No Attachments - By Tiffany King Page 0,41

real relationship. Maybe my sights were focused on finishing college early so I didn't invest much time in dating," I answered truthfully. Not to mention that for the longest time my only goal was to make up for the year I was forced to repeat in high school. Watching my fellow classmates graduate without me had been a tough pill to swallow, so I made it my goal to get my college degree as fast as I could. Free time became a novelty once I entered college and submersed myself in as many classes as my counselor was willing to allow me to take. Even summers merged together with the rest of the school year as I pushed on without taking any breaks. I went year-round with the goal of graduating a year early. My hard work paid off too. Three years after graduating from high school I had my bachelor's degree in hand, but by then it didn't matter.

"I see," Nathan said, interrupting my thoughts.

"Why is it such a bad thing that I've never had my heart broken?" I asked, sick of the way he was acting.

"It's not," he answered, reaching for my hand. "It just surprised me," he added, smiling at me.

"What about you? Who broke your heart?" I probed.

"What makes you think my heart's been broken?"

"Well, the way you're acting for one. Besides that, you've mentioned going down the heartbreak route a couple times," I said, studying his features that had gone hard in the flickering candlelight. "If it makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to talk about it," I said quietly.

"Her name was Jessica Swanson, and she came into my life like a freaking hurricane. She was no-nonsense and bossy as hell. In the beginning, I was flattered that she picked me the night I met her at a school play. She put me together, you know? Made me grow up and taught me to take my future seriously. I guess you could say she groomed me. After we'd been dating for several months, I found out her family was swimming in the bucks. It was a world I didn't belong in, but I didn't care. I fooled myself into thinking I loved her. The first time I met her family was hell. Her father drilled me for hours about my future plans. That's when I realized why Jessica had been pushing me so hard. In her family, it was all about who you knew, how to make it to the top and who you were willing to step on to get there," he said in a pained voice. He remained silent for a moment, and I was beginning to think he was done when he started talking again. "It took me almost a year to realize just how far Jessica was willing to go to insure my future. I mean crazy shit you couldn't even imagine. I caught her in bed with a congressman twice her age. A fucking congressman. Can you imagine that shit? She had some crazy-ass high hopes that I would have a career in politics or something, and this is how she would help get me there. That's how she justified it as fucked up as that sounds."

"That is seriously fucked up," I said, understanding his hang-ups on love.

His eyes were expressionless in the flickering light of the candles, making it hard for me to tell what he was thinking. After a few long silence-filled minutes, he surprised me by changing the subject completely.

"What college did you go to?" he asked, sounding normal again.

"The University of Central Florida. What about you?" I asked, glad the weirdness between us was dissipating.

"FSU," he answered. "Of course, several years before you were in college," he added.

"Right. I was like in middle school when you were in college," I said, laughing as he grimaced.

"That just sounds wrong. Maybe we'll leave that fact out from now on," he said as the rest of the tension evaporated.

"I thought all guys wanted to hook up with a younger girl," I quipped, nibbling on another chocolate strawberry.

"True. We just don't like to talk about the ages, at least our ages. As for the girl, we'd put it on a billboard if it made us look better," he said, looking at me appraisingly. "Are you trying to drive me mad?" he added, watching me lick the corner of my mouth where a small piece of chocolate threatened to escape.

"By eating a strawberry?" I inquired as a thrill of excitement raced