Page 7 of Obsessed with the Heartbreaker

The rustic restaurant was warmly lit, alive with people’s chatter. Connell and I were face to face, me in jeans and a T-shirt, and him still wearing his perfectly tailored work suit. His hair was cut short and a shade darker than Henry’s, tidy and perfect whereas Henry’s was more natural and effortless. Connell curiously read the menu, his expression giving away that he’d never been here before, but before I could start overthinking, he cleared his throat.

“So, Antony, how has the new year started? I hope you’ve been settling in well with your new roommates? I’m not taking you away from your friends or from a girlfriend, am I?”

I tried to relax in my seat. “It’s been good so far, sir. It feels like I’ve been rooming with Scott and Eliot forever, so no complaints there. And no girlfriends for me.”

Connell knew my best friends, since they were practically my family. We were now sharing an apartment, which was something we’d always wanted to do and had looked forward to. Now that they both had boyfriends, I’d briefly worried that they might prefer to live with them, but we were all loyal and stubborn to a fault, so our plans hadn’t changed in the end.

Connell’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he smiled and nodded. “A guy very much like me. Determined and focused. I wish my Henry had been more like you, it sure would have saved us from many headaches.”

The Campbells, husband and wife, were co-owners of a very successful business, something that showed in every polished inch of both of them, but they were also humble—as much as rich people could be, I guessed—and valued hard work. It was why Connell had always been very taken with me and my family, the lot of us ambitious and determined to be always the best we could be, and it was something that made Connell and Henry argue all the time.

Henry didn’t need to be like me. Not at all. Where I was studious, he was charming. Where I was a bookworm, he was the most people-person to ever be. More than that, he had a magnetic aura about him, one that made everyone turn in his direction and want to uncover all his secrets, and even if he wasn’t the best student in his class, I didn’t doubt he would do well in anything he wanted to do.

But, of course, I didn’t say that.

A server came to take our order, and for a moment, the line of Connell’s profile reminded me so much of Henry, it made my breath catch. It made me imagine what it would be like to be sitting opposite him instead, getting ready for dinner, only it would never actually happen. Least of allhere.

“You’re also going to start looking for internships this year, aren’t you?” Connell asked, bringing me back to the present moment.

The dreaded question.

“Yes, sir.”

Please change the subject.

Connell’s lips quirked. In the past, he’d told me several times I could call him by his name, especially because our families were friends, but my polite instincts had always made me say it, and now he settled on being amused by my manners. “Smart of you. Getting ahead of the game, putting your best foot forward. I’m sure many companies will appreciate it.”

And there it was.

Pressure. My closest companion. My personal monster. It squeezed my chest, a phantom grip squeezing me tight, the familiar feeling of anxiety blooming inside.

It was such a silly thing. Why would looking for an internship make me anxious, right? I was a good student. I was always at the top of my classes. I was responsible and determined and the dreaded ‘hard-working’ everyone liked to call me.

But one thing I was not.

‘Charm’ had always eluded me. I didn’t step into a room and command its attention. In general, you could say I was the one always slipping by unnoticed, present in the middle of a crowd but still unseen, quiet and reserved when not among people I knew. I wasn’t shy by any means, but I didn’t feel the need to speak all the time or engage people I didn’t know in conversation. If it weren’t for my friends—Scott, the popular Prince, and Eliot, a sassy spitfire—I would probably blend with the walls.

And the thing was, this…failureof mine, was going to cost me big. Because I was tired and sick of hearing people say how you needed to make friends in order to succeed, that you needed to stand out, give employers a reason to choose you from a sea of smart and capable people. And standing out? Never been my forte.

So unless I got started early, this was going to suck balls for me.

I only smiled at Connell, hoping he would drop it, especially after our dinner was brought to us, butagain,he didn’t.

“I could get in a good word for you, you know? I’m sure I have friends who could find a spot for a hard-working guy like you.”

No.

That was the last thing I wanted, even if it made me sound like an ungrateful ass. Because, as much as his offer was terribly generous from someone who owed me nothing,Ialready owed the Campbells so much.

Because, even when they’d had no reason to, they’d paid for half my tuition.

I’d been able to get a partial scholarship to university, but of course, the remaining part of it was still a substantial amount. The Campbells, being who they were and close friends with my own mother, had insisted on paying it. I was the first person in my family to go to college, even if my mother was a high-ranking secretary, and my father, who had died when I was little, used to be a firefighter. My older sister was a chef, and all of them had managed to rise through the ranks and make a name for themselves through sheer force of will and dedication alone.

Did I feel the pressure to live up to the example they had set? Very much so. And although my mother had reluctantly accepted the Campbell’s very generous offer—which they made because they thought ‘student debt was poison and a burden for young people’— she was trusting me to make their generosity worth it. To repay their kindness with my success.

So this present offer?

I didn’t want to need it. I didn’t want to have one more weight in my conscience, another voice telling me I was unworthy and useless, that I couldn’t even do this one thingright.

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