Contradictions (Woodfalls Girls 3)

On Friday I arrived at the library before Trent, which was nothing new. I’d quickly realized that he was never on time. His brain, which was so brilliant in some respects, seemed oblivious to time schedules. It was ironic considering he was helping me become more organized.

I was working on an assignment for my business management class when he finally showed up.

“Late again,” I mocked. “You need an alarm clock superglued to your forehead.”

“My eyes don’t roll up that high,” he answered, sinking down in the chair next to me.

My eyes zeroed in on his mouth. I’d noticed the other day that his lips quirked slightly when he was teasing. It was the only tic I had picked up on to tell if he was screwing with me. “You need some new material. You know how some people go to fat spas or relationship camps? You need a sense of humor makeover,” I said.

“My humor is just too sophisticated for regular people.”

“Regular people? You mean human beings, right, Spock?”

“Do you even know who Spock is?” He sat forward in his chair like the end of the world hinged on my answer.

“Sure, he’s Luke’s father,” I said, looking down at my book so he wouldn’t see my smirk. I’d learned on Wednesday that Trent’s biggest pet peeve was when characters from his favorite shows or movies were mixed up.

“First of all, Spock is from Star Trek, while Luke’s father—whose name is Anakin Skywalker, or Darth Vader to the layperson—is from Star Wars.”

I egged him on further by looking down at my book, disinterested.

“Furthermore, the two are not even in the same universe or time period, for that matter. One happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, while the other takes place in the future. It couldn’t be any simpler,” he sputtered.

It was almost too easy, like taking candy from a baby. I let him suffer for a few seconds before looking up and grinning at him. “Don’t get your undies in a bunch, Captain Kirk.”

“Do you always use nicknames as a shield?” he asked, moving my statistics book closer to him.

My grin faded. Damn him. He always seemed to be able to do this to me. With a few words he could knock me down several notches. I clamped my mouth closed, even though I was dying to retort, but that would only waste more time.

“I took the last practice test in unit one of statistics. I asked Ms. Joyner about the makeup exam. She said I could go in on Monday and take it. Even if I ace it, the highest grade I can get is an eighty-five.” Changing the subject was how I got around his random probing questions that always seemed to make me uncomfortable.

He took the bait. “What did you score on your practice test?”

“Ninety-eight. I missed a damn ratio problem.”

“Ratios,” he announced, flipping open the book to the appropriate section. “We’ll go over them again.” His tone was animated as he searched for the page. For once, I was happy to dive into a textbook.

The next hour passed with Trent covering ratios yet again. He was patient in his explanation and deemed me ready for the test when I correctly answered ten complicated problems that he had randomly pulled out of his head. It must be nice to be a total brain.

After we finished with ratios, Trent proofread my paper for business communications while I worked on a mock employee schedule for a group assignment in my business management class. We had to create a fictional online company, which was surprisingly fun. The group voted and decided on an online shoe company. The project was worth 80 percent of our overall semester grade, so it was important my group did well. I was struggling with how many employees would be required to ship out shoes each day when Trent finished proofing my paper.

“Was it awful?” I asked, clicking the track changes button on my computer to read his notes. Just two days ago, I had broken out in a cold sweat over the idea of him reading my stuff, but I had come to realize that although he was very analytical, he was also an excellent tutor. Without sounding critical, he had a way of clearly explaining things so they made sense.

“No, you covered many of the points that were in the rubric. I noted a couple more points you might want to add.” I nodded my head absently at his words since I was already reading his notes. I was a little embarrassed over the grammar mistakes he found. I always seemed to mess up there, their, and they’re, which was pretty aggravating since I knew the difference. I shut down my laptop once I finished reading through his notes.

Stowing all my stuff in my bag, I stood up and was quite pleased with myself for getting through another session. It was all about mind over matter. Trent stood up with me.

“I guess I’ll see you on Monday,” I said at the same time he started to ask me a question, so our words jumbled together. “I’m sorry, what?”

He pushed his glasses up, which meant he was either nervous or thinking hard about something. “I asked if maybe you wanted to catch a movie,” he said, clearing his throat.

“No,” I barked out like a drill sergeant. I didn’t mean for it to come out that way, but his question took me by surprise. I tried to smile so the rejection wouldn’t seem so harsh.

Surprisingly, he didn’t seem to be bothered by the shortness of my answer as he leaned back against the table we had been sitting at. “Why not?”

Did I really need to break it down for him? Judging by the way he stood waiting for an explanation, that’s exactly what I needed to do. I sighed loudly, placing my heavy bag on the table.

“Because we’re the least compatible couple on the planet. We have absolutely nothing in common.”