I grab the laptop, shove my science book inside, then slam the door. I head straight out of the building and across the campus to the dining hall. The table where I normally sit is half full, Reyn and Vandy already there, along with Caroline and Ben. I march up.
“Has anyone seen Sebastian?” I ask.
“I saw him and Dean Dewey walking down the hall before second period,” Caroline says, looking up from her study guide. “Something about him lurking around the lockers on the junior hall between classes.”
“Motherfucker,” I mutter. “Well if you see him—”
“Hey, you got my gift,” he cuts in, reaching out to gently slide his hand down my arm, just like he had yesterday when we parted. I guess he’d been serious about getting me used to his touches in small, measured doses. This one doesn’t make me want to hurl, but I still flinch. He uses my distraction to swipe the laptop from beneath my arm. He holds it up, face lit up with a beaming grin. “I thought about going for black, because you know, you really work that whole edge-lady vibe, but rose gold is just so much shinier.” He looks around the table, seeking approval. “Right? Don’t you think?”
Reyn’s eyes dart between me and Sebastian, an amused grin twisting at his lips. Vandy kind of looks like a deer in headlights. Meanwhile, I’m about two seconds from completely losing my shit. I swallow back the rage.
“Can I talk to you for a minute,” I ask in a calm, collected tone. “Alone?”
He tilts his head, delayed awareness spreading across his face. “Now?”
“Yes, now.”
I spin on my heel, hightailing it through the students that are still coming in the door, not waiting for him to catch up. It doesn’t take him long though, and I hear several people telling him to watch out and to slow down as he chases after me. Once I’m in the hallway, I stop and hold out the laptop.
“I can’t take this.”
“What? Why not?” A deep line creases his forehead. “I mean, no offense, but your laptop is a piece of junk—you were saying last night that it can’t handle all the photos you need to store on it and that the battery dies in like twenty minutes flat. This one won’t have those issues.”
My whole body clenches up in frustration, remembering our discussion in the Preston parking lot. I’d just had a fucking epic orgasm ten minutes prior, which apparently turns me into a pile of goo, and there’d been a moment there where I’m pretty sure neither of us wanted the night to end. But mostly, I didn’t know what to do, how to act, or what to say.
Hence, some truly stupid word vomit about how I needed to write up an essay on my dinosaur of a laptop.
“It’s like a two-thousand-dollar laptop, Bass. That’s ridiculous.”
“What’s the big deal? I have the money to spare, and I want you to have it.” He watches me thoughtfully before adding, “I didn’t buy it with betting money or anything. Swear.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. “That’s not the point. It’s too much, and you and I… I mean, come on. We hardly know one another.”
His expression turns incredulous. “Hardly know one another? How can you even say that after what we did yesterday?”
“Shhh!” His voice is loud, boisterous—too casual about it all. I hiss, “Don’t just go shouting about that in the fucking hallway!”
He look
s around, eyebrow rising at the complete lack of students milling around. “You think any of these people don’t think we’re already boning? Because trust me, that ship sailed the first time people saw us talking in the hallway. Or is this about yesterday? Are you having regrets or something? Because last night was fucking aces, and I know you know it.”
My face already feels like the surface of the sun, and I don’t care that there are only two people in the hallway, far out of earshot. I still lean in close to say, “This isn’t about that. I told you not to give me money or gifts!”
“That was before.” He points it out like this has all been some huge misunderstanding. Like, obviously when you fingerbang the hell out of a girl, you’re suddenly allowed to start buying her expensive consumer electronics. “I wasn’t your friend then.”
“You’re not my friend now.”
He gives me one of those slow, smarmy smiles. “Nah, I guess I’m not. But I’m definitely something, and it’s a little friends-adjacent, don’t you think?” He reaches out to tug at my dog tags. “Why are you freaking out?”
“I’m not freaking out,” I argue, even as his eyebrow raises skeptically. “I’m not. I just…” I shove the laptop at him again. “I can’t take this. It’s too expensive and just… way too much. It’s too much, Bass.”
He looks down at the laptop but doesn’t take it. Instead, he rocks back on his heels and says, “You know, I’ve worked really hard to understand you, Sugar, because there’s something about you that has me so fucking infatuated, it’s borderline embarrassing. You’re fun and sexy and snarky as fuck. I don’t care that you drive a shitty car, or that your boots are scuffed, or that your laptop is old. I actually like all those things about you, and you want to know why? Because they make you who you are. It’s the true you. You don’t apologize for it and you aren’t someone who tries to hide it. I accept it all, even when some of those things have historically been a massive pain in my dick.”
He touches my arm gently, making a point. “But you have to be willing to accept the true me too, and I’m sorry, but a part of that is being stupidly rich. I’m talking trust fund, stocks and bonds, off-shore accounts, type of rich. At least my father is, and his father was, and there’s just no end to the fucking money, and that’s something you have to accept if we’re going to be together.” I open my mouth to argue but he holds a finger to my lips. “Seriously. Money means fuck-all to me. It isn’t going to go away, and as long as I have it, I’m going to shower you with gifts, because that's what my mother taught me, not to be greedy, to share what I have and give freely. No-strings-attached gifts to the people I care about is just how I roll.”
He bends down and kisses my forehead before turning and walking back toward the cafeteria, with that same cocky swagger that’s impossible to hate. The embroidered devil on the back of his jacket is the last thing I see before he vanishes around the corner. I hold the laptop against my body, realizing that part of what bothers me the most is that Sebastian is always giving me something; the decal for the Mustang, rides when I need them, help with the kittens, and yeah, okay? I admit it.
The epic fucking orgasm, too.