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I began to think of her as a friend

Her phone rang It was always ringing She ignored it, face tilted upwards She allowed

“Why don’t you answer for once?”

“It’s just Kaspar I’m not interested”

I looked down at rass was frozen solid toout with him?”

She glanced athiive hie of heart”

“At this point, I aluy’s persistence”

“I don’t If I give him what he wants, it’ll only reinforce this behavior”

“He’s not a puppy dog”

“I don’t know What’s so different between dogs and men?”

I snorted and waved that off “Come on, be serious Kaspar’s hot as fuck He’s popular, athletic, rich I bet your family would love it if you had his stupid little babies Why not just go on a single date and get it over with? Then at least you can say you tried”

She sighed and sat up straight, folding her legs in crisscross and placed her hands in her lap She could be so pri caveman in her presence

“Do you really think Kaspar would accept a single date?”

“Ask him”

“Be serious”

“I aive hie your ree”

She thought it over My heart raced I hatedsuch a manipulative freak—

But KasparHe definitely suspected If I could win soet the hell out of here, then I needed to take any risk necessary Convincing Penny to go out with hiue for a few more weeks

Until I finally decided what in the world I wanted for myself

“All right, if you really think that’s a good idea” She seemed uncertain God, she was so pretty sometimes The way she chewed her lip, the way she looked at me with that mix of adoration and naked trust I didn’t knohy she listened to a word I said, but she did, and it was intoxicating

To have so drought

“Give it a shot It can’t hurt to try”

As if on cue, her phone rang again This time she picked it up, stared at the screen, then accepted the call

“Hello, Kaspar” She squinted down then put the phone on speaker