Page 51 of Only With You

I draw in a sharp breath. “You’re a fucking asshole. I hope you know I’m praying for your downfall.”

“I’ll be waiting,” Landon replies, his stupid accent snobbier than it usually is. “So?”

Grinding my molars, I shift from one foot to the other and bite back the urge to cuss him out. “Can you tutor me?”

“‘Can you tutor me, please, Landon?’Say it.” Satisfaction fills his voice and his expression alights. It’s so demeaning and he knows it, but he’s not going to back down because he wants nothing more than to humiliate me.

The seconds tick by and the silence extends. It’s so tense, it wouldn’t take much for it to detonate. I know that and he knows that, but I’m not going to waver. I defiantly stand in my spot, letting the silence spark the tripwire.

I expected the rage to slowly consume us, but instead, it feels like something else has been lit up. Something that doesn’t make sense to me, and before it goes off in front of us, I suck in a breath and my pride, and thewhatever it wasdies.

“Can you tutor me, please, Landon?”

He hums and even though he’s not smiling, I can feel the gratification rolling off him. If I were a bigger person, I’d walkit off and not let it deter me, but I’m not. Holding my hamper with one firm hand, I flip him off with the other, flashing him a sardonic smile.

“I hope you forever burn in Hell.”

“Did that make you feel better?”

I stalk to my room and slam the door behind me. It’s extremely immature, but I don’t care.

Setting my hamper down, I quickly throw some clothes on and pray that I’m able to control my anger and not punch him. All while I remind myself that I need him in order to pass.

What a lovely predicament I’ve found myself in.

I repeat my mantra and step out of my bedroom with the paper I wrote out as our tutoring contract.

“Here.” I slap the paper against his chest and grab the pen Polly left on the coffee table and throw it at him. “Read over that and sign it.”

“Oh, this is serious.” His voice drips with sarcasm as he skims over the paper. “Two-week trial? What is this, a membership?”

Folding my hands over my chest, I impatiently tap my foot. “As you can see, that’s how much I’m going to pay you. I need to make sure I’m getting my money’s worth.”

“It’s not like I need your money,” he dryly states.

I’m not sure how to take his statement. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it doesn’t sound like he was being funny, or at least in his form offunny. He has a very dry sense of humor that tends to be more on the drier side.

Curiosity whirls in my head. I should ignore the nagging thought, but my mind can’t seem to let it go.

Don’t ask him. It doesn’t matter. It probably meant nothing. Don’t do it, Julianna.

“If you don’t need my money, then what do you want?”

Landon doesn’t take his eyes off the paper, but I know he’s not reading it. He muses over my question, absently tapping thepen against his knee. Then he finally flits his attention to me and sweeps his gaze over me, then back at the paper. Without saying a word, he signs it and holds it up for me to take.

I gingerly take it, wondering what that was about.

“Wow, how anticlimactic.”

“Curious, huh?” The arrogance in his voice makes me regret ever being curious.

“Not at all.” I fold the paper, hoping I don’t look as frustrated as I feel. Landon’s the only person in this entire universe to give me this chaotic whirlwind of emotions. “I don’t care.”

He chuckles, licking his lips. “Liar.”

I shrug and saunter off to the kitchen, all the while it really settles on me. Landon and I will be spending more time together and somehow, we’re supposed to make this work.

Maybe I made a mistake. This isn’t going to work. There’s no way we’ll manage to put our differences aside for an entire semester. That is, if he manages to meet my standards these next two weeks.

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