Page 48 of How to Lose at Love

“No. It would be good for myreputation. Big difference.”

Ryann stares me down, and I notice the color of her eyes.

Green.

She takes an apple from a bowl and bites into it, chewing. “I disagree.”

“Disagree with what?”

Her shoulders move up and down, but she doesn’t explain herself, only takes another bite of the apple.

Swallows.

Her lips are covered in juice.

I try not to notice.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” Her eyes are narrowed as we regard one another across her small counter.

Spell broken, she’s pissed at me again for staring at her, though can I help it if I’m staring at the juice dripping down her chin?

Wipe that shit up.

“I was staring because I can hear you chewing.” Not exactly a lie, but I can’t tell her that her lips are too plump and juicy for me not to be staring.

Ryann covers her mouth with the palm of her hand, embarrassed. “Can you? I’m sorry, the apple is crunchy.”

Clearing my throat, I pull out one of the two bar stools at the counter and sit myself down, knees hitting the underside of the counter because I’m too tall for the height of them—a common problem.

“Stop worrying about it.” I frown. “Let’s get back to business.”

Ryann stops chewing, hip leaning against her kitchen counter. “All right. Shoot your shot.”

Shoot my shot? Who is this chick?

Doesn’t she know I’ve never had totryto shoot my shot at anything, that things just…come to me? Football not included, although that does come pretty naturally to me. I’m talking about girls, obviously.

Dudes, too, if I’m being honest.

“You’re not willing to help me out? What if it’s only for a few weeks?”

“Well, obviously it’s only for a few weeks,” she scoffs. “I’m not going to waste my timepretendingwith you and blow an entire semester fake dating when I could be dating someone else for real.”

She’s got a good point, but it still blows my mind that she’s so against it.

Ryann Winters clearly has no social-climbing ambitions.

Dating me—even as a farce—could catapult her to the top of the campus food chain, right alongside yours truly. In fact, it could make her a social media sensation if she played her cards right. I’ve seen the girlfriends of athletes get modeling contracts and endorsements, seen them blow up on Instagram simply by dating a player.

Ryann doesn’t give a shit.

She bites into her apple again with a loud chomp.

“No one is asking you to ‘blow an entire semester’ fake dating me.”

This whole conversation is making me regret asking her; she’s taken my ego down so many notches I’ll have to take a stroll through the student union later to hike it back up again.Damn.

“I just wanted to be clear. You seem like the type of guy who takes advantage of a situation.”

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