Undercover: Book 3 — Chapter 55

I pulled my hair up into a ponytail and walked across the street to the Starbucks. They probably made thousands daily just from being across two colleges.

I stood in line waiting for my drink and it only took me about two minutes to realize who was sitting at one of the tables in the corner.

"Tom?" As soon as his name escaped my lips I regretted it. I didn't know if he wanted to even speak with me after all that happened.

"Claire,” he said surprised, glancing at the door. "What are you doing over here? Don't you live on the opposite side of town?" he asked me and I shook my head just as they called my name. I grabbed my drink and cookie and walked over to the chair across from him.

"Do you mind if I sit here for a minute? I think we should talk,” I said and he nodded gesturing for me to go ahead. I sat down and bit my lip looking down, not knowing exactly where to start.

"I'm not mad,” he said and I looked up from my drink, surprised.

"You have every right to be. Why aren't you mad?" I asked, frowning.

"Your friend, Nathan explained it all to us and made us see it in a different point of view. Although that is a really stupid reason to give up your whole life choices,” he said shaking his head and I smiled at him.

"I knew from the start I wasn't giving up anything really. I didn't really have another option for college once I found out that I didn't make it into Princeton and I think my mom knew that. Maybe there was another crazy reason why she had me do that, but I don't regret it. I've once said it before, I would do all of it again if I could. I was there for almost a full school year and I made incredible friends, and some interesting enemies,” I said honestly and sincerely.

"Maybe I should dress up and be a guy undercover in an all-girls school,” he joked and I rolled my eyes.

"You would be one muscular, buff girl. I'm sure someone would suspect something when you get a hard on after five minutes of being in a classroom. Some of those girls are crazy.” I winked and he groaned.

"Don't tease,” he grumbled, scowling at me.

"Aw Thomas! Don't get all grumpy with me now,” I said leaning over the table and pinching his cheek. He swatted my hand away and just shook his head.

"You're a strange one, Martez."

He has no idea.

Oh great you're back.

I never left.

The door was opening and closing as people kept coming and going and I would only glance times out of pure curiosity, but I never expected his handsome figure to come in here. He was wearing a tight fitted black shirt with a pair of blue jeans and boots. His eyes skimmed the room as if he was looking for someone.

Those hazel eyes made contact with my blue ones right away. My stomach clenched at the intense look on his face and my heart started to beat faster. It was strange to think that in reality I haven't really went more than a few days without him. The only physical difference was he was now a brunette. Emotionally we were probably close to the same. He went through something tragic and I watched something tragic. Yes, his may have been more severe, but either way both left us broken inside. Looks like I wouldn't be able to fix the tear in Caiden Anderson's heart anytime soon.

He looked over at Tom and frowned. He walked to us and his body towered over our sitting figures.

"Hey man. I see you're finally here." Oh so that's why he was sitting here by himself. He was waiting for Caiden.

When Caiden didn't respond and only kept his piercing eyes on me, Tom continued. "Thanks for letting me borrow that cash the other day. I did find my wallet so it's all good now.” He took about a hundred dollars out of his pocket and handed it to Caiden who simply nodded.

"Okay well I'm just gonna go to practice now. Will you be at the courts later?"

"Yeah,” his deep voice finally responded and I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Tom got up and threw the rest of his drink away and waved from the door before walking out.

"You've been ignoring my calls,” Caiden noted and I nodded, not bothering to deny it.

"I needed to be alone,” I said and he grunted.

"C'mon,” he muttered, nodding toward the door. I grabbed my drink and my cookie and followed him out. We started walking down the street both of our hands in our pockets.

"I didn't know what happened at first. I didn't know if you were dying or in a coma or something, but I was fucking worried,” he said, not once looking at me. I didn't know what to say. I never thought Caiden would worry about my wellbeing.

"Thank you for caring, but I was only out for a few days because of the shock. I'm okay now."

"Maybe physically, but not emotionally. You're too delicate, Claire. You may not be very innocent, but you have a good heart. A heart I don't want to darken.” He suddenly stopped talking and just shook his head, not wanting to finish.

"I'm willing to take the risk,” I told him and he didn't respond. He led me across the street to the one place that seemed to haunt my dreams. I snuck up to his dorm or well my old dorm and shut the door behind us.

"This will be the only time I'm ever going to do this, but we are going to spend the rest of the day watching movies and shit and you are going to pick them out." A huge smiled appeared on my face as I jumped on my old bed.

"If I'm seen up here I'll be in so much trouble just so you know," I said, making myself comfortable. I was suddenly picked up and brought over to Caiden's bed. He set me down in between his legs.

"This is my only request for the day,” he whispered in my ear. His hot breath fanning the side of my face. "I really like this schoolgirl outfit."

"It's my uniform. Your mom thinks that apparently girls cannot dress properly so we had like six uniforms given to us for the year.” I rolled my eyes as I looked through the movies and shows on Netflix.