Free The Dating Deal by Melanie Marks Page A

he have to bring that up?  Why now?  It sure wasn’t going to help me stop liking him.  Far from it.  It was only going to rip out my heart.  Tear it to shreds.
     
    That day had been great.  Magical.  We had packed a breakfast and ate it at the top of the mountain.  We had stayed up there all day, never wanting to come down.
     
    “I think about that day a lot.”  He smiled wryly.  “It was, like, the best day of my life.”
     
    We both sat silent a moment, reflecting.
     
    “I’m sorry I didn’t call,” he murmured.
     
    “Not a big deal,” I said, rising to my feet, though the world kind of twirled around me.  “I need to get to class.”
     
    I hobbled away, holding the can to my head—an Ice Queen.
     
    *  *  *  *  *
     
    Conner had me mega confused.  What did he want?  He didn’t seem to know.  So how could I possibly figure it out?  It left me feeling vulnerable.  One minute he was looking at me with longing in his eyes, talking about the past, the next he was kissing Laura.
     
    I tried to get him out of my head.  Tried getting everything out of my head.
     
    My head hurt.
     
    It had an ugly black and blue bump on it.
     
    And when I got home from work, I was tired.  Beat.  That’s probably why I didn’t notice Brian Abbott’s Honda parked across the street when I pulled into the driveway. 
     
    “Hi!” he said as soon as I opened my car door.
     
    “Ahhhggg!” I jumped about a mile in the air. 
     
    I’d been forcing practices on him like a mad woman.  So now, I tried not to hold it against him that he almost gave me a heart attack.  After all, I owed him big time.
     
    “Brian, what—what are you doing here?” I tried to smile and act friendly, as though it was perfectly normal to see him at my house in the middle of the night.  But it wasn’t, and it kind of freaked me out, a little.
     
    “Raven and I—we had a big fight,” Brian said.  “She just doesn’t understand me.”  Brian gave my arm a squeeze.  “Not the way you do.”
     
    Huh?!
     
    I took a step away from him, realizing I’d brought this on myself.  I had been heaping compliments on him like crazy, telling him how smart he was, what a great singer he was.  And I’d been listening to all of his long, drawn out stories as though he was the most fascinating person on earth. 
     
    But I’d felt like I had to.  Like, I owed it to him.  I mean, I made him practice all the time, all semester long.  I’d made him practice, practice, practice.  But now that the competition was actually approaching, I may have gone a little overboard, even for me.
     
    Okay, so I began worrying about that once Raven started in with her dirty looks.  And, yeah, I noticed Brian starting to act a little strange around me, too; sort of flirty-like.  It was weird.  So yes, I did sort of start to worry that I was giving him the wrong impression.  That maybe all my desperate demands for practices seemed a little excessive.  Like maybe they left him thinking I was trying to find excuses to get close to him.
     
    I would have backed off.  I would have.  Only I really, really wanted to win.  I needed it.  Like I said, I think it had something subconscious to do with losing Conner.  But I didn’t take the time to analyze it.  All I knew was, I had to win. 
     
    I’d thought about having a heart-to-heart with Brian.  But I kind of kept telling myself I didn’t need to.  That I was imagining things.  After all, we were in honor choir together.  And I did always stress that I wanted to win, and he had a girlfriend.  He had to know I wasn’t coming on to him, right?
     
    Wrong, I guess.
     
    The next words out of his mouth were, “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
     
    I blinked. 
     
    Brian used to visually cringe whenever he saw me coming, because he knew what I always wanted—to practice.  Hence, the cookies and compliments and listening and stuff.  Obviously, these were more powerful