Tempt the Ex (Tempt 2.5)

“You sure about this?” Austin looks at me. “I mean, Noah is right. There are more fish in the pond or whatever metaphor he used.”

“It’s her,” I say quietly. “From the moment I met her, it was like my world was knocked into place.”

“Okay, don’t repeat that ever again, especially in front of Noah.” He also gets up from the table, grabbing his laptop as he makes his way to his room and closes the door with a slam as well.

I grab the pieces of paper from the table, looking at the list again, and I add mine. “Make her fall in love with me again.” I put that at the top of the list. Picking up the two magazines and the list, I walk upstairs to my room and start my first love letter.

Chapter 4

Dani

I’m going to be so late for my study group. It’s been a week of hell. First, my car got a flat tire, and it took forever to get someone to fix it for me. Then my alarm didn’t go off, and I missed two of my marketing building classes, which is why I needed this study group.

Then to top it all off, I couldn’t fucking sleep without dreaming about John. I haven’t seen or heard from him since the last text he sent me, and I’m like a woman on the ledge about to jump over the cliff. I honestly thought after a couple of days everything would be fine, but it’s not. There is nothing fine with how I’m feeling. NOTHING.

Then to top all this shit off, I’ve started getting weird notes on my car. It’s almost eerie the way the words are glued on instead of written. I think back to the first one I got.

Bouncing down the steps, I slept for a full four hours last night and sighed when I finally put my key into the door of the car, seeing a white folded paper under the windshield wiper. At first, I thought it was a ticket, but then I opened it, and all these letters were spaced together and cut out from a magazine.

Your eyes are the door to your soul.

I looked around, seeing if anything was out of place, but there wasn’t even a bird chirping. Nothing. Then the next day was another note on the same white paper.

Your smile lights up my day, even from afar.

I even set my alarm every hour one night to go and see if anyone was by my car but still nothing.

Now I’m throwing my bag over my shoulder as I slam the car door shut and run into the coffee shop where we’re all meeting. I walk in, looking around to see if the group has gotten there, and I see them in the corner. As I walk over, the only thing I see is John. His black hair is falling on his forehead as he pushes his black-rimmed glasses up a bit.

He looks like Clark Kent, and I see he is talking to Arya. She told me she hates him. She is the one who made a list of why I shouldn’t date him, and now she’s here.

I make my way over as they both laugh at something he said. His arms are folded over his chest. A chest I spent many hours holding on to while sleeping or riding him.

“Hey,” I say, clearing my throat. He looks up at me and smiles big.

“Hey,” he says and is about to say something else when Arya looks at me while she puts her brown hair behind her ear and smiles at me.

“Hey, I didn’t think you would be coming. I thought you were sick?” Arya says to me as she looks a little white and shell-shocked that I’m actually here.

“Nope,” I say as I pull out a chair and sit down in front of them right next to George.

“Hey, Dani, I didn’t see you in class this week. Is everything okay?” he asks me worried, and I just nod.

“I’m fine.” I don’t get into how I’m not fine, or how I didn’t make it to class because I slept through my alarm. Instead, I grab my books and laptop and open them. “So what did I miss?” I ask the group that now is the six of us, including Dylan and Josh. Everyone takes out their notes as we start talking about strategy in public marketing. At the end of the two-hour session, I close my books and put my stuff into my bag.

As I get up, I turn to see that George has left, but John is standing next to me. “Do you think you have everything you need?” he asks me as I tuck my chair in, and Arya comes to stand next to me.

“Well, if you need any of my notes, just ask.” She smiles at me and then smiles bigger at John. “It was good chatting with you.” She turns and walks away. I watch her walk out the coffee shop door, the bells chiming when she opens the door and chiming again when it closes, and something doesn’t sit well in my stomach. I look back at John to see that he isn’t watching Arya walk away. He’s watching me, his eyes soft and light.