Bentley (Hawthorne Brothers Book One)(13)

“You haven’t made it official? What the hell are you waiting for?” he asked.

“The right moment, I guess,” I said.

“You aren’t proposing marriage, Bentley. You’re just asking the girl to go steady. Buck up,” he said.

“Yeah, I’ll try,” I replied.

I pulled out my phone, texting Anna and asking her if she was free Sunday night. She replied minutes later, a perk of being with a girl who liked her phone, and said she was, so I asked her if she wanted to meet up and hang out for a little bit, maybe at her place. She said okay, even though she was hesitant because of her roommates, who were definitely opinionated, though I couldn’t say that I minded too much. They didn’t scare me.

Sadly, I wasn’t going to see her until then, which kind of bummed me out, if I was being honest. Being around her was one of the best places to be, and I almost wondered how I even got around before without her. She’d spent the night another time, though it involved no sex, instead just the two of us cuddling all night and falling asleep together. I laughed thinking how she made me soft, though at the same time I thought she made me, I don’t know, better. When a woman can make you better without trying to change you, you know you have a winner.

As I scrolled through my texts I came upon the one from Candice, staring me right in the face. I read it again before locking my phone and shoving it into my pocket. I just wished that phase of my life would be over already. I had nothing to say to her anymore and there was no going back to her.

“Are you okay to change some spark plugs in an hour? We have someone coming in,” my dad asked.

“Yeah, that’s fine. I’ll be ready,” I said.

With all the stress of having Candice contacting me and the nerves of asking Anna out, I walked into the shop and listened to the sound of torque wrenches and other power tools in full gear. There was something so relaxing and mind-numbing about it, to just let yourself drift off into a ‘69 Mustang, the worries of the world and your world leaving you behind.





Chapter Twelve



Anna



I tapped the eraser of my pink mechanical pencil against my notebook as one of my professors, an older man who had us call him Bud, talked about macroeconomics and how they influence the world’s economy. This was the bulk of my schooling throughout the years—listening to an old person ramble on without me even keeping up with them. I guess part of the problem was that I was never interested, mostly because of those monotone voices that made me sleepy, and as I looked around the room at my classmates, I saw that I wasn’t alone. In fact, only three people out of fifty were actively taking notes. At least I remembered a lot of this stuff from another class. Probably the only reason I was going to get a good grade.

I looked up at the clock, an older one that looked a little dirty, as the red second hand trickled around the numbers, the minutes hand striking one minute closer to class letting out.

“Are there any questions?” Bud asked, drawing my attention away from the clock.

There were crickets in the room as a few other students and I looked around to see who would raise their hand. About five seconds passed, nobody doing anything, before Bud shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, I’m going to let you all out ten minutes early. You have reading to do tonight, so have that done before the next class. Enjoy your weekend, everybody,” he said, putting on his coat and hat.

With no other classes for the day, I slid my belongings into my backpack and put on my coat before slinging it around my shoulders and heading out the door towards Nina’s class. I told her I’d take her home after class, since both of our last ones ended at the same time, and she needed to get changed and ready for an on-campus charity drive she was doing with the social group she was involved in for her major.

I waited outside her classroom door and surprised her as she came out, flipping her hair like the little priss she was, and I say that with absolute best friend love. We walked across the parking lot and into the garage, where my car was waiting for us on the fourth floor.

“I feel like I have so much work to do before this event. At least it’s the weekend,” she said.

“I think I just have some reading and one small assignment, so I’m making out pretty good,” I said.

“Still have your date with Mr. Hawthorne?” she asked, smiling.

“Mr. Hawthorne? I’m not going out with his dad, you know,” I said, laughing.

“What are you guys doing?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. I think he’s going to his parents’ house beforehand, so dinner is probably off the table,” I said.

“You’re not going with him to their house, are you?” she asked as we walked out onto the fourth floor.

“No, I wouldn’t do that. We aren’t even dating, at least officially,” I said.

“Good, you don’t want to be doing that kind of stuff this early. Tyler made me meet his parents two weeks after we made it official and I still think that’s what broke things for me,” she said.

“You said he was great,” I said.

“Yeah, before I saw him around his mommy. Let me tell you, Anna, there’s nothing worse than seeing a twenty-one-year-old guy being coddled by his mother, especially when you first start dating. Maybe if I’d been with him for a while and loved him, yeah, it could’ve been cute, but it was just weird. I felt like he was going to eventually make me his mother in terms of taking care of him,” she said.

“Yeah, I don’t think Bentley is anything like that,” I said.

“Yeah, probably not, but it’s better to be safe than sorry!” she said as I unlocked the car.

I started the car and sat there for a few minutes while she warmed up so she wouldn’t die on me the second I put her into gear. I hated reversing, probably more than anything else car-related, so I eased out slowly while obsessively looking for anybody who I could hit or who could hit me.

“So do you think he’s going to try to make it official soon?” she asked.

“I’m not sure. It might still be early for that, but he’s really sweet around me and does stuff that a guy who wasn’t interested wouldn’t do. He’s hard to read,” I said.

“I think he will. I got that vibe from him when I saw him, and from what you’ve told me it sounds like he’s searching for something more. Maybe you’re able to give that to him,” she said.

“It’s still all weird and new to me, though. Sometimes I wonder how in the hell I even ended up with him, you know?”

“You shouldn’t doubt yourself. I’ve done it before with guys I’ve dated and it only leads to corrupting the relationship. You need to be confident. He likes you, and that’s all that matters. Besides, you are a pretty girl, Anna. Trust me on that. It’s not like you’re some ogre or something.”

“Yeah, but think back to the girls in high school he used to date. We used to see him with those super pretty cheerleader girls on his arm, kissing him, and I just know that I’m not that,” I said.

“That was high school, this is now. He’s been out for like what, seven or eight years, and he has different tastes. He has good taste, judging how he likes you so much,” she said.

“Thanks, Nina. You can be a bitch sometimes, but you do know how to make me feel better,” I said with a smirk.

“Love you, bitch,” she said, smiling wide.

•••

I obsessed over a sex quiz in Cosmo later that night as I sat with a pencil and scribbled in answers before obsessively erasing them and writing something else in their place. Why was I so bad at these things? I knew they weren’t real, science-wise that is, but there was something about them that made even the most clever woman succumb to the forbidden fruit. I thought it was like zodiacs or those fortune cookies in that you want to hope and wish that it all means something and the answers to your life and the universe are that easy to obtain. They never were, of course, but it was nice to wish it.

I tallied up my score and looked at the key to see that I was a “Needs Work,” though I thought I was higher up on that end, so maybe it wasn’t all bad. I knew I wasn’t going to be a goddess or anything, but needs work? The only thing that needed work was my curiosity about these stupid tests.

Nina was out at her event and Maggie was with her study group all night, leaving me all alone in the big townhouse. I walked downstairs and poured myself a glass of orange juice before walking out into the living room and sipping on it. I looked at my phone, seeing it was a quarter past seven, before unlocking it and looking at my text thread with Bentley. Were we on good enough dating terms for me to send him cutesy texts? I didn’t know if he’d like it. I guess I could always blame it on alcohol if he asked.

“I miss you,” I wrote, hitting send.

“I miss you too, sweetheart. I’ll see you in two days, though!” he replied, stunning me.

I admit I smiled and bit my lower lip, seeing the word “sweetheart” there, before I set down my orange juice to type more.

“Yeah, but that’s so far away,” I said, ending with a sad face emoji.

“It will come before you know it, and it will be a very fun and happy time together,” he said.