Page 34 of Obsessed with the Heartbreaker

My stomach knotted with nerves. “What about you? Are you going to be looking for internships yet?”

“I don’t know,” Oliver shrugged. “My mother wants me to give working in her company a try, at least for a bit. And we’re still in our third year anyway, right? I might just do it the next one.” A slow grin spread over his face. “Not everyone is a perfect, over-prepared, always top one student.”

I scoffed, then had to remind myself to keep my voice low. “Not always.”

Especially not when Keller was involved.

The guy had a vendetta against me. He was probably the next best student after me in our classes, and we shared many. We were both majoring in Business, and we both wanted to be the best, only that while I was the type to think I was only in competition with myself, Keller thought beating me was his life’s purpose and favorite pastime.

Not that he managed to, anyway. Or at least, not often.

As if he could hear my thoughts, Oliver said, “Keller is probably the biggest asshole I’ve ever met, you know? That guy has no chill. At this point, I’m starting to think he’s a little obsessed with you, and not in a lovey-dovey way.”

I groaned. “Don’t remind me.”

There was only one person’s obsession that I could cope with, and he’d already given up on me.

Oliver patted my back. “Don’t let him shake you off your game, though, okay? If anyone can stay on top with a cool head, it’s you, I know it.”

We both looked up when the librarian passed us by, and we immediately left our conversation and got back to our Economics problems.

Oliver and I had met in our second year of college through shared classes, since we were both majoring in Business, and from almost the first time we’d spoken, I’d known we were going to get along, which was a weird occurrence for me.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have other friends other than Scott and Eliot, butclosefriends I definitely didn’t have. Oliver was, like me, ambitious, hard-working, and a little too straight-laced compared to the average college student, while also being humble and having an easy-going personality. Hanging out with him reminded me of being with Scott and Eliot, too, which I supposed was the biggest tell that I felt comfortable with him and a big, fat, green flag in my book.

When the librarian was gone, I turned to Oliver to ask, “How is your Philosophy class going, by the way? Interesting, or having second thoughts?”

He shrugged. “Nothing much to say. Don’t feel one way or the other, yet.”

Well, that was a half-assed lie if I ever heard one.

Oliver had been debating whether to take this class or not for months. It was something he’d been wanting to dip his toes into, excited like he hadn’t been for any other subject before, and now this?

I wasn’t buying it.

“Is the professor as strict as they say?” I asked, hoping he might elaborate or that at least, I’d see the source of his brush-off.

Oliver seemed all too interested in the problem in front of him. “Just like the average professor.”

Before I could respond to that with further prodding, he put his notebook in front of me. “Have you done this one already? It’s giving me weird results.”

Deflection. Huh.

I was going to save this tidbit of information for later.

Because I was nothing if not a good friend, though, I decided to indulge him and let him be, examining the problem and walking Oliver through it with hushed tones, our heads almost hitting each other’s as I let him see my notes.

It was then that I became aware of a familiar prickling feeling in the back of my neck. One that I hadn’t felt in some time, and that by now, it was enough to make my whole body stand at attention, like a trained dog waiting for a bone.

“Is something wrong?” Oliver asked when he noticed I’d stopped talking.

Clearing my throat, I said, “No. Just got distracted.”

We kept going through the problem until we were both satisfied with the result, and all the while it felt like I had phantom fingers tracing the back of my neck, the line of my shoulders.

Henry Campbell was here, staring at me, and instead of being annoyed that he was interrupting my already limited study time, I was all too excited to know his probing gazes were back.

That his littleobsessionmight just not be over.

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