Page 7 of Devious Gambit

I gasped. “Who was she?” I had to know. I had to find her and make sure she was okay, and then I’d apologize for being a horrible wimp.

“No names were given, understandably. It was attempted, they apparently got interrupted and didn’t go through with it,” Gretta explained.

I breathed a sigh of relief, but still, she would’ve been terrified. “She has to report it,” I stressed. “Or else those guys will get too cocky and think they can do whatever they want without consequence.”

“Sounds like they already think like that,” Gretta stated, glancing past my shoulder to people standing at the counter, proceeding to step past me to serve them.

My entire body stiffened when I heard that deep, smooth voice order his burger, caramel milkshake and fries, the usual. I refused to turn around and acknowledge him. No, I must hold my head up high and not be swayed by intimidation. The truth. Being a big fat chicken and pretending he wasn’t there, was easier on my nervous system than looking at him. I’m quite sure that even if I glanced at him even for a second, my tightly bound nerves would snap. Ignore, ignore, ignore was the best way to deal to that particular individual.

When he and his friends finally moved on and found a booth, I quietly approached Lise to ask her what his name is. I had to call him something other than Bozo or Beautiful One.

“The one with the black hair,” she asked, glancing towards the far booth, “sitting next to Cody?”

I shrugged. “Who’s Cody?”

She shot me a deeply creased frown. “You don’t know who Cody is? You’ve served him enough times.”

“Is Cody the one with black hair?” I asked.

“No, that’s Jace Luxon. You know, the Luxon brand of soap?”

“Yeah.” That explained why he looked so clean and fresh, endless supplies of soap to disguise the embedded filth lurking underneath.

“His great grandfather started that company in Chicago.”

“Jace,” I mumbled, under my breath.

“Why do you want to know about Jace anyway?” she asked, winking at me. “Got a little crush?”

I was horrified she’d accuse me, of all people, of having a crush on a jock. No, thank you. To convince her of my repulsion, I opened my mouth and stuck my finger in it. “Utterly despicable.”

“Then why do you want to know his name?” she asked.

“Because he spoke to me the other day and knew my name, but I didn’t know his.”

“Really? What did he speak to you about?”

I rolled my eyes. “The weather or something,” I lied. “I wasn’t really listening and it was for only a second.”

“And where did this exchange take place?”

“Oh so nosy, in the library.”

She snorted. “Are you sure you’ve got the right person? I can’t imagine Jace Luxon knowing where the library is.”

Maybe she was right. Maybe I did have the wrong person. I glanced in their direction and froze when I caught his sky blues watching me. He held his gaze, once again triggering heat into my cheeks, and moths darted about in my stomach. “That’s definitely him,” I told her, and ended the conversation by heading to the bathroom. I needed to dab cold water on my burning cheeks and calm myself down. Jeez, he’s a stupid jock for goodness sake. I hoped Lise won’t ask me about him again, ever. At least I found out what his name is. Jace Luxon.

“I wondered lonely as a cloud,” reciting Wordsworth as I splashed cold water over my face. Once I realized why Wordsworth was my chosen pen, I brushed his work aside and thought of Dante. “From this point onwards, Wordsworth is banned from my repertoire, because it will always have a big jock kiss vibe to it.” I caught my reflection in the mirror as water dripped down my pale cheeks. I had to tie my hair up to work at Stads, so my plain, freckled face was on full view, which I hated. I was painfully shy and somewhat anti-social, and lacked a high opinion of my looks. My hair was my only shield from attention.

I touched my lips with my fingers. His lips pressed against mine two days ago, and yet, I could still feel him on me. I could still smell him and taste him.

“This had to be a joke. There’s no way, he’s interested in me. No. Way. The only explanation was the bozos probably had a wager to see how long it will take to get me in bed. Well, I’m not budging.”

I ended the conversation with myself when a couple of female students walked in giggling and squawking, neither of which were attributes that I inherited. “Oh my God, I can’t believe the Hawks are here,” one girl gasped. “They’re like so hot. Co-dy, Ridge, Jace, Josh-u-a…Oh my God…Josh-u-a…”

“Cody is so handsome,” one girl said, ‘like in an intimidating sort of way.”

“Yeah, like,” the other girl agreed, “I heard Jace had an orgy with four different girls in one night at one of those parties at the Vault…” at that point I left the bathroom when I got the urge to vomit on their sneakers.

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