Claiming Callie: Part two (17 page)

“I don’t know. Why don’t you tell me? It seems a little odd. One second you’re the prostitute on campus, or escort, whatever you wanna call it,” she sneers, “and the next minute you and Dean are in love and have been dat
ing for over a year.”

The prostitute thing is a low blow, but worse is the panic rising in the back of her throat. Have they been busted? She’d hate to think Dean’s plan has been ruined. Then again, the fact that Maya cared at all about Callie’s relationsh
ip with him proves their charade must be working.

“Jealous much?” Callie quips, trying to make it seem as though Maya’s words have not affected her.

“Of you? Please.” Maya smiles. “I just want what’s best for him. And I don’t think that’s you.”

“Seems to me, Dean can make his own decisions. And, it seems like
he
chose me.”

“He might think you’re what he wants, but soon enough, he’ll realize the two of you just aren’t compatible. That you’re too high maintenance and too much drama for him.”

Callie
feels the muscles in her jaw loosen, but she forces her mouth to remain closed. There is no way she. That you’re too high maintenance and too much drama for him.” again, the facer eyes, she tries to keep it light, make it look natural and not forced. She
can only hope she succeeds. “Please. I’m done talking. You, Maya, are old news,” she says and moves to take a step back, but before she can leave, Maya stops her.

Jabbing her in the arm to emphasize her words, Maya says, “You. Better. Not. Hurt. Him.”

God,
it would be demoralizing when she and Dean broke up and he went back to Maya, but she couldn’t think about that now. Not with Maya right in her face, like this is some kind of pissing match. Besides, this is the plan, isn’t it? What Callie signed up for?

Giving her the dirtiest look she can muster, Callie turns on her heel and walks away without another word. She should be running to Dean. He’s still sitting in the lobby where she left him. She should go to him and tell him about her two encounters with Ma
ya, of which he knows nothing about. After all, they likely mean they’re succeeding in their goal.

But she can’t tell him. For some reason she can’t pinpoint, she doesn’t have it in her, and this knowledge sits awkwardly in the pit of her stomach like a ro
tten seed. If she can’t even admit to Dean that Operation Get the Girl is working, what does that mean?

DEAN

Callie disappears and Dean drops his head in his hands, then scrubs them over his face. “Ugh.” He lightly smacks himself in the head
a couple times, trying to jar loose the memory of the way she felt lying on his legs. How good her hair smelled. How her smooth stomach peeked out from the bottom of her sweater.

But it
’
s hopeless. The feel of her is pressed permanently into his mind, wed
ged right between the image of how happy she looked Friday night, and the feel of her lips on his cheek just now, making one fucked-up, heart-wrenching love
sandwich.

God, this is gonna kill me.

He exhales a long breath and it nearly stops his heart
because he can still smell her in the air around him.

If he hadn
’
t known better, for a minute there… He thought… What? That she actually might have felt something?

Yes. For a minute, I felt it.

 So what happened?
This damn Operation Get the Girl happened,
that
’
s what. If only she knew the girl I so desperately wanted was her. It should be obvious.

Of course it seems obvious to him, but he
’
s so far into the friend zone that she doesn
’
t even see it. On one hand, it
’
s a good thing she so fully bought his story
about wanting Maya back, otherwise she never would
’
ve gone for pretending to be his girlfriend. But on the other hand, he wouldn
’
t mind a little suspicion of his motives. It about killed him Friday night when she turned her cheek to him.

After the weekend
to think it over, however, a part of him was glad. He wants to kiss Callie. God, he wants to kiss her. More than anything. He knows it will be incredible. But he doesn
’
t want their first kiss to be shared with hundreds of strangers. When he kisses Callie,
he wants it to be just the two of them. And he wants it to be mind-blowing. He needs it to be. Because he plans on making her see him as more than her friend or her best friend’s brother. Their first kiss is going to be an awakening.

