Read Online Cornered by Ariana Gael - Free Book Online

too late that he sounded kind of stalkerish. “Your bruise is looking better. If I didn’t know how you’d gotten it, I probably wouldn’t even have noticed.”
    “Yeah, it’s fading. I’m glad, I don’t need anything at all to remind me of that whole situation,” she answered, fidgeting. Lars could tell she didn’t want to be talking about this, which only made him hate his next words all the more.
    “So, what exactly was that ‘whole situation,’ if you don’t mind my asking. I mean, you don’t have to talk about it, but...are you okay?” he asked.
    Michelle took a deep breath, trying to decide how much to tell. She stopped short of the whole truth by simply answering, “Well, it’s a situation that’s over with, how’s that? He was a stupid mistake, one that I only made because I was already at a pretty low point in my life. We’ve really been over with for a couple of months, but I just never really had the ambition to make that official.”
    Lars nodded thoughtfully, understanding that exact scenario all too well. He’d been in more than one relationship that had lasted way too long, mostly because neither person had the energy it took to actually end it.
    “So, tell me about yourself, if that’s not too cliché for a first date,” Michelle said, smiling genuinely. She drank her water and watched Lars, eager to listen to what he had to say.
    “I don’t guess there’s a whole lot to tell,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and looking down at the tablecloth. “I had a rough time of things in high school and went to work for Dante, you know, at the garage from the other night, and I pretty much been doing that since I started there.”
    “You mean you dropped out of school to work at the garage?”
    Lars looked up sharply, meeting her gaze to see if she was judging him before deciding that no, she seemed more curious than judgmental. “Actually, no. I thought about it plenty of times, don’t get me wrong, especially when I was trying to get free from the crowd I used to run with. They didn’t take too kindly to me not hanging with them anymore. No, I managed to finish in night school, just barely, but I do really well at Dante’s. He takes good care of the guys who really put an effort into it. But I gotta tell you,” he said, grinning a heart-stoppingly mischievous leer, “you almost cost me my job the other day.”
    “What did I do?” Michelle asked, blinking in surprise.
    “Dante’s the one who found your purse in the cab of the truck. He called me in and chewed me out good, threatening to fire me.”
    “I’m so sorry!” she gushed, leaning forward and wearing a pained expression.
    “It’s okay, he let me go when I explained...you know...what happened. But he made it really clear that there are no more joyrides in the truck!”
    Michelle was surprised at how easy it was to talk to Lars. He was warm and open, but genuinely interested in what she was saying. It had been such a long time since any guy had wanted to hear about her that she almost found herself letting too much information slip.
    “So, I don’t get it. You were in college, and just...quit?”
    “Well, you make it sound like I got distracted by a shiny object or something,” she said, rolling her eyes at his insinuation. “No, there were some...problems.”
    “What kind of problems could be so bad that you turn your back on a college diploma?” Lars asked, shocked.
    “Wow, you sound just like my dad.”
    “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that to come out wrong, but I’m just...”
    “What?”
    “I guess I’m just confused.”
    “What’s confusing to you? It’s my education!” she retorted, halfway smiling and halfway accusing him.
    “Don’t take this wrong,” he began, watching as irritation colored her face, “but if I had the chance to go to school and be somebody, I wouldn’t let any ‘problems’ get in my way. Those ‘problems’ would have to be huge to make me give that up.