“Ouch.”
She shrugged, suddenly wishing they had ended the night fifteen minutes ago. “Yeah, well. Boys suck.”
“Not all of us. Some of us get sucked.”
Her head snapped up at that and without thinking, she shoved him in the shoulder. “Oh my God, you’re . . . I don’t even know what you are.”
His smile was sly. “I’m completely inappropriate and incorrigible, or so I’ve been told. But it got that sad look off your face, so mission accomplished.”
She met his eyes at that, the words pinging through her, and shook her head. “I can’t believe I told you. Remind me not to drink around you. Next I’ll be telling you about my first period.”
“Sure, let’s talk about that,” he teased. “Was it like the movie Carrie?”
She groaned. “I resign.”
“I don’t accept this resignation.” The night breeze ruffled his hair, but his eyes didn’t leave hers. “And you realize it was bullshit, right?”
“What? The movie?”
“What that guy said. The meme.”
She looked down and then made a show of digging her keys out of her purse. “I’ve got to get home.”
“Hold up.” He stepped closer to her. “Seriously?”
She crossed her arms and looked up. “What?”
“You believed him?” He stared at her, awareness dawning. “Shit. You still do.”
“He was an asshole. I don’t even think about that anymore.”
She was lying. There were some things you couldn’t forget. They were burned onto your psyche. She held her elbows tight, her defenses rising. The last thing she’d wanted to do was ruin this nice night with Ren by dumping all her insecurities into a big stinking pile between them. That guy in college had been a jerk. But he’d also been the first to let her know exactly where she stood in the desirability food chain. That fact had only been confirmed since. She wasn’t the woe-is-me type, but she also wasn’t one who could ignore hard evidence.
“Ren, I’m tired and I drank when I shouldn’t have. Let’s not get into our deep, dark teen traumas, all right? All of that happened a long time ago. And I think that whole thing was more about him impressing the pretty cheerleader he’d chosen for the Before side of the meme than insulting me.”
“The pretty cheerleader.” Lines appeared around his mouth. “I see. So you’re the opposite of that, right?”
“Thanks for dinner.” She turned to unlock her car.
“You have no clue, do you?” His voice hit her in the back.
She stilled.
“Turn around, Cora.” The command was quiet but thrummed with authority.
She closed her eyes and took a breath. She needed to get into her car and go home. But she couldn’t resist the pull, the tug of that voice. She slowly spun around.
Ren was two steps from her, affable expression gone. The hard set of his jaw and the fire in his eyes had replaced it. She recognized this man. She’d last seen him in a dark hallway. Her heartbeat ticked up a notch.
“Hear me, Benning.” His gaze held hers. “You’re a smart, sexy woman. I saw it the night we met and I see it even more now. Any guy with any sense would thank the goddamned universe if he woke up and had you in his bed. So fuck that dude. Anyone who would say that about someone is an insecure douchebag anyway. Don’t for a second let what he said hit your radar and don’t you dare take it as truth.”
All the air whooshed out of her lungs.
“And don’t look so shocked. You’re beautiful. And interesting. And different. Own that.”
“I—” She pressed her lips together. Her head was reeling, but she couldn’t help the knee-jerk reaction, the instant disbelief. Beautiful. That wasn’t a word to describe people who looked like her. That was a word reserved for supermodels and people like Grace. She shifted backward, bumping into her car. “Please don’t do that.”
He brows dipped. “Don’t what?”