Page 41 of The Confidant
“So, I’m guessing that wistful smile I saw on your face during the last dance wasn’t because of your date?” Asher asked.
“No.” I sighed, my mind going back to the last song where Scarlett and I had seemed to have a moment as we’d danced with other people. “That particular smile was for someone else.”
Someone who I hoped would be happy to get things back to normal now that the Valentine’s dance was in the past.
“Addison and I had a good time together,” I added when he looked confused. “But I don’t see us being anything more than friends.”
In fact, I might be crazy, but I was pretty sure I’d caught her staring at Evan quite a few times last night.
Which was kind of strange.
Like, I knew they were juststep-siblings—so not blood-related—and she’d said that he’d been best friends with her brother before their parents got married. But it would be weird if she had a crush on him, right?
I pushed the thought away. Maybe I was imagining it.
Or maybe there was something else going on there that I didn’t know about.
“You could send the flowers anonymously,” Asher suggested, sitting up straighter on his bed and combing a hand through his tousled dark-brown hair. “Maybe use a code name that only Scarlett would understand. That way, if she gets them delivered during a class she has with Addison, Addison might not figure out who they’re from and feel bad.”
“You think that would work?” I asked, skeptical of his idea since pretty much everyone at school knew my history with Scarlett well enough to guess that I would be the one sending her flowers anonymously.
“It might.” He stood from his bed and pulled a white T-shirt over his head like he was getting ready to head down to the great hall for breakfast. “Or you could just deliver them yourself.”
Which would bring me back to my first problem of trying to avoid doing things that would make Scarlett’s dad think we were sneaking around behind his back again.
We still didn’t know who had reported us to him.
“I’ll probably just send them from ‘Anonymous Cool Guy’ or something like that,” I said.
“Good plan,“ Asher said. “Though, it might make her think they’re from me since I’m clearly the coolest guy at our school.”
“Obviously.” I chuckled. “Which will only get people further off my trail, right?”
“Right.” He smiled for a second, but then got a thoughtful look on his face. “You know what would throw even more people off your scent?”
“No.”
“If I changed the name on my order for Elyse to ‘Anonymous Cool Guy’ too.” He smirked. “Then everyone will wonder which scoundrel is going after both of our girls.”
“Oh the drama.” I laughed. “And now you have to do it.”
“I think I will,” he said. “Gotta keep the romance alive somehow.”
I doubted they needed any help keeping the romance alive. From what I’d seen of them together the past month and a half, things seemed to be going very well. But I could understand wanting to add a little fun into the mix from time to time.
After he left, I turned back to my computer to look over the different bouquet options on my screen. The first option was for the traditional long-stemmed red rose. You could either order a single red rose, a bundle of three roses, or a bouquet with a dozen. Most people would probably pick one of those options because roses were a symbol of romantic love and what most girls would hope to receive on Valentine’s Day.
But I had actually been eyeing a different kind of bouquet. One with a mix of pink peonies, white carnations, and lavender. In the past, Scarlett had preferred the variety ones rather than the traditional red roses, so I figured they would be what she’d want out of these options.
They were also offering boxes of chocolates as an add-on, but since I didn’t want to go too overboard, I just added the flowers to the cart and checked out.
Now I just had to wait and see how she would react to receiving flowers from ‘Anonymous Cool Guy’ after going on a date with a super-rich billionaire heir.
* * *
“So how manygirlfriends do you have right now?” I turned to my friend Nash after taking my seat in AP Chemistry the next day.
Nash sat directly behind me. From theone, two, three, four, five…sixred roses and three boxes of chocolates he had sitting on the table in front of him, I guessed that his fan club had only grown larger over the past week.
