The Perfect Guy: A Romance Novel Read online

  She made a gesture with her hand toward the volunteers and they immediately parted and paired up with their students. I swallowed thickly when James closed in on me. My heart quickened and I tried to appear calm, even though I was everything but that.

  James reached my seat and gave me that crooked smile I’d seen before. I smiled back, but I was sure it looked stiff and off. It was because I was biting my teeth together to hold back the sigh I almost let out when he smiled at me. The man was too attractive for his own good, and for mine, for that matter.

  “Jennifer Braun, I know you already know my name, but I’m James Masen. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He offered me his hand to shake and I had to prevent myself from letting my chin hit the floor.

  Attractive, polite, and articulate? That was a dangerous and suspicious combination. I’d never encountered anyone like him before.

  I accepted his hand and shook it slowly. I heard myself say “Pleasure’s all mine,” and two red spots appeared on my cheeks. I really hoped he hadn’t been able to hear the underlying meaning of my words.

  I think he did, though, because he let out a low chuckle that sent a thrill through my body and made my insides clench in a pleasurable way.

  Mrs. Martin gave us a signal that we were good to go and everyone immediately started talking at once.

  James looked around in amusement. “It’s pretty loud in here, don’t you think? Let’s go outside so we can actually hear each other talk,” he said and made a gesture with his hand to indicate that I should go first.

  I started to reach for my jacket, but James stopped me. “I don’t think you need that. It’s quite warm outside.”

  I shrugged and stood up from my chair.

  James followed closely behind as I made my way toward the door. I could practically feel his breathing on my neck.

  I was glad I had my back to him, because he couldn’t see me when I swallowed thickly, and I prayed to the God I didn’t even believe existed that he couldn’t see the hairs on my neck rise up when I shivered.

  James took the lead when we were out of the room, and once again, I walked through the corridors that had led to the auditorium, but instead of leading me to the main entrance, he took to the right around a corner and out through a small wooden door. He seemed very confident in his way around the building, and before I could stop myself, I broke the silence and I voiced my wonder.

  “You seem to know your way around here. Have you been here before?”

  We were now outside, probably on the other side of the building, and it did not escape my notice that there were no barracks or torture equipment in sight. I suppressed a chuckle at the thought.

  James had not answered me yet, but he saw my amused expression and gave me his own smile. This guy smiled a lot. Either it was only a mask, or he was just a genuinely happy guy, if those actually existed in real life.

  “Something funny?” he asked.

  I don’t know what possessed me to voice my thoughts, but that was exactly what I did. “Not really. I just noticed that there wasn’t any torture equipment back here.”

  With his smile still in place, he frowned as if he couldn’t really make sense of me. “You’re kind of strange, aren’t you?”

  “The strangest,” I replied proudly. I liked being unique. Who cared about being normal? Normal was boring. My mother was boring, which must make her normal, and that just gave me even more reason to want to be abnormal.

  “Good,” I heard James say and I turned my attention back to him. “I like strange.”

  I winked at him, once again having no idea what possessed me to do it, and grinned. “Then you’ll love me.”

  He laughed, and I felt delighted that I was the one that made him laugh. His laugh was breathtakingly beautiful and I immediately wanted to hear it again.

  I remembered our assignment then. “Should we just get those assigned questions out of the way?”

  “Sure, do you want to start?”

  “Alright, just tell me everything. Middle name; hometown; and favorite pastime, in that order.”

  He laughed again, and I reveled in it. “My middle name is Anthony, I am from Chicago, and my favorite pastime is to compose music.”

  My eyes widened, and my heartbeat quickened. There was just something insanely attractive with a musician. “You’re a musician? What kind of instruments do you play?”

  “I play classical piano, guitar, and I do have a saxophone that I’m currently learning to play on.”

  “Interesting choice of third instrument. I thought you would say drums or that you were singing or something, since that’s mostly what others say.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, I know, and you’ll come to learn that I am not like others either, Jennifer.”

  “Jenn,” I automatically corrected, even though my full name sounded better than ever coming from his mouth.

  “Jenn,” he said as if to try it out. “I like it. It suits you.”

  Those two red spots appeared again, and I cursed my blushing. I actually cursed myself as well because I’d promised myself that I would at least try to stay emotionally detached. That did not even last for ten minutes. I was already acting like a teenager with a crush. Hell, I was twenty-six for crying out loud, and it was time I calmed down and acted my age.

  I needed to think ahead of the consequences that would occur if anything were to happen between James and me.

  I wanted to roll my eyes at myself. I thought about it as if it were a given that something would happen if I allowed it. I didn’t even know if James was attracted to me as well, and for my sanity’s sake, I wasn’t even going to try to find out.

  I looked at James and saw that he was studying me with a peculiar expression on his face. I frowned at him in question.

  “You do that a lot,” was his answer, and I only felt more confused. Did what a lot?

  “What?”

  “Disappear into your own head. It’s like you’re always weighing up the pros and cons of everything you do.”

  I laughed in order to hide the shock I felt that he could already read me better than some of my friends back home and he had only been in my company for fifteen minutes, tops.

