Read The Trouble With Flirting for Free Online Page B

at me for a little while.
    But it didn’t take long for me to realize that on the list of things Tyler cared deeply about—a list that included world politics, his next history test, his GPA, the environment, and The Daily Show —girlfriend Franny Pearson fell nowhere nearthe top. Even the Eco Club at school came above me. I could sit at his side and admire him—silently because he needed to concentrate—while he studied and kept up with the ten million environmental and political blogs he read and/or contributed to, but if I wanted more from him, I had to wait my turn.
    I didn’t get a lot of turns.
    It was bad luck that my birthday was the day before his AP English exam. I knew he’d beg off celebrating in order to study. What I didn’t see coming was how deeply unhappy he’d be when I borrowed my mother’s car and stopped by his house, just to say hi. On my birthday .
    “Oh, no,” he said when he opened the door. He didn’t invite me in, just stood there, shaking his head. “Oh, no. You’re great and all, Franny, but no relationship I’m going to have now is worth compromising my future for.”
    He really meant that: I could feel the heat of his sincerity burning through his shirtsleeve as he hugged me good-bye.
    So now I just want someone who’s capable of taking me seriously and who’s willing to shrug off the rest of the world when we’re alone.
    Of course, I’ve no objection to blue eyes and broad shoulders.
    They’d be a nice bonus.

scene four
    I ’m walking into the dining hall at six that evening when someone grabs my arm.
    “Thank God you’re here!” Julia says. “I so need to talk to someone I can trust!” She hauls me over to an empty corner. “Harry Cartwright! Oh, my God. Harry Cartwright!”
    “That’s the blond guy who was at our table today, right?”
    “Oh, like you didn’t notice him!”
    I shrug. He hadn’t made a huge impression on me. He was no Alex. But of course Alex’s sister wouldn’t feel that way.
    “We talked so much this afternoon!” she says. “And he’s amazing. He knows all these famous people—his dad is like this music producer in L.A. or something—but he’s not pretentious. He’s really funny. And don’t you think he’s super cute? I mean, look at him.” She points across the room. Harry is lounging over by the drinks dispenser, and I do mean lounging : he’s kind of leaning his hip on the counter as he’s filling up his cup, like he’s too cool to stand upright. I bet he practices that pose in his room at night.
    Marie—the girl I met out front earlier with her boyfriend—comes up to Harry as we’re watching and nudges himaside with her elbow so she can fill her own cup. He deliberately cuts back in front of her, and she shoves at him jokingly, and then they keep tussling for space in front of the machine, laughing and saying stuff we can’t hear.
    “Oh, God, it’s her ,” Julia says. “Our third roommate. She came early, grabbed the best bed in the room, and then left. It’s too bad she came back—she’s been all over Harry all day. Look at her now.”
    The flirting looks pretty mutual from where I’m standing. “She has a boyfriend, you know,” I say.
    “She does?”
    “Yeah, I met him. So she’s probably not actually interested in Harry.”
    She rolls her eyes. “Right. Because no one has ever cheated on a boyfriend or switched to a new one.”
    I ignore that. “Do you have a fourth roommate?” I ask.
    “Yeah—apparently her name’s Jillian something, but she still hasn’t shown up.”
    Once we’ve filled our trays, we head over to join pretty much the same group that ate lunch together, with the addition of honey-haired Marie, who has followed Harry Cartwright over and is now sitting next to him.
    Julia grabs the seat on Harry’s other side and instantly goes to work on him, teasing him mercilessly and flirtatiously about anything and everything, including his black T-shirt and black jeans (“can you say