Guilty Pleasure

3. Not All Guys Are Assholes 101

The one and only, was my response. But seriously, are you? If you are, meet me at the park near school in half an hour.

I couldn’t say I didn’t feel surprised and slightly flattered. I stared at the text for a couple of minutes, trying to decide what to do. It wasn’t like I had anything better to do…

See you there.

***

When I could see Ben a couple of yards away, I stopped.

He hadn’t seen me yet – he was lounging on the grass with his back to a tree, going through his phone. The rational part of my brain, the one that had spent the last couple of minutes questioning my sanity, was louder than ever. It was mostly right – I had no idea what I doing there or why Ben wanted to hang out with me on a Sunday afternoon. And yet, I had still grabbed my jacket, attempted to tame my unruly hair, and made my way out of my house and to the park.

If I was being completely honest, I did have a theory about the reason of this little meeting. The thought alone was making my rational self throw a temper tantrum inside me. However, at least for the moment, it wasn’t having much of an effect on the rest of me.

Shaking my head to clear my jumbled thoughts, I walked the distance that remained between us. Fallen twigs and leaves crunched under my Converse, and when I was almost to him he looked up, grinning. Tilting his head downward, he motioned for me to sit down next to him, so I slid down the tree and tried to make myself comfortable.

“Hey.”

“Hi.”

There was a silence. “How are you?”

“I’m…good. You?”

“Good.”

Okay. “Care to explain why exactly I’m here?”

He laughed, amusement flashing in his eyes. “What, I couldn’t just call you over because I wanted to chat?”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure you could. But your text read, and I quote, ‘So, how about that bet?’ Kind of hard to misunderstand.”

“Lesson number one in ‘Not All Guys Are Assholes 101’ – not everything has an ulterior motive.”

I burst out laughing. “Okay, first – Not All Guys Are Assholes 101? And second, be honest with me. How long how long were you planning that for?”

“Hey!” He sounded slightly indignant, which made me smirk amusedly. “I didn’t have that planned, for your information. I just thought of it. And anyway, it’s true. My original plan was to start winning that bet, but I just realized I have no idea how to do that yet.”

“Does that mean I could still be in bed?”

“Technically, I guess, but now that you’re here, at least we can – wait, still in bed? Holy crap, Elle. Be honest with me: how drunk were you last night?”

I frowned. “I wasn’t drunk. Like, at all.”

His eyes narrowed a little teasingly. “Are you sure? You seemed a little…unsteady on your feet. Plus, I saw you with that beer.”

“You know what, you’re right. The half beer I drank definitely got me crazy drunk, and I’ve been hung-over all day.”

He shrugged. “It would explain the ‘still in bed’ statement.”

“Clearly the more logical explanation. Annie coming over for a while and practically talking my ear off, which left me mentally drained, is obviously not an option.”