Page 166 of How to Win the Girl

“My dad, my brothers. I wouldn’t call it a choice. It was just somethin’ I knew I was going to do.”

“It chose you?” I laugh.

“Exactly.” He steals a piece of bread and dips it in oil, then sticks it in his mouth. “What about you? How did you end up here?”

“My parents hadn’t wanted me going more than five hours from home, and this is exactly five hours from home.”

“Well, aren’t you a good daughter for listenin’ to what they want?”

I can’t tell if he’s being sarcastic or not and choose to ignore his tone. “They’re paying tuition, so yeah, they had a say in where I went.”

“And now you’re almost done.”

I nod. “And now I’m almost done…”

“How long would you say your longest relationship was?”

Gosh, that’s a hard question. “A few months? No idea, it’s been a while and none of my boyfriends were serious boyfriends.” My tip of my finger rims the wineglass in front of me as I regard him from across the table. “I find it hard to believe you’ve never had a girlfriend.”

“Why? I haven’t been available. I barely have time to take a shit.”

“And you do now?”

He stares blankly at me. “Are you sayin’ you want to be my girlfriend?”

A nervous bubble of laughter escapes my lips, and I cover my mouth. “No, that is not what I’m saying. I was only making a statement.” But that leads me to ask, “Are you saying you don’t want a girlfriend?”

Because what is this?

We’ve been on four dates—five if you count the first one when he was pretending to be Drew. So if he’s jerking me around and wasting my time, I’d like to know, even if we agreed we were going to have fun and enjoy ourselves.

Drake takes his time responding, and just when I think he isn’t going to, he nods his head slowly. “Yeah. I think I could do a girlfriend.”

“You think you could do a girlfriend? Dear lord, how romantic.”

“Listen. Have you seen me?” He spreads his arms wide, opening himself up to my perusal. “I’m practically a caveman. My first language isn’t pretty words—half the time I won’t know what to say to you. I read playbooks, not novels. I watch game reels, not romcoms. You’re gonna have to cut me some slack.”

I don’t want to ask if we just became girlfriend boyfriend, but I also want to ask if we just became boyfriend girlfriend because I have no idea.

I also don’t want to say the words out loud and sound like an asshole if he’s not on the same page.

“The thing is, I watch my brothers and shit, and they seem really happy, you know? Bein’ in a committed relationship looks a lot easier than not bein’ in one, to tell you the truth. Seems like it’s made them more chill. They don’t go out as much lookin for fun, and they don’t have as many fangirls on their jocks. I mean they do, don’t get me wrong, but it’s manageable.”

“Manageable.” That’s an odd thing to say. “What do you mean bythat?”

“Maybe that’s not the right way of putting it. It’s just a lot of work being single when everyone knows you’re single? Does that make sense? It’s like everyone is thirsty. Girls, but guys too. I seen that, now that Duke and Dallas are both locked down, most people who would normally try to sleep with them leave them alone. Mostly.”

I reach across the table and take his hand—the hand that was all over my body—and inside itand forgive me for mentioning that fact.

“I think I get what you’re saying, and honestly, it’s kind of a sad way to live, always wondering what someone’s motive is.” I’m not offended at all that he’s literally telling meto my facebeing single sucks because people don’t leave him alone.

I mean. We were on that date at the bar and that girl—Shannon—came up to our table even though it was obvious we were on a date.

Did not faze her, she crashed it anyway.

The audacity.

But as long as women leave him alone, all will be good.

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