At First Hate (Coastal Chronicles)

“Yeah. He was at school here. Percy Hotels?”

“Jesus Christ,” I gasped. “That’s huge, Derek. You’d be set for life. They’re swanky.”

He shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, it was fun, but I didn’t love it.”

“So, the other option is going home?”

“Yeah. Obviously, I have a spot in my father’s firm,” he said stiffly. “But my advisor has dropped hints that he wouldn’t mind keeping me on for another year after I pass the Bar.”

“Is that normal?”

He shook his head. “Not really. Legal research and such. It’s really dry, but we get along, and I enjoy it. I never thought I’d say that, but I do.”

“Makes all the difference.”

“Yeah. I guess you get the research side, don’t you?”

“That I do,” I said with a small smile. I was starting to feel more human after devouring the coffee. We reached my lab building and hurried inside out of the rain. Derek shook out his wet hair and I dropped the umbrella.

“So, is there a bagel for me?”

“There is,” he agreed, offering me the bag. “I got a variety. Wasn’t sure of your preference.”

“I like lox on everything,” I said, taking out the everything bagel and biting into it.

“Noted.”

I glanced up at him. He seemed happy that his plan seemed to be working. I needed to stop this immediately. “That wasn’t an invitation for more breakfasts like this.”

“Why not? If we both have to be up early…”

“Derek, you know this is never happening again, right?”

He took another sip of his coffee. “Okay.”

“I’m serious.”

“You look serious.”

He smiled down at me, and I forced myself to meet that gaze levelly.

“We can be friends, but that’s it.”

“Friends,” he said softly.

I nodded. “Yep. I am officially friend-zoning you.”

He snorted and drank more of his coffee. “We’ll see.”

“Yeah, we will,” I said as if it were a challenge.

I remembered too late that Derek loved a good challenge. And I’d just issued one that he wouldn’t back down from. His smile only widened.

I gulped. “Thanks for breakfast.”

“What time are you done?”

“I don’t know. It’s a short day. Maybe two. Need to get home before Sandy hits.”

“Cool. See you then.” Then, he started to walk away.

“Wait! Derek,” I groaned. “That wasn’t an invitation.”

He walked backward so that he could look at me. “Have fun at work, Mars.” He winked, drawing the hood of his jacket back over his hair.

I tried not to smile but failed. He was insufferable. But I didn’t mind the groveling… even if it wasn’t going to get him anywhere.

Derek kept it up. I was shocked, but he had shown up right when my shift ended, and he came back bright and early after the hurricane passed through with coffee and bagels. Lox on an everything bagel, to be exact. He got my schedule from Misty—the traitor—and showed up to walk me home when he didn’t have class. He snuck me into the Law Library to work on my papers in peace. He charmed Misty, as if it were difficult, but somehow also my friends, Kyle, Matt, and Courtney. The five of us had come into the program together, and Derek had inserted himself into the group as if he were a neuroscience PhD. It was absurd. And somehow wonderful. Damn him.

In these few weeks, I had seen more of Derek than all the moments we’d had together over the length of our long acquaintance.

“So,” Derek said, walking me out of the lab on the first day of Thanksgiving break.

“So?” I stretched my arms high and yawned. I’d been burning the midnight oil too often.

“Misty told me y’all are having a Friendsgiving Thursday.”

“Yeah?”

“And she invited me.”

“Oh,” I said softly. I looked down at my feet and back up to him. I’d seen him nearly every day since Halloween. Of course my friends would invite him to our Friendsgiving if he was going to be in town. Still, it felt like a step, and I didn’t know why it did. It wasn’t like it was one with Kyle or Matt. “That’s fine.”

He stared at me for a second, speechless. “I thought it would be a lot harder to convince you.”

“Why? We’re friends, right?”

“Right,” he said slowly.

“It’s not like you’re my date. Misty invited you.”

He stuffed his hands into his Arc’teryx winter jacket. “Right.”

“Josie and Maddox are coming.”

“Josie… as in Josephine Reynolds?”

I nodded. “Yep. She told me she was going to be in Boston for something for the show.”

Josie had gotten a major break in college. She’d gone to SCAD and gotten picked up by a director to star in a new show, Academy, where she was a lead girl at a supernatural school. It had broken records in its first season. The second season was airing right now.

“I sometimes forget that you’re friends with her.”

“She was at that Halloween party of yours when we first met.”

“No shit?” he said with a laugh. “Go figure. And your brother?”