time—perfectly in sync—and both start fumbling their folders.
“Uh, hey, Bass!” Michaela gives me a dreamy smile and her brother’s not much better.
“Michaela.” I smile back, deciding—fuck it—and extend a flower to each of them. “Micha.”
They look like they’re about to faint.
God, freshmen are so easy.
“Great. The fuck are you doing here?” Sugar’s standing behind them, eyeing me resentfully.
I level the same smile at her I’d given the twins. She doesn’t even twitch. “Wooing the shit out of you,” I answer, giving her the rest of the flowers.
She looks at them, and then at me, and then tosses them aside.
I block the door. “I’m not done wooing you yet. There were going to be chocolates and candles and possibly even a shiny new knife to threaten my manhood with.”
She glares at me, that vein in her temple already starting to bulge. “What the hell, Wilcox? I thought we had a truce.”
“We do,” I say, frowning. “You said I should show you sometime. In the real world, giving someone flowers is widely regarded as a nice gesture. I didn’t do it to give you a hard time.”
She raises a hostile eyebrow. “And you didn’t bring me flowers to woo me, either.”
I roll my eyes. “Fine, you’re right. I wanted to ask a favor.”
“A favor?!” She gapes at me for a long moment before laughing harshly. “Oh, you’re really something else.”
“Not a favor,” I hastily backtrack. “More of like a… business transaction.”
She folds her arms, already looking sick of me. “A business transaction. Is this a sex thing?”
“Only if you want it to be.” At her total lack of amusement, I point to the photo hanging in the corner. “I want that picture of Abby.” I’d asked Mr. Lee, but he said it wasn’t up to him. Students owned their own photos. I rush to clarify, “Not for free. I’m happy to pay. What would it be, like a hundred? Two hundred?”
She just stares at me blankly.
“Three?”
Nothing.
“Four?”
Still, nada.
I sigh, pulling my wallet from my pocket and peeking inside the billfold. “Well, if it’s anything over six, I’ll need to come back.”
“Six hundred dollars,” she says, voice flat, “for a picture of a cat.”
I scratch the back of my neck, wincing. “Is that, like… too little? I don’t know, I’ve never bought a photo before. Just tell me a price, I guarantee you I can pay it.” My mom’s always asking for photos of the cats, and sometimes I’ll send a snapshot here and there, but this? Fuck, that picture is amazing. It’d be the perfect gift.
She smiles, but it’s not happy. It’s all sharp edges and bitterness. “So this is your angle now, huh? You’re just going to buy me off.”
“Wait, what?” I look around in the hopes that someone can tell me what just happened, but the twins and everyone else have already left, exiting from the south hall. “I’m not buying you off, I just wanted—”
“I’m not selling you a damn thing, Sebastian.”
I’d argue, but I know that look on her face. She’s insulted and pissed off, and there’s no getting through that. I don’t really understand. I’d treated all my girls, The Playthings, to matching bracelets and a nice dinner for sticking up for me. They fucking loved it. Girls always like it when you give them things. It wasn’t buying anything off, it’s just how I show my appreciation.
But this is different, I guess. Even if it’s a transaction, it’s pure money. Maybe that’s weird for someone with Sugar’s background. I fold my wallet and tuck it back into my pocket. See? I can learn from bad experiences, too.
“Well, you’re full of disappointment today. But fine.”
“Is that all?” Her gaze keeps pinging to the door behind me, so I slide away from it, extending an arm in invitation.
“By all means.”
She looks even more suspicious, either at my easy acceptance or that I’m letting her go. She sweeps past, filling my nostrils with her clean, girly scent, and is gone before I can even think of any parting words.
That’s the thing about Sugar Voss. Anyone else would have had their pants charmed off, but she’s going to make me fight tooth and nail for her.
Luckily, that’s something I happen to be good at.
12
Sugar
“Sugar!” my mom says when I pick up the phone. I’m walking behind the dining hall with a bag of cat treats that I picked up at the store earlier. Actually, answering had been a