Chapter 6

Tessy’s POV

I had officially lost my mind.

That was the only explanation.

The entire drive home, all I could think about was the deal I had just made with Ryder King. I was actually going to let him teach me how to get Tristan’s attention.

What kind of nonsense was that?!

I pulled into the apartment parking lot and rested my forehead against the steering wheel for a long, painful second.

“You’re an idiot, Tessy,” I mumbled to myself. A complete, unmitigated idiot.

With a defeated sigh, I grabbed my bag and headed upstairs.

The moment I unlocked the apartment door, Sophie looked up from the couch.

“There she is!” she exclaimed, tossing the TV remote aside. “So? How was tutoring with Mr. Campus Playboy?”

I kicked off my shoes and dropped my bag by the door. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

Sophie’s eyes lit up instantly. “Oh my God.” She sat up straighter, her full attention locked on me. “What happened?”

“Nothing.”

“Tessy.”

I ignored her and walked toward the kitchen instead.

“Tessy.”

“I said nothing happened,” I repeated, opening the fridge.

She narrowed her eyes, watching my every move over the back of the couch. “You only refuse to talk when something extremely embarrassing happens.”

I grabbed a bottle of water and twisted the cap off. “It wasn’t embarrassing.”

“So something did happen.”

“...”

“Tessy.”

I took a long drink, keeping the bottle pressed to my lips and hoping she’d somehow magically forget about it.

She didn’t. She stood up, walked into the kitchen, and folded her arms over her chest.

“I’m waiting.”

I slowly lowered the bottle, my cheeks already beginning to burn.

“...I accidentally walked in on Ryder.”

She blinked once. “...Doing what?”

I covered my face with both hands, wanting the ground to open up and swallow me whole. “He... wasn’t alone.”

For a full two seconds, Sophie simply stared at me in complete silence.

Then she exploded.

“No!” she shrieked before collapsing back against the couch, laughing so hard she nearly fell right onto the floor. “Oh my God!”

She pointed at me between gasps of air. “You actually walked in on him?!”

“I didn’t know someone was in there!” I yelled, clutching my burning face.

That only made her laugh harder.

“Stop laughing!”

“I can’t!” she wheezed, wiping a tear from her eye. “Please tell me what his face looked like!”

“I wasn’t looking at his face!”

That sent her over the edge, her laughter ringing through the entire apartment.

“I hate you,” I groaned into my hands.

“No, you don’t,” she wheezed back.

“I really do right now,” I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.

Sophie finally managed to calm down, wiping a tear of laughter from her eye as she sat up on the couch.

“So… did you leave?” she asked, her curiosity lingering.

“I tried to.”

“Tried?”

“He stopped me.”

Sophie’s amused smile slowly faded, replaced by genuine confusion. “What do you mean, he stopped you?”

“He literally blocked the front door.”

Her eyebrows shot all the way up to her hairline. “What?”

“He apologized, Soph.”

“…Ryder King? Apologized?” She blinked, looking like she’d just heard him speak fluent alien.

“Apparently, he actually needs to pass art this semester or he’ll lose his place on the hockey team,” I explained, the absurdity of it still landing in my head.

“Huh.” She leaned back against the cushions, processing that revelation. “I honestly wasn’t expecting that from him.”

“Neither was I.”

“So… what happened next?”

I hesitated, my thumbs nervously digging into my palms. “He made me a deal.”

Sophie’s eyes narrowed instantly, her radar going off. “What kind of deal, Tessy?”

“I tutor him so he passes art…”

“And?” she pressed, leaning forward.

“He helps me get Tristan’s attention.”

Absolute, drop-dead silence filled the living room.

Then—

“Oh…”

A slow, terrifying smirk began to spread across Sophie’s face.

“Oh, this is bad.”

“It isn’t!” I blurted out defensively.

“It really, really is.”

“No, it’s practical!”

“Tessy, you’re about to spend hours alone with Ryder King while he teaches you how to flirt?”

“It’s not like that!”

“That is exactly what it’s like.”

“He knows Tristan!” I argued, throwing my hands up.

“So?”

“So he knows how guys like Tristan think! He said he can help me.”

Sophie stared at me for several long seconds, the smirk fading into a look of quiet disbelief before she shook her head.

“Tessy… this is going to end really well…”

“Or?”

“…or you’re about to become the main character in the messiest romance novel ever written.”

I groaned, sliding down into my seat. “It is not a romance.”

“Mhm.”

“I like Tristan.”

“Mhm.”

“I actually do!”

“Mhm.”

“Can you stop saying ‘mhm’?”

“No.”

I grabbed one of the couch cushions and hurled it at her head. She caught it effortlessly, bursting into a light laugh.

“I’m serious, Soph!”

“I know you are,” she said softly, her expression softening into genuine concern. She set the cushion down. “Just… don’t let Ryder get into your head. He has a reputation for making girls feel like they’re the only person in the room, and then moving on to the next one.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, though my stomach did a little nervous flutter. “I know what he’s like.”

“I hope so.”

Before I could say anything else, my phone buzzed sharply against the glass coffee table.

Unknown Number.

I frowned, reaching for it.

“Who is it?” Sophie asked, peeking over.

“I don’t know.”

I unlocked the screen.

Unknown Number: Tomorrow. Four o’clock. Don’t be late.

My brow furrowed in confusion. “Who’s that?”

“I think…”

Buzz. Another notification popped up right below it.

Unknown Number: And wear something you actually feel confident in.

My eyebrows knitted together tightly. “What?”

I quickly tapped the screen to reply.

Tessy: Why?

Three little animated dots appeared almost immediately, pulsing on the screen.

Then his reply hit:

Unknown Number: Because tomorrow isn’t just tutoring.

A split second later, before I even had time to breathe, one final message flashed across the glass:

Unknown Number: Lesson One starts tomorrow.

I stared down at the bold black letters, my heart dropping straight into my stomach.

“What did he say? What did he send?!” Sophie squealed, practically climbing over the back of the couch to read over my shoulder.

I swallowed hard, my fingers trembling slightly as I locked the phone.

“…I suddenly have a very bad feeling about this.”