Ch37

NOVA

The leather of Enzo’s jacket wraps warmly around my shoulders, swallowing me in his scent... I stay stiff in his arms as he carries me across the dark asphalt, the distance to his black sports car feeling too short and too long all at once.

He reaches the passenger side, pulling the door open with one hand while keeping a steady grip on my knees. Without a word, he gently deposits me onto the seat. I pull his jacket tighter around myself, tucking my legs inside the warm interior.

Before I can even catch my breath, Enzo turns. “Stay right there,” he says.

I watch through the open door as he strides back into the shadows toward where we left my shoes. A minute later, he returns, holding my abandoned stilettos by their thin straps. He crouches down by the passenger-side footwell, sliding my shoes onto the floorboard before looking up at me through the open door.

“Thank you,” I mutter, as he climbs into the driver's seat and pulls the door shut. I shift nervously in my seat, gripping the edges of his jacket.

“Are we going home now?” I ask.

Enzo shifts the car into gear, his jaw tightening as he checks the rearview mirror. “No, I just need one drink.”

My eyes go wide, and I gasp, throwing my hands up. “Enzo, it’s late! My mom will be mad when she finds out that I'm out late.”

“One drink, Nova,” he says.

“But...” I start, shaking my head. I pause, thinking for a second before starting again. “Do you really hate me?” I ask. I don't know what to think about Enzo anymore. One moment he's intense and then the next moment he's acting like Enzo before the scandal. He turns his head, fixing those dark, intense eyes entirely on me.

He shakes his head slightly. “I don't know what to do with you, Nova. You amuse me, you annoy me, you bring out the worst emotions in me.”

I study his profile. Typical Enzo to say all of that. He is one confusing man. My heart does a flip in my chest, and I ask slowly, “Is that a bad thing? Caleb said...” I begin, testing the waters.

“Leave Caleb out of this,” he snaps. “What did that girl Bethany want?”

I turn my face away toward the window, crossing my arms over his jacket. “She was nice.”

Enzo lets out a dry, humorless scoff. “Bethany isn't nice.”

“She just wanted to know about something,”

“What?” he demands.

I glare at him, turning back to meet his frustrated gaze with one of my own. “You ask too many questions!”

Enzo groans, slamming a hand against the steering wheel before turning completely in his seat to face me, trapping me in the passenger-side corner.

“Look,” he says, his voice dropping. “Once upon a time, I pretended to not be interested in you, and then you went and did something horrible. I've taken it upon myself to know your every move. If Bethany is hanging out with you... Then...”

My breath hitches in my throat. I hate how easily he reads me, how deeply his gaze cuts through every wall I try to put up. I shrink back against the headrest, my voice dropping to a reluctant murmur.

“She wants me to do something to get into the sorority!”

"What? You... You don't..."

I stare at him. "I don't what? Fit? You can go on and say it. I don't fit and you don't think I'm going to be a..."

"That's not what I said, Nova. You don't belong with those girls."

I raise a brow. "Don't I? They're the only ones who have talked to me like a human being since I returned back to school."

Enzo doesn't say a word. I clasp my hands together. "Being in there is my only shot."

"But you don't belong with them."

I glare at him. "Then tell me, where I belong?"

"At the media room, finding stories and doing what you love the most. Journalism."