Page 23 of I Hate You More

I grinned at her choice of words. “Pest Control?”

“Well, he’s like a big bug that’s infesting your house. It seems appropriate.”

I laughed and shook my head. “Maybe it’s a little harsh?”

She lifted an eyebrow at me. “Do you want him gone or not?”

“I do, I do. Please continue,” I said.

She nodded firmly and focused back on the page. “Step one: Attraction,” she wrote.

“And what does that involve?” I was almost worried to ask.

“You need him to start seeing you as someone he wants to date,” Mia said.

“And how do I do that?”

“It’ll be easy,” Tessa added. “You’re a stunner, so there’s no problem there. You just need to stop fighting with him and start being nice.”

“More than that,” Mia chimed in. “You need to flirt.”

“But, don’t go overboard with the flirting,” Tessa cautioned. “I don’t want you throwing yourself at him because that doesn’t work for any of the girls at school. You need to be desirable but unattainable.”

“Which means no more arguments with him,” Mia clarified.

“And no mom jeans at school,” Tessa added, as she cast a disapproving look over my pants. “If you have to wear jeans, only wear that pair of Levis you have that makes your ass look good. You have to make himwantyou.”

I blew out a breath. Step one was already sounding like an insurmountable challenge. I could barely bring myself to be in the same room as Chase, let alone talk to him. Flirting seemed out of the question. But Tessa and Mia seemed so positive and were scribbling notes on the poster paper as they came up with one idea after another.

“So then once we have him hooked, we move on to Step Two: Connection,” Tessa continued.

“Where do you come up with this stuff?” I grumbled, earning a hard look from Tessa for my interruption.

“Connection,” she continued. “This is where you reel him in and connect on an emotional level. He needs to see that you’re more than just a pretty face and realize that the two of you can actually get along. You don’t let people in easily, and I know he hurt you when he pulled that stunt with Declan, but you’re going to need to let him see past that tough front you always put up.”

“I don’t put up a tough front,” I replied.

“Actually, you kind of do,” Mia said. “When Tessa asked me to sit with you guys at lunch for the first time, you made me really nervous. I got past it pretty quickly when I got to know you, but you can be quite intimidating.”

“I can be?”

Mia nodded. “You were super pretty, and you weren’t talking much, so I thought you might hate me.”

“I never hated you.”

“Well, I know that now,” Mia said with a laugh. “You just don’t give a lot away with your expression sometimes.”

Tessa nodded her head in agreement. “She gives nothing away.”

I looked between the two of them. “Am I really that bad?”

“Yes,” Tessa replied. “So, you’re going to need to open up and talk with Chase and find common ground.”

I glanced at the poster as she wrote her comments down. It looked so easy on paper, but in reality, I couldn’t see myself getting past step one. If I did make it to step two, opening up to Chase would be like going into battle without a shield. It was risky, and there was a high chance I’d end up taking a bullet wound to the chest.

“Then, provided all that goes to plan, we move onto Step Three: Relationship,” Tessa continued. “This is where you need to go out together and get comfortable physically.”

I instinctively scrunched my nose up at the word physical. Chase was obviously good-looking, but that didn’t mean I was okay with kissing him. “Gross,” I muttered.

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