Chapter 646

"All by yourself tonight?" A man says, coming over to my table and plopping himself down on a stool. I watch him with interest, noting his jeans and his button-down shirt, his reddish-blonde beard that's slightly stained at the corners of his mouth.

I do my best to avoid a grimace and instead go even more vacant and bubbly.

"What?" I ask, blinking at him.

He smiles at me, pleased. "Are you here by yourself tonight, pretty lady?"

"Oh!" I say, beaming, and then I laugh like it's the funniest thing I've ever heard - something else Faiza recommended when talking to men. "Yeah, I'm here all on my own. Just thought I'd, you know," I shrug. "Check it out."

"New to town," the man says, giving me a satisfied smirk and lifting his chin towards my beer. "What are you drinking?"noveldrama

"Oh, I don't know," I say, looking down at my beer and giving another tinkly laugh. "I just...told the bartender to get me whatever. I don't know a lot about beer. Um, do you?" I look at him with a great deal of hope in my eyes, worrying that I'm overdoing it.

But the way the man leans forward, desperately pleased to share his beer knowledge, lets me know that he's bought my act hook, line, and sinker.

Over the next few minutes I use all of the tricks Faiza taught me - asking lots of questions, answering his own questions about me vaguely and always with a laugh, always turning the conversation back to him like I don't have an interesting thought in my head and everything he says is fascinating.

It only takes us about half a beer for him to make his move. "Listen," the guy says, leaning forward towards me. "You want another drink? Then maybe we can...get out of here?"

"Oh, um," I say, biting my lip and giving a delicate shrug. "I would but..." I gesture over my shoulder towards Luca. "I'm actually here with my boyfriend."

"Your boyfriend?" the man asks, raising an eyebrow as his face falls. He looks where I'm gesturing and, to my surprise, his lips turn up in a smirk. "If that's your boyfriend, missy...I'm not sure he's treating you too good."

I turn around, my shock only increasing when I see that Luca is indeed standing in the corner where he indicated he'd go. But he's there with three women, each of whom are kind of fawning all over him. And, to my shock, he's got his eyes looked on one of them and isn't even looking at me.

“Come on, baby," the man says, reaching out and wrapping a hand around my wrist. "I'll treat you real nice, unlike that playboy -"

"Sorry, babe," Tony says, slipping

onto the stool next to me and putting an arm around my

shoulders. "I got busy catching up with some friends." He leans in to

kiss me on the cheek and the

turns

his eyes to the man with his hand around my wrist, his expression going shockingly cold. "And who is your new...pal."

Tony flashes his teeth and glances down at the man's hand, his meaning perfectly clear.

"Fucking Academy brats," the man says, immediately removing his hand and standing up as he rolls his eyes. "Whatever." He walks away, disappearing into the crowd.

"Thanks, Tony," I say, turning to him with a little grimace before glancing again at Luca, who still hasn't noticed that something's changed. "My backup kind of failed me on that one."

"Any time," Tony says, dropping his arm from my shoulder and glancing over at Luca himself. "You...good now?"

"Yeah, I think I can handle it from here," I say, pushing myself up from my chair and turning towards my mate and his three fans.

"Cool," Tony says, smirking at me. "See you in class tomorrow." He gives me a wave as he walks away and I take a moment to look after him, grateful again that our friendship is growing. Tony - he's really got my back, doesn't he?

Unlike some people.

I turn towards Luca again, striding off in his direction, suddenly not liking Newtown as much as I did before now that I see how much? attention he's clearly garnered in so short@time. Jealousy rises in me as one of the girls – pretty, blonde – - - places a hand on his chest and leans forward towards him, smiling up into Luca's pretty brown eyes.

My eyes narrow when I see him flash his dimples at her, see her melt at the sight of them.