Page 13 of Operation: Ogre

Jaxon immediately latched on to me, curling his arm around my shoulders and practically yanking me onto his lap. That same spark burned through me, sending little pulses through my veins. I forced myself to ignore it and give him a bright smile. We had done projects together, and we did awesome, like we were made for each other, obviously.

Mrs. Crimpton had someone pass around a paper to list the partners, and I peeked at Aaron’s. He was working with Shianne. That could work to our advantage. I wasn’t close with her, but I had her number and could get better acquainted with her. I wrote down my and Jaxon’s names, then passed the paper down the line.

When class was over, I asked Jaxon to meet me at Mummy Mocha later, then bolted out. The rest of my classes were a blur of faces and piles of soon-to-be homework that I barely paid attention to. All I could do was toss around the Aaron and Jaxon problem, while completely and utterly not thinking about the weird sensation I was having every time I touched Jaxon. Nope. Not at all. Not even a tiny amount. It went in my never-to-think-about box along with my fucking future.

As soon as I was done for the day, I rushed to the coffee shop and claimed one of the free tables, grinning at a pack (or was it a flock? Mental note to Boogle later) of harpies, who’d been trying to get it first. They hissed, and I just wiggled my fingers and winked, making a couple giggle. One even tossed her hair at me. I waited, my foot tapping, for Jaxon. His last class ended at the same time as mine today. We did that on purpose, as we both preferred to spend the day together.

Every time someone walked by, I would perk up, and every time, I was disappointed. Steve, the nøkk who I knew a little bit, walked in, holding hands with his boyfriend, Brandon, who I knew better. They were roommates who’d gotten together last year, which was utterly adorable. I mean, Steve was basically the picture of cuteness, in either form, with his shy manner and sweet disposition (he was in his monster form currently, with gray skin with a mossy texture, shaggy black hair, and large black eyes). Brandon was just hot, and also on the water polo team. He had a nice ass too, which was always a positive.

Ooooh, water polo. Maybe I could market Jaxon’s protein powder to them, the baseball team, the football team, and the soccer team. That might increase his sales, and I doubted they would be put off by his poor branding.

While I watched them get coffee, another idea began to grow. If they were roommates who’d gotten together, why couldn’t that work for us? Not really, obviously. Jaxon and I were not interested in each other. At all. Not even a little. But so many human and monster couples had happened last year, like so many, that it might work in our favor.

What was a more powerful motivator than jealousy? Practically every romance book mentioned it.

Finally, Jaxon came into the library, then walked straight to Mummy Mocha and dropped his stuff next to mine. I gave him a greeting before leaping up to grab another cup of coffee. Jaxon wouldn’t drink any more this late in the day, but I sure as hell could. Besides, I needed a second to mull over how to convince him that my plan was a good one. This was like a standard romance novel plan, except it would work out just like I planned: Jaxon and Aaron dating, being the cutest ogre couple in existence.

I plopped onto the chair next to Jaxon and said, “I have a plan.”

“From your tone of voice, I don’t know if I should be concerned or not,” he replied.

I waved a hand. “Concerned? Why would you be?”

Jaxon just stared at me.

Yes, I’d had bad plans, usually involving making him leave our room more than he’d like, but most turned out just fine. And the ones that didn’t… Well, we laughed about those later.

“Do you trust me?” My voice wavered, and I hated it. I had to know, though. I had to know that even with this weird whatever between us, he trusted me. That we were still friends. That he wasn’t going to leave me to the slow-growing pit in my gut I refused to think about.

“Yes.” No hesitation. None. And it soothed me.

“Then it will be fine.”

“Alright, so what’s the plan?”

“Fake dating.”

“Excuse me?”

“Fake dating,” I repeated. “You and I pretend to be a couple to make Aaron jealous.”

“And this is supposed to work? We don’t even know if he likes me.”

His words needled at the insecurity clinging to me like a cloying blanket. I hated this lie, but it was a hell of my own making. Only the truth would get me out of it, and I was terrified that Jaxon would never forgive me, not to mention all the teasing and judgement I would receive when it came out. And if he didn’t forgive me, how could we still be friends?

I soldiered on. “It’s perfect. We’ll make him see exactly what he’s missing, and he’ll be dying to get together with you.”

“But we’ll be dating.”

My heart sped up at his deep voice saying those words, and I flushed, liking the idea way more than was acceptable for friends. I forced out, “You’ll just break up with me.”

Jaxon snorted. “That’s sure to endear Aaron to me. I dump my closest friend, then date him. So much for loyalty.”

Ogres did value loyalty, so he did have a point. Besides, this “fake dating” thing didn’t usually work out in books. So maybe this wasn’t the best plan. I didn’t have another, though. Aaron and Jaxon didn’t travel in the same circles or even seem to like the same things, so I wasn’t sure how to smoosh them together. Complete opposites attracting in the books I read seemed far easier.

“Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Jaxon asked.

It was like a knife to the gut. Nope. That had to be less painful. Why did he have to prod that one little vulnerability? No. I was committed, so I was going down with the ship if this plan didn’t work out. I sure as hell couldn’t confess all this expertise had been an insecure lie. Jaxon would never forgive me.