I remembered that article because it captured what he hit me with right then. His blue eyes froze over like an arctic storm.
I donned a smile that hopefully looked to him like it was keeping me as warm as a polar bear’s fur under his icy gaze. “Ah, not so talkative now, are we?”
He sat down across from me, ready for war. His gaze drilled into me so brutally, I nearly backed down.
Nearly.
His voice was low when he spoke. “Sometimes, I wonder how your manners and formalities elude you when you say shit like that. I don’t discuss that part of the past with you because it doesn’t change the present.”
I didn’t shrink away from his anger. I just glared back with what I hoped were drills of my own. “Then there’s no reason to discuss what I’ve been doing, right? We’re friends in the present, trying to work things out ‘for Jay.’” I air quoted as my tone turned condescending. “So, the past can be swept neatly under a very large, very thick rug. Right, L.P.?” I sneered the old nickname like a weapon.
He sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. “Jesus Christ, Peaches. Do you want help with this class or not?”
I hummed low at his stubbornness before I shoved my lesson over to him. “I already completed this portion of the investment plan. If you think it works, we can call it a day.”
Really, the help I needed was much more than him skimming over my investment plan but pride and frustration coursed through me.
If he wanted answers, I deserved them too. While he looked over my homework, I secretly tried willing pain into him, willing guilt into him. I literally started hoping for some voodoo or hypnosis power so that I could just get through to him.
“Aubrey, before you know it,”—he didn’t even make the effort to glance up from my work for the reprimand—“you’re going to hurt that pretty face of yours by glaring at me. So, stop it.”
I sighed and repressed my childish retort.
A few more minutes of him studying my work passed. I sipped the chai tea and suppressed a moan when I tasted how good it was.
He didn’t look up or say anything else as time passed. I started to fidget. My work wasn’t bad. It was sufficient, and maybe even good.
I’d spent a tremendous amount of time researching to make sure I made all the right decisions. I wouldn’t admit that I spent extra time on it to make sure he couldn’t insult my intelligence when he looked it over.
So, his lack of positive reinforcement had me trying to distract myself by texting Jay the update he requested.
Aubrey: Studying with your brother and I haven’t killed him yet.
Jay: I’m surprised... contemplated it every day since he’s been here. :-P Seriously, u OK?
Aubrey: Of course
Even if I wasn’t so sure, Jay didn’t need to know that. He didn’t need to know that I already sparred about the past with Jax and pushed for answers I knew I probably wouldn’t get. He definitely didn’t need to know that Jax still got a rise out of me.
Jax cleared his throat loudly. “You can text later.”
I set my phone down and glared at him.
He slid my papers back over to me. “This is all wrong.”
I waited to see if he would elaborate. I even stared at him with wide eyes. Instead, he had the audacity to pull out his phone and check it.
“Jax, you do realize you can’t just say it’s wrong, right?”
He looked up and gave me a blank stare. “You want a good investment plan. That isn’t one. Start over.”
If I could’ve thrown my papers and laptop in his face without hearing about it from Jay, I would have. “That is not how you tutor someone.” I enunciated each word. “You walk them through it.”
“I am walking you through it. Start over,” he enunciated back.
“This is your problem, you know that?” I tried to rein myself in. I even mentally counted backward from ten to one while I smoothed my hair.
It didn’t work.