  “You’ve known me for about fifteen minutes, and you’re already talking about me as if we’ve known each other for months. You haven’t even asked me the obligatory three questions yet,” I said and raised an eyebrow.

  “I’m good at reading people. I don’t need inane questions like that, but alright. Give me a short summary of Jennifer Braun.”

  I felt a surge of nausea when I heard the almost arrogant tone of his voice when he said that. He still had that easygoing smile on his face, but apparently, his ability to read people was something he took a lot of pride in, more so than his music, and it unnerved me. Did that mean that he would constantly analyze me?

  I did not show my unease though. “Fine, my full name is Jennifer Marie Braun. I am from Seattle, and my favorite pastime is to do shit with my best friend. I am twenty-six, and, obviously, single.”

  He frowned in confusion. “Why would it be obvious that you’re single? You’re a very attractive young woman.” A thrill went through me when he said that, but I didn’t interrupt. “I would have guessed that you already were in a relationship.”

  “I am here, aren’t I?”

  He shrugged. “Yeah, so?”

  I sighed. “If I’d had the ability to maintain a hold on the guys I’ve been able to snatch up, I wouldn’t be here. Why would you think otherwise?” I thought it was an obvious thing that everyone in this program was single. Weren’t they? Or was that just another one of my assumptions of this place?

  “It’s not uncommon for the students to already have boyfriends and girlfriends. Some come here because they want to know how to save their relationships or simply make them better.”

  “Well, now you’ve piqued my interest. You sure know lot about this program. How come?”

  It was James’s turn to blush, and I wa
s glad to see it. A real douchebag wouldn’t let his embarrassment show like that. Maybe I’d actually been lucky this time.

  “This is not my first year as a volunteer here,” he admitted lowly.

  I didn’t know if it was cruel of me to enjoy his embarrassment just a little bit, but I couldn’t let it go. Instead, I pushed. “Now you have to tell me more!”

  “I’d rather not.” I frowned, but he continued before I could say anything. “At least not for the moment.” He looked at me with thoughtful expression. “I find you very easy to talk to, and since we’re going to be ‘boyfriend and girlfriend’ for a year, I have no doubt that you’ll know everything about me, sooner or later.”

  We were quiet for a while as I contemplated what he said. I hadn’t thought about the fact how well James and I would probably get to know each other. I was glad I had been paired with someone that I obviously had great chemistry with. I couldn’t even imagine how it would have been had we not been compatible.

  I broke the rather comfortable silence when a thought entered my head. “Mrs. Kellen said that she hasn’t had a single student that didn’t gain anything here.” James gazed at me while he tried to figure out where I was going with my statement. “So that means that they’ve gained knowledge, experience, and friends…” I met James’s gaze as I said the last part. “Maybe even…love?”

  He smiled. “Most of the students figure it out after half the program. You’re the first that’s understood it during the first day.”

  “Are you saying that this place is, in fact, some kind of matchmaking academy?” I asked with narrowed eyes. What the fuck had I gotten myself into?

  James took a deep breath as he thought of how to explain it. He could clearly see that I was upset. “It’s not the program’s real intention. It’s really about understanding the opposite sex better, but it doesn’t mean that people haven’t been affected by the methods that are used here.”

  James looked at his watch and told us that we needed to head back to the auditorium since our half hour was now up.

  “So if you knew all of this, how come you decided to volunteer again?”

  He gave me a playful smile. “That’s a story I’m saving for a later occasion.”

  We entered the building again, and even though we continued talking with ease, I couldn’t shake the feeling that me being paired with James wasn’t as much of a coincidence as I’d first thought.

  CHAPTER 6

  THE ASSIGNMENT

  “Hey, Jenn! Wake up, we’ve got an assignment,” Jessica called from somewhere in the suite.

  I groaned and rolled over on my other side. I didn’t want to get up, and especially not because of an assignment.

  “You’ve got five seconds and then I’ll pour cold water over you,” the less enthusiastic voice of Leah said right next to me. I cracked one eye open and saw Leah holding a container on the verge of spilling directly over my face.

  I quickly rolled back to the other side and flew out of the bed. I narrowed my eyes at Leah’s pleased smirk. “You’re quite sadistic, aren’t you?”

  “Only when necessary,” she replied and placed the container on my nightstand. “Now, come on, before Stanley explodes with excitement out there.” She left the bedroom and I huffed with irritation before I followed.

  During the two days that had passed since I came here, we had been told by our dear headmistress that we were to get to know our new roommates. After that, the program would start.

  I had certainly gotten to know my roommates.

  Jessica Stanley was, as I had expected after our introduction, a very nice girl. She was twenty-two and loved gossip but never started the gossip herself. She was too afraid to hurt anyone if the gossip turned out to be false. She got excited over the smallest of things, and she was annoyingly positive. She was also very chatty, something that made me hate that the three of us shared one huge bedroom with three twin beds.

  As I said, Jessica was a nice, sweet girl, but she seriously needed to shut up on occasion.

