Page 81 of Sweet Temptation

“No Coach August yet?” I asked the girls.

Anna started to respond, but as she did, the teacher walked into view. “We’re moving on to squash today, everyone,” he said. “So, we’re going over to the squash courts.”

There were a few groans from the class, but I wasn’t sure why. I’d never played squash before, but it looked like fun. I stood with Anna and Cress and was about to follow the rest of the class, but Coach August came over to me.

“Not you, Miss Grace,” he said. “You still haven’t completed the beep test from the first class of term. You’ll be undertaking it today along with one other student. I won’t be here to oversee it, so I’m putting a lot of faith in you to be honest with your results. If you score yourself higher than you actually achieve, you’ll have no room for improvement this year. You’ll only be failing yourself.”

“Yes, Coach,” I replied, as Cress and Anna both grimaced in my direction. Squash was looking really good right about now.

He turned and joined the rest of the class leaving the gym while Anna and Cress continued to hover at my side.

“This sucks,” Cress said. “I thought he’d forgotten about your beep test.”

“Me too,” I replied. “I guess I better get it over with.”

The girls shared sympathetic smiles.

“Maybe we can go to Toddy’s after school for milkshakes to make you feel better?” Cress suggested.

“That sounds really great,” I replied. “I think I’ll need a pick-me-up.”

“It’s a date then. We’ll see you after class.” The girls waved and then lightly jogged to catch up with the rest of the class, disappearing from the gym far too quickly.

Once they were out of sight, I turned to search for the cones and the stereo Coach August had left behind for me. Only it wasn’t the cones I noticed when I turned. Noah was standing there waiting for me.

“What are you doing? Wait,you’rethe one who’s redoing the test?”

“I didn’t get the result I was after.” Noah shrugged. “Besides, I asked to redo it weeks ago so you wouldn’t have to take it alone. It was back when we were…” He didn’t need to finish his sentence. I knew he was talking about when we were dating. It was sweet he’d done that, but it made things awkward now.

“Well, I’m sure Coach August will understand if you tell him you don’t want to retake it.” I was sure the last thing Noah wanted was to spend an entire class alone with me. I certainly wasn’t keen given the way things were between us. Everything felt relatively civil, especially after he took care of me last week in New York, but that didn’t mean it was easy to be around him.

It hurt to be in his presence. To feel my heart tugging me toward him and know I couldn’t act on it. And there was always an underlying tension. Whenever he was near, it was like the air was snapped taut between us, and it didn’t matter whether I liked him, hated him, or wanted nothing to do with him, that feeling was always there.

“Who said I don’t want to retake it?” he replied.

I let out a sigh. I was trying to give him an easy way out, but apparently Noah was a glutton for pain. “I guess we better get started then.”

I walked over to the stereo that had been left on the ground and turned on the recording before walking to the first cone. Noah came and stood right by me. We had the whole court to ourselves; did he really have to stand so close?

The test didn’t start right away. There was a monologue at the start of the recording explaining how it all worked. I wasn’t sure I heard a single word. I was too focused on Noah. If we were going to be stuck together like this, then I had something I needed to ask him.

“I saw you on Friday,” I said as we waited.

He seemed confused by my comment. “That’s hardly surprising seeing as we were both on the same field trip.”

“Except you weren’t on the field trip,” I said. “I saw you outside my father’s building.”

A flicker of surprise shot through Noah’s gaze. He quickly covered it with a shrug. “So, we both skipped The Met. Again, not that surprising.”

“Given your history with my family, it was kind of surprising. What were you doing there?”

“Certainly not seeing your father, if that’s what you’re getting at,” he said. His features twisted with such distaste I reeled back from him.

I wasn’t going to be put off by the irritation in his eyes. “So, whatwereyou doing there then?”

“That’s really none of your business.”

“I guess I’ll just have to ask my father then.”

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