Page 3 of The Confidant
“Perfect.” I inspected the rest of the ad. It was a pretty simple design—a light-pink background with a silhouette image of cupid shooting an arrow at a big, dark-pink heart. All of Addison’s designs were clean like that. Minimalistic but beautiful. “It looks great. And I really love the color scheme you used.”
“Thank you,” she said with a smile. “I just hope the typo from last week didn’t mess up too many people.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. Most people expect the school dances to be on the Saturday before Valentine's Day, so I don’t think it was too big of an issue.”
“Hopefully.”
“Are there any other designs you needed to submit?” I asked, even though I was pretty sure she’d already uploaded all the others. Addison was the opposite of Ben and Casey and usually had her work done days ahead of deadline. Which was why, aside from Hunter, she was the person I talked to most on the newspaper staff.
We’d actually been getting to know each other a lot better over the past month, since she’d taken the dorm room next to mine after the Cohen twins moved into their dad’s house. She and her stepbrother were new to Eden Falls Academy this year and had kept to themselves for the most part, but now that she was getting more comfortable around me, I could see her coming out of her shell. I was liking her more and more.
The fact that she was responsible and didn’t need babysitting didn’t hurt, either.
“I’ve gotten everything besides the ad for the Valentine’s Grams done.” She clicked back out of the program. “But I do have a question for you.”
“You do?”
“Yeah…” She tucked a lock of her dirty-blonde hair behind her ear. “It’s actually about the Valentine's dance.”
“Uh, huh,” I said, wondering why she seemed anxious to ask me about it. Was she worried I’d changed my mind about inviting her to join the group date with me and my other friends? Because I’d already cleared it with the other girls, and they were totally cool with Addison and her date joining us for the day.
“So…” She bit her lip and glanced behind us. My chest started to cave in, because based on whom she’d just glanced at, I had a good idea of what she might be planning to ask.
The question that everyone had been asking me lately—about whether I was going to ask Hunter to be my date to the dance.
“What did you want to ask me?” I sat up straighter, bracing myself.
“Well…” She looked down and smoothed her hands across the red-and-blue plaid skirt of her school uniform. “I—” She seemed to swallow before meeting my gaze again with her crystal blue eyes. “I was wondering if you were planning to ask Hunter to the dance?”
Yep.
I’d spotted that question from a mile away.
I glanced back at Hunter, my heart panging in my chest the way it did every time I thought about not being able to ask him to the Valentine's dance because of the stupid deal I made with my dad.
The deal was that if my dad allowed Hunter to be my escort for the debutante ball that took place last December, then I would agree to go to the next school dance with a guy of my dad’s choosing. That guy being Xander Pierce—the college senior who had done an internship with my dad over the summer. Also known as the guy he’d been trying to set me up with for months.
So, since I’d been able to enjoy the debutante ball with Hunter and pretend for a night that things were different between us, it was time for me to fulfill my end of the bargain.
And like it or not, I’d be celebrating the holiday all about love with a guy who, while he seemed nice enough and was admittedly extremely attractive, I still didn’t feel I knew very well.
But I guess that was why my dad kept insisting I spend time with Xander on this date. So I could get to know him better and see that there were other good guys who would make good future husbands besides my best friend.
I’d avoided telling my friends—especially Hunter—about this arrangement because I didn’t want to accept that my dad had so much control over my love life. But with the dance less than two weeks away, I needed to fess up.
Even if that meant officially relinquishing any claim I had on my best friend.
After taking a deep breath, I said, “I’m actually going with someone else this time.”
“You are?” Addison furrowed her brow, a shocked expression covering her face. “Y-you’re really not asking Hunter?”
“No.” I peeked back at my friend who was bent over his keyboard with his tongue poking out the side of his mouth like he was in deep concentration. “My dad has been trying to set me up with this other guy he knows, so I’ll be taking him.”
Did I think it was weird that my dad was setting me up with a college senior who probably had way better things to do than take an eighteen-year-old to her high school dance?
Yep.
But for some reason, Xander was on board with this idea that our dads had schemed up and had even texted me yesterday to say that he was looking forward to seeing me again.
