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22. An Anonymous Email

Author: _najeeb.i
last update publish date: 2026-05-13 13:30:25

ELLIE

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was sunlight. It bled through my closed eyelids slowly, and when I felt the warmth of the sun on my cheek, I slowly pried my eyes open as I realized that it was late in the morning.

I’d somehow overslept.

Fuck!

The second thing I noticed was Beck’s arm across my waist.

I lay there for exactly three seconds appreciating how comfortable it felt to be snuggled up against him, and then my brain caught up and I shot upright like I’d just been electroc
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  • A Deal With The College Playboy   25. The Truth At Last

    ELLIEThe ambulance took eleven minutes to arrive, which I knew because I counted. My brain needed something to do that wasn't looking at my ankle, which had swollen to roughly the size of a grapefruit and was slowly getting bigger with each passing second. The woman who'd called the ambulance stayed with me. Her name was Patricia, she was about sixty years old. She held my hand without asking if I wanted her to, which I did, and she talked to me about nothing in particular, like her sister's garden, a documentary she'd watched last night, the general unreliability of scooter riders, and I let her voice wash over me and focused on breathing through the pain.Someone had collected my pharmacy bag from the kerb and set it beside me, which I'd noted but I didn’t have the capacity to deal with.When the ambulance, arrived the paramedics were efficient and calm and they asked me a series of questions I answered on autopilot. Name, age, what happened, does this hurt, on a scale of one to t

  • A Deal With The College Playboy   24. A Day At The Doctor’s

    ELLIEBeck called at nine thirty on a Saturday morning, which was so freaking early that I was still in bed with my hair all over the place, and my eyes barely open. I slowly blinked as I stared at the phone screen, then I answered him with a groan. “Hello?”“Hi Buzzkill,” he said excitedly, causing me to move the phone away from my ear. “Beck, what the hell?” I said. “Why are you yelling in my ear first thing in the morning?”"Because it’s a beach day, Buzz," he said. "Me, Tyler, and a few others by are heading down to the beach today. You should come."I sat up slowly, pushing my hair out of my face. Through the curtains, I could see that the sun was warm and golden, and it was absolutely going to be a beautiful day. It would be a crime to stay indoors."Today?" I said."Today," he said. "Tyler's already loading the car. Don’t forget to bring some sunscreen. You’re as white as a ghost.""Excuse me?” I said."I mean that affectionately," he said. "Come on, Buzzkill. You'll like it.

  • A Deal With The College Playboy   23. The Phantom E-mailer

    ELLIEI read the email a third time, just to make sure I hadn't imagined it.‘Stay away from Beck Ryder. He's not who you think he is’. That was it. There was no signature, no explanation, and no follow up. Just that one sentence, which made my stomach growl and my head spin. My first instinct was to screenshot it and text it to Beck immediately. My second instinct was that that was insane, and I needed to think properly before I did anything. I put my phone face down on the mattress and stared at the ceiling for a minute, trying to be rational about this.Okay, let’s start with the facts. Someone had gone out of their way to get my email address, which wasn't exactly public information. They'd created a throwaway account specifically to send me one anonymous message, which meant they either didn't want to be identified or they wanted me to be paranoid about who it could be. And the timing was interesting, because of what happened last night, and how this morning he'd kissed me on m

  • A Deal With The College Playboy   22. An Anonymous Email

    ELLIEThe first thing I noticed when I woke up was sunlight. It bled through my closed eyelids slowly, and when I felt the warmth of the sun on my cheek, I slowly pried my eyes open as I realized that it was late in the morning. I’d somehow overslept. Fuck!The second thing I noticed was Beck’s arm across my waist.I lay there for exactly three seconds appreciating how comfortable it felt to be snuggled up against him, and then my brain caught up and I shot upright like I’d just been electrocuted.“Beck,” I said.He made a sound into my pillow that was not a word, and he waved dismissively. “Beck!” I groaned as I grabbed his shoulder and shook it. “Wake the fuck up. It’s morning. Like, actual morning. The sun is fully out.”“Mm,” he said.“Beck Ryder, if you don’t open your fucking eyes in the next five seconds I’m going to push you out of this bed,” I said.He opened one eye slowly and looked at the window, and then he opened the other one.“Shit,” he said.“Yes,” I said. “Shit. Y

  • A Deal With The College Playboy   21. Midnight Hanky Panky

    ELLIEThe Martian was Aunt Carol's favourite movie , and she never missed an opportunity to make me watch it. Which meant I'd spent two hours on the couch watching Matt Damon grow potatoes on Mars while she cried at every emotional scene like she hadn't already seen it four times."He's just so lonely," she said, pressing a tissue to her nose as the credits rolled."Aunt Carol, he’s not a real person," I said."He might as well be," she said. “Imagine being left behind on another planet all by yourself. That must be terrifying. I would never wish that on my worst enemy.”I thought about telling her that I wouldn’t mind being alone on Mars, but I held my tongue. There was no need for me to always bring down the mood of every conversation. So I just sat silently and watched the movie. After the movie ended (I may or may not have cried when the crew rescued him), I gathered the bowls from the coffee table and took them to the kitchen, rinsing them out while Aunt Carol channel-surfed in

  • A Deal With The College Playboy   20. First Game Of The Season

    ELLIESolimar wouldn’t stop barraging me with questions from the moment I arrived on campus, and I kept ignoring her because I didn’t want to give her anything to latch onto. And yet, somehow, she refused to let things go. "I'm just saying," Solimar said, climbing the bleacher steps with her popcorn tucked under her arm and her scarf trailing behind her like a cape, "that a man does not carry your bag across the entire quad for no reason.""He was being neighbourly," I said."You said that last time and I didn't believe it then either," she said, dropping into a seat in the middle section where we had a decent view of the whole field. "Ellie, Beck Ryder was carrying your bag. That doesn’t happen for no reason.""Can we just watch the game please?" I said, sitting beside her."The game hasn't started yet," she said, gesturing at the empty field. "We have time. Tell me what's going on between you two.""There's nothing to tell.""Your face says otherwise.""My face says I want popcorn,

  • A Deal With The College Playboy   14. A Night to Remember

    ELLIEI was going to hyperventilate. No seriously, I was going to actually collapse right there in Beck's damn living room because my brain had decided to sprint through every single possible way this night could go wrong. Condom tears? Check. Me screaming like a dying animal because I had no idea

  • A Deal With The College Playboy   13. The Build-up

    ELLIEThere's no handbook on how to prepare for your first time. Nobody hands you a laminated checklist titled ‘How to Lose Your Virginity Without Humiliating Yourself’. Which is a shame, because I really could've used one right about now. I thought I knew what I needed to do. But as the hour drew

  • A Deal With The College Playboy   12. Negotiating The Hookup Contract

    ELLIEIf there was ever a moment I could've been hit by a meteor and welcomed it, it was this one. I actually looked up at the sky and waited to see a huge rock hurtling towards me, hopefully to wipe me off the face of the planet. Because Beck Ryder, the beautiful disaster himself, had just kissed

  • A Deal With The College Playboy   10. The Climax

    ELLIEI couldn't breathe as I sat there and looked at Beck with my mouth open. I could have sworn that in that moment, some tiny little creature had crawled into my brain and rewired everything so that I wouldn't be able to think properly. Beck Ryder had just dared me to kiss him. And he wasn't ev

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