Page 14 of Love to Prove You Wrong

“You can try. But Diane’s on the committee. You’ll never get her approval.”

“Why not?”

I laughed. “Because she hates you. I’m sorry to break it to you, but you don’t have a good reputation, Justin. Diane thinks you being here will jeopardize Asher’s wedding. She even asked me to keep an eye on you.”

Justin stared at me. “She did? What did you say?”

“That you’re not my responsibility. It’s bad enough that we have to work together for the Spring Picnic.”

“Bad enough?” He laughed. “You secretly like me. Just admit it.”

I snatched the last cookie right before he could. “In your dreams, Justin Miller.”

A look boding trouble crossed his face. “There is a way to get Diane off your back, you know. Something that will ensure her that I won’t cause any trouble, because you’ll be right there to keep me on the right path.”

“Stop talking in riddles, please.”

He crossed his arms over his chest and looked at me with a mischievous grin. “You can be my plus one to the wedding.”

I laughed so hard I almost choked on my cookie. “Your plus one? Over my dead body.”

“Come on, Addy. It’ll be fun,” he cooed.

“Fun? I think our ideas of fun differ vastly.”

Justin bit his lip. “If you agree and I turn out to be the jerk you think I am, then I promise I’ll leave you alone forever. But I want nothing more than to prove you wrong.”

“Tempting,” I said. “But no.”

“Addy. You know you want to. What can I do to make you say yes?”

I thought about his question for a moment. Would it be insane to agree? Probably. I was having enough trouble getting his pretty face out of my thoughts as it was. And I didn’t want to start liking him. Then again, agreeing would also mean that I could ask anything of him, which could turn out to be a lot of fun after all.

I extended my hand. “I’ll say yes. But only if you apologize for what you did to me back in high school. Publicly.”

His eyebrows shot up. Ha! He wasn’t expecting that, now was he.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, he nodded and shook my hand. “We’re on, Addy.”

Chapter Five

It had been three days since I’d talked to Justin or even caught a glimpse of him. It bothered me, and I didn’t want it to bother me. I was supposed to dislike him fiercely, not linger at the reception desk in the hopes of catching a glimpse of him.

Another thing that irritated me was not knowing what he was up to. Like, where did he hang out all day? In his room? At his parents’ place? And where did he eat? I couldn’t even ask Carter or Alex if they’d seen him. That would only raise questions I didn’t want to be asked. His social media didn’t give me any clues about his whereabouts either, as he hadn’t posted anything in over a week.

The only thing I could do to get a dose of Justin was shut the curtains after work and watchIn Dire Need.

When the credits of the last episode rolled over the screen, I grunted and threw the remote across the couch. I was supposed to hate him, not have all the feels after watching him on TV.

Justin was good at acting. Way too good for my liking. A part of me had hoped he would turn out to be a bad actor, but after two seasons ofIn Dire Need, there was no denying he was fantastic at his job. Not to mention the abs on that guy. Jeez, Louise, when his shirt came off in the season two finale I screamed into a pillow. Note to self, he could never ever find out he’d made me scream like that.

I pulled my knees up to my chin, wondering about the kind of person he’d become. To me, he was still Justin Miller, the jerk who had once tripped me in the cafeteria. My milk carton had exploded, sending white liquid in all directions. He and his friends had burst out laughing, telling everyone how much of a klutz Fat Addy was.

To make things worse, he’d crashed into me a couple of weeks later when he and his friends were practicing baseball throwing techniques in the parking lot. He ruined the science project I had to present in class that day. The entire school had seen me cry.

How could I forget something like that? Abs or no abs, acting talent or not… he had ruined my self-esteem. It had taken me years to come to terms with how I looked. I had lost a lot of weight two years ago and had learned to love myself, chubby hips and everything. But the memory of that nickname still lingered in the back of my head whenever I ate an entire box of cookies or gorged down a hamburger meal, something I should be able to do without feeling guilty. It was my body and my life, and I was the only person who had a say in either.

A beep indicated I had a new text message. I reached for my phone, thinking it was probably Suzie, but the text preview clued me in on the fact that it was some kid who had used a wrong number.

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