He growls and stands
up, then glances at his watch. He
’
d better get back to Buzz. He doesn
’
t have class for three more hours and he scheduled himself the next few weeks for as many hours as possible. He can
’
t make up the entire lump he gave to Callie, but over time, he can ear
n it back.

#

He wakes the next morning to Emmett smacking him in the bare chest with the newspaper. “
Dude, wake up. You
’
ve gotta see this, man.”

Dean rubs his eyes and rolls over, snatching the paper and squinting at the blurry print until it comes into fo
cus. He frowns as he tries to process the story in front of him. “They printed another article?”

“No, jackass. That dinky school paper is nothing compared to this. Read the headline.”

He sits up, ducking so his head doesn
’
t hit the top of the bunk. Dean
’
s
brow knits as his sleepy eyes absorb the headline.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
. He scans the article, taking in the picture of him with a rose in his hand. The article
’
s titled: “
Pitt Panther Stunt Steals Girl
’s Heart.” His eyes widen and he shoots to his
feet, banging his shoulder on the bunk.

He grunts and rubs his shoulder. Before he has a chance to speak, Emmett
’
s standing in front of him, his wide smile lighting up his face. “You made the front page of the local section. I
’
ve gotta give you props, man.
That
’
s killer.”

“It’s Tuesday, and this is a Sunday paper. Where’d you get this?”

“Someone had it tacked to the billboard outside the dining hall. Read it. Apparently there was press at our game, like always, and someone from the paper thought this would
make for an awesome story. Especially with Valentine’s Day coming up. They spoke with the school paper and used your interview in conjunction with what they saw at the game to write the article.”

“Oh, my God.” Dean shoves a hand through his hair and begins
to pace the room. He starts to read the article. “Valentine’s Day came early to the University of Pittsburgh basketball court on Friday night when sophomore star-player
Dean Michaels
pulled a stunt that would surely tug the heartstrings of any girl, let a
lone his longtime friend and girlfriend Callie Cartwright…”

He closes his eyes for a moment, then opens them. He doesn
’
t know what to make of the article and how it will affect them. When he came up with this plan, it was supposed to be just between the tw
o of them. Yes, he wanted the student body to know about their couple status, for her sake, to clear up the article Jason ran on her, but this…

“Is this a good thing?” Dean asks.

Emmett exhales a long breath between his teeth and shakes his head. “
I don’
t
know.”

Dean lifts his head. “I wonder if Callie
’
s seen this yet. No. She couldn’t have.” He shakes his head, answering his own question. “She would’ve mentioned it yesterday.”

“Do you think she
’
ll totally flip?” Emmett asks, chuckling. “I mean, she does th
is to supposedly help you win over some other girl, and BOOM, your
relationship
is outed to the city paper. You
’
ll be walking along the street, and people will point…” Emmett turns to the side, squints his eyes, and
jabs a finger at Dean.
“Hey, aren
’
t you
that guy from the paper?” Then he widens his eyes like saucers and shakes his finger. “Yes! Yes, you are! You
’
re that basketball player with the roses. And you,” Emmett shifts and nods at Dean
’s desk chair
, “you
’
re that girl. You
’
re his girlfriend, the one
he gave the roses to. The one whose picture was in the paper.” He clasps his hands. “Awww.”

Dean glares at him, but Emmett goes on. He smacks his lips and says, “Yep. I
’
m thinking this is a bad thing. I don
’
t know… It
’
s hard to tell.”

Dean paces, his
hands opening and closing into fists as his nerves heighten and his back grows damp.

This isn
’
t that bad, is it? Who cares if a bunch of people—okay, the entire city—thinks
we
’re a couple? It’
s not like we know all these nameless faces. Worst case scenario
, if we
’
re constantly being pestered like Emmett says—which is doubtful—we can just deny being the people from the article. Or we can say we broke up… The point is, this doesn
’
t need to freak Callie out. Shit…