. You know that, right?”

I lean back in my chair, balancing precariously on two legs. “Please. You love me.”

She shakes her head. “Maybe once upon a time, but not anymore.”

“I think we both know that I could have been way more vulgar. For instance, I could have said something like…did he pop your cherry. Or did you play a game of hide the sausage. Or how about—”

“Oh my God!” She buries her face in her hands and mumbles, “Stop. I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, okay? Just stop talking.”

I chuckle. “You make it so easy, that it’s almost no fun to tease you.”

“I wasn’t lying before.” Lifting her face from her hands, she glares. “I really do hate you.”

With a smile curving my lips, I lean forward and rest my elbows on the table. My chin is tucked on my fists. “So, what did you two do if not each other?”

She huffs out a breath. “You seriously have a one-track mind.”

“In regard to your virginity, yes.”

Sometimes I think I’m more invested in making this happen then she is. Which is weird. But the sad truth is that if I didn’t take the initiative, Olivia wouldn’t bother.

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