Page 18 of The Romance Rivalry

Everyone laughs at Aiden’s easy intro. Of course they do.

We go around the circle and the rest of the group introduce themselves. Everyone seems harmless enough. This might end up being a permanent thing. Look at me colleging like the best of them.

“Okay, can we get on to talking about King, please?”

And so it goes... my first book club meeting only sneaking stares at Garrett the Fourth Year every ten minutes or so, while avoiding throwing daggers at Aiden the First Year the entire time.

“Did you have a good time? Have we convinced you to read King?”

I turn around from the refreshments table with my hands full of Danish butter cookies, the kind that come in the round blue tin and only seem to make an appearance during the holidays.

“Um, yes, I had a really good time. It’s fascinating to me how people can read the exact same words and come awaywith very different ideas of what the story is about. I love that about books,” I say. Garrett’s eyes lock on mine, looking deeply at me in a way that would have me physically swooning, if I knew what that actually looked like.

Instead, I swallow and try hard not to break the connection. Damn, these cookies are dry.

Garrett continues to stare. One second, two, three. Um. His gaze should make me feel... considered, seen, interesting.

But honestly, I feel more... uncomfortable, under a spotlight, suspicious.

What could a guy like Garrett possibly see in someone like me?

“I checked out some of your reviews online before I came. A million followers, that’s incredible,” he says. “I’d love to get some romance book recs from you sometime. Are you free for dinner? I promise to save you from the school cafeteria.”

Everything about him is perfect.

So why isn’t my heart racing? Why aren’t I willing to throw all caution to the wind? In a last-minute audible, I decide to switch the trope in my head from instalove to age-gap romance. I look at Garrett through a different lens. Older, more experienced, caretaker... I can go with this. I can be the inexperienced ingenue.

“Yeah, I’d love to go out for dinner,” I say. “And of course, I’m happy to recommend some novels for you to read to dip your toe into the genre. But only if you can recommendsome of your favorites in return.”

“Perfect. Let’s plan for next Tuesday night. There’s a really great Italian place just off campus, Lupa Trattoria, that you’ll love.”

He says the words with an Italian flair. He’s probably well traveled. He tells me I’ll love it, because he himself has tried it and can open up my taste buds to only the best foods.

I smile at Garrett, only briefly distracted by seeing Aiden’s familiar back heading quickly out the door.

Okay, age-gap romance. Let’s do this. I am ready.

Epigraph

I can see what the author was trying to do with this age-gap romance... show that the way that Henry loved Madeline was more protective than controlling. If I look at it through that lens, I can root for their HEA and not be too concerned by the imbalanced power dynamic. I enjoyed the book. Would recommend, but make note of the trigger warnings.

—@irene.loves.love.books

Henry’s deep, almost obsessive love for Madeline freaked me out and made me way too uncomfortable for my liking. Did the couple, with such differing lived experiences, have anything in common at all? This one was not for me.

—@aidentheguyreadsromance

Four

age-gap romance

The meeting with my statistics TA runs a little long, so I text Garrett to tell him I’ll meet him off-campus at the restaurant.

“Why do you think a twenty-one-year-old fourth-year who looks like Garrett would even ask someone like me out?” I ask Jeannette a couple hours earlier while trying on outfits for the date and going through my typical list of crisis points with her before running to meet my TA. It’s clear after just a week of classes that my brain was not made for statistics. Sadly, I thought my brain was made for literature, but I’m struggling equally in all my classes.

She’s sitting on her bed, long legs crossed like a pretzel, holding a “yes” sign she’d quickly made in one hand and a “no” sign in the other.

“Do you have anything a little lower-cut?”

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