Page 33 of Cruel Riches

After a while, I noticed a guy looking at me from across the room. Not Nate, thankfully. He was cute in a preppy kind of way, with light brown hair that kept falling over his eyes and dimples that showed up when he smiled at me. I held his gaze, and he interpreted my signals correctly and made his way over to our group.

“Hi,” he said, leaning down to my ear so he didn’t have to shout over the music. “Can I get you another drink?”

I smiled. “Sure.” I’d already had two drinks by this stage, but another one couldn’t hurt. Also, Ruby was giving me the thumbs up from behind the guy, letting me know she approved if I wanted to slip away from the group for a while.

I followed my new mystery guy over to the drinks table, where it was quiet enough to talk without yelling.

I found out his name was Harry. He was obviously a nice guy. He went out of his way to make sure I saw him pouring my drink so I could feel safe and comfortable around him, and he didn’t immediately try to touch me like some other guys would.

“You’re a freshman, aren’t you?” he asked as he handed my drink to me.

I raised my brows. “Is it that obvious?”

“No. I just figured I would’ve noticed you before now if you’d been here longer than a week.”

He blushed as he said that. It was adorable.

“How about you?” I asked, moving a little closer so I could make my interest clear.

“I’m in my second year. Engineering.”

I giggled. “You just reminded me of that joke. How do you know if someone is an engineer? Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.”

Harry grinned. “Ouch,” he said, touching a hand to his chest as if I’d just burned him. “What are you studying, anyway?”

“Journalism.”

“Nice. Are you in a sorority, or do you live in one of the residence halls?”

“Residence hall,” I said. “Redstone, to be specific.”

“That’s a nice one. The rooms are surprisingly big.”

“Been in a lot of them, huh?” I asked in a playful tone.

His blush deepened. “No. I just have some friends who live there.”

“Ah, I see. So are you one of these Skull guys?” I asked, gesturing toward the ridiculous skull pendant hovering over the center of the room.

“No. I live over there,” he replied, pointing out the window in a vague direction. “In the gray house.”

“Ooh, so you’re not a Skull, but you’re still a frat boy.”

“Yes, but it’s the lowest-tier one, so you can hold your applause,” he said with a self-deprecating grin.

I raised a teasing brow. “I heard it’s quite an accomplishment to get into any of them. So what are you… the son of a billionaire, or the son of a former president? Or maybe a famous astronaut?”

He chuckled. “None of those, unfortunately. I was surprised they even let me in,” he said. “I managed to prove that my maternal great-grandmother was a Vanderbilt, and apparently that was enough.”

“Your great-grandmother? Really scraping the barrel there.”

“I know. They must’ve been short on applicants that year. But hey, it worked out for me, because I get to live on this side of the campus.”

I nodded slowly and looked around. “It definitely beats the residence halls by a mile, as nice as they are.”

“For sure.” Harry rubbed a brow and stepped a little closer. “So, er… I was just wondering. Are you seeing anyone at the moment?”

“No.” I held up my arms and did a little twirl. “I’m wearing green, aren’t I?”

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