hair and wipe under my eyes to make sure my makeup is in place before looking at the clock. It’s almost three. The day has escaped me once again.
“You ready?” he asks.
“What? It’s only three.” I point to the clock.
“Christian said you can leave early. I spoke to him an hour ago.”
“Hardin! You can’t just ask him if I can leave early; this internship is important to me.”
“Babe, relax. He mentioned that he would be out all day and he was the one who brought up you leaving early.”
“I don’t want anyone to think I am taking advantage of this opportunity.”
“No one thinks that. Your GPA and your work speak for themselves.”
“Wait . . . so then why didn’t you just call me and tell me I could come home?” I raise a brow at him.
“I have wanted to bend you over that desk since your first day here.” He gives me a smug smile and grabs my jacket for me.
I want to tell him how crazy he is to come here just to have sex with me on the desk, but I can’t deny that I loved it. Looking at him in that T-shirt with those inked muscles, I could never deny him anything.
AS WE WALK to our cars, he squints at the sun and says, “I was thinking we should go get whatever we are going to wear to that dreadful wedding.”
“Good idea,” I agree. “But I’m driving your car back home and we can leave my car, then go.” I jump into his car before he can protest. He just shakes his head and smiles.
After dropping my car off, we go to the mall. Hardin whines and complains like a child the entire time and I literally have to coerce him with sexual bribes to get him to buy a tie. He ends up getting black dress pants, a black jacket, a white dress shirt, and a black tie. Simple, but perfect for him. He refuses to try everything on, so I hope it all actually fits him. He would take any excuse not to go to the wedding, but I am not going to let that happen. Once we get him settled, it’s my turn.
“The white one,” he says and gestures to the short white dress in my hand, the other option being a longer black one. Since Karen mentioned that the color scheme was black and white, I figured I would stick to it. Hardin seemed to really like the white dress I wore yesterday, so I decide to listen to him. Much to my annoyance, before I realize what he’s doing, Hardin goes from “just carrying” my dress and shoes to paying for them. When I protest, the young girl at the register smiles and shrugs as if to say, “What do you expect me to do?”
“I have to do some work tonight, so I won’t be home for dinner,” he tells me as we walk out of the mall.
“Oh. I thought you worked from home.”
“I do, but I need to go to the library for a little bit,” he explains. “I won’t be gone too late.”
“I’ll just go grocery shopping while you are gone,” I tell him and he nods.
“Be careful and go before it gets dark,” he says.
He makes me a list of things he likes and leaves as soon as we get back to the apartment. I change into jeans and a sweatshirt and walk to the grocery store down the street. When I get back home, I put everything away, catch up on some homework, and make myself something to eat. I text Hardin but don’t hear anything back, so I put a plate of food in the microwave for him to heat up when he gets home and lie on the couch to watch television.
chapter eighty-nine
When I wake up, it takes me a few moments to realize I am still on the couch.
“Hardin?” I call out, untangling myself from the blanket. I walk to the bedroom in the hopes he will be in there. But the room is empty. Where the hell is he?
I go back to the living room and snatch my phone off the back of the couch. Still no messages from him—and it’s seven in the morning. I call, but get his voicemail and hang up. I storm around the kitchen and turn on the coffeepot before heading to the bathroom to take a shower. I’m lucky I woke up on time, because I didn’t actually