  Leah Clearwater was, not the complete opposite, but she was too much of a Negative Nelly for us to really get along. In other words, we were too alike.

  I didn’t care about the old saying, “Birds of a feather flock together.” Leah and I clearly proved that it wasn’t true because we had the same taste in most aspects, but for some reason, I couldn’t stand her.

  She was twenty-five, and she was Native-American, although what tribe she belonged to had been lost in her family’s history several years back in the past.

  The woman she’d been sat with in the auditorium, Emily Young, wasn’t an old acquaintance as I’d thought. It had just happened that they got talking the day before and became instant friends.

  In the “living room,” Jessica stood in front of the iPad that was rigged up on the wall by the front door. This was how we got our assignments.

  Each student had received a user name and password, and every morning we were supposed to log in to check for assignments.

  The program didn’t have a firm schedule, so that was why they had this system. It made it easier for everyone involved.

  “So, what’s the assignment?” I asked while walking up behind Jessica.

  “’First impressions can be tough. They’re not always the most important, but they surely decide whether you make it or break it for the chance of getting that second look.

  You’ve got two hours to prepare for your “first date” in room 105.

  Prof. G. Martin and Prof. K. Martin’”

  Jessica turned around after she was done reading. “Oh my god! Two hours? That’s barely enough time.” She instantly ran to the bedroom while screaming that she called for the first chance in the bathroom.

  Leah and I exchanged looks before sharing a small smile and shaking our heads at Jessica’s antics.

  Two hours was more than enough. I could get ready in forty minutes if that was necessary. All I needed was to find some nice clothes, brush my hair, and maybe fancy up my usual makeup a bit, but not more than that.

  Since I was a waxer, I didn’t need to shave my legs, so that would save me a lot of time. I would just take a quick shower when Jessica was done, but I would have to blow-dry the insane amount of hair I had on my head or it would look like a bird’s nest.

  While Jessica was locked into the bathroom, I started to go through my wardrobe. Leah sat in front of one of the makeup mirrors and applied a citrus smelling cream on her face and neck before applying mascara on her lashes.

  “Aren’t you going to shower?” I asked her. I knew that this wasn’t technically a real first date, but it did not mean that I wasn’t going to pretend that it was, and I would always shower before a first date.

  “I showered while you and Stanley were still asleep. You know that I’m a morning person.”

  Leah had a lifestyle that I both envied and knew that I wouldn’t be able to maintain myself.

  She got up at six each morning to yoga before her breakfast which always consisted of the same oatmeal with fresh berries and cinnamon. After that, she sometimes took a shower, some days she showered at night, where she only used natural products.

  By that time, Jessica would wake up and instantly walk to the iPad to check for assignments.

  They would wake me up and here we were.

  When I’d laid out the skirt and top I planned to wear, I went into the kitchen to eat breakfast. I made sure to make some for Jessica as well since I knew she wouldn’t give breakfast a single thought before one of us reminded her.

  Since she was four years younger than me, it felt a bit like having a little sister.

  Fifty minutes until we had to be down in the classroom, Jessica still hadn’t emerged from the bathroom, so I knocked on the door. I needed to take a shower as well, and Jessica hadn’t even chosen what clothes she was going to wear.

  “What?” I heard her through the door.

  “We have fifty minutes, Jessica, and I need to shower.”

>   “FIFTY!?” I covered my ears to prevent the ear damage that her scream could have caused even through the door.

  “Yes, fifty, so get your ass out of there.”

  I heard the lock rattle and took a step back just in time to dodge the door before it broke my nose. “Jesus, Jessica! Take it easy, will you!” I called after her as she ran toward the bedroom in only a towel. That girl took this assignment way too seriously.

  I grabbed my own towel and made my way into the bathroom. I gasped in shock when I saw the mess in there. Opened bottles and containers with creams and lotions and various other items were strewn everywhere. There were makeup spots in the sink and a wet, slimy ball of hair by the shower drain.

  If there was one thing I couldn’t stand, it was a messy and disgusting grown-up woman. “Jessica! If you value your life, you’ll clean up in here before we have to go!” I yelled in her direction.

  “What!? Jenn, I don’t have time to clean! I’ll just do it when we get back!” she yelled back at me.

  “By that time, this shit will be all dried in. I’m gonna take a quick shower, but afterwards, you’re so cleaning in here.”

  Jessica emerged from the bedroom and stared at me with unbelieving eyes. “You can’t be serious. I’ll ruin my outfit.” She made a gesture to the beige dress she was wearing and I rolled my eyes.

  “You should have thought about that before you made a mess. Put something big over it while you clean, and that’s my final word.”

  I heard Jessica huff and mumble something under her breath before I closed the door to the bathroom and took that shower.

  Sadly, as I often did when I showered, I lost track of time since the hot water felt so good on my body, and when I glanced at the clock on my cell, it was my turn to make a run for it toward the bedroom. I had twenty minutes to dry my hair, brush it, put on makeup, get dressed, and go down to the classroom.

  The stress made my heart leap up into my throat and my hands shook as I hurriedly put on the skirt and top I’d chosen to wear.