Harvard Hottie by Annabelle Costa Read Free Book Online Page B

it serious?”
    Why not go for broke?  “Yes, it’s pretty serious.” It’s fun pretending I have a serious boyfriend. Much better than telling people I haven’t had a date in months.
    “I had no idea,” Luke says in a subdued voice. “What’s his name?”
    His name?  His name?? Well, of course, that’s a perfectly reasonable request that I can, of course, answer. Um… “His name is Mike.”
    “Mike,” Luke repeats. He looks up at my eyes. His are chocolate-colored and possibly his best feature, although it’s a tough call. He’s still so incredibly sexy from the neck up. “Well, I’d love to have you and Mike over for dinner.”
    “That would be great,” I say, figuring this is an empty invitation.
    “How about Saturday?”
    Luke, you asshole.
    At this point, I have two options. I could hire some Dermot Mulroney look-alike to be my date on Saturday (possible), I could find a boyfriend by Saturday (uh…), or I could ’fess up that there is no Mike. I decide honesty is the easiest policy. “All right,” I admit, “I don’t have a boyfriend.”
    “I know,” Luke says.
    “You know ?”
    He shrugs. “I asked around.”
    “Why did you ask around?”
    “Why did you tell me you had a boyfriend?”
    We stare at each other for a minute. Finally, Luke drops his head and blows out the candle sitting between us.
    “I’m sorry,” I say.
    “Don’t be,” he says. “It’s better this way. We both know where we stand. No bullshit.” He adds, “Anyway, I’m kind of your boss, so the things I was contemplating were probably really unethical anyway.”
    I’m desperate to ask him exactly what he was contemplating, but I’m afraid to hear the answer.
    ***
    The rest of our lunch really is a business lunch. We talk about the company and I didn’t realize how many ideas I had to improve efficiency. Luke is really listening to me too. Unless he’s a great actor, which I suppose is possible. Maybe he’s gotten better at hiding the phoniness since college.
    “We should do this again tomorrow,” he says as he whips out his credit card without even glancing at the bill. I’d be afraid to look at the bill in this restaurant, but he simply doesn’t care. “This is really helpful for me.”
    “It is?” I’m both flattered and suspicious. Does he really care about my ideas?  Or is this just Plan B to get me into bed?
    “Ellie,” he says, giving me a serious look. “I never said this to you, but I always really respected you. While the Rosanna Banana hair or whatever was very cute, the reason I liked you was because you were the smartest girl I ever met. All those high school girls… and oh God, the Wellesley girls… they were all so vapid. But you were different.”
    I blush. “Well, thanks.”
    “So you’ll meet with me again?”
    “Yeah, but…” I wave my hand around the restaurant. “This is all too much.”
    “Sure.” Luke nods. “I’ll order takeout Chinese food. Are you a chicken-with-broccoli girl?”
    He’s right again. I love chicken with broccoli.
    Luke escorts me back to my desk after work. Everyone is watching us and I get this bad feeling that they’re thinking there might be something going on between me and Luke. That maybe I’m sleeping with him in order to keep my job. I would think that after working here so long, people would know that I’m way too square to do something like that, but everyone is ridiculously paranoid right now.
    Sure enough, the second I sit down and Luke goes back to his office, Lewis rushes over to my cubicle. He’s got sweat stains under his armpits and I cringe when I remember what Luke said about him having a crush on me. “Hey, Harvard,” he says, “had a nice cozy lunch with the boss?”
    I shrug noncommittally.
    “I would be careful about sleeping with him,” Lewis says.
    My cheeks turn pink. I thought he was just going to hint annoyingly. I can’t believe he just said that. “Excuse me?”
    “You know he sleeps with