Dominance by Will Lavender

Author:Will Lavender
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster

20

Later that night she met Keller at Rebecca’s. He was there when she arrived, his note cards spread out on the streaked table, a football field cut apart by grid lines and X’s and O’s. When he saw Alex across the smoke-filled room, he waved her over.

“Just a little homework,” he said as she sat down. The place was loud, jangling. Good.

“No problem.”

“Order you a beer?”

“I’ll take a Number Nine.”

“Magic Hat,” Keller said, impressed. “Excellent choice.” He called the waitress over and ordered for them.

A couple of awkward moments passed. This wasn’t like being in the night class with him, Alex thought. This was something else entirely. This was a real date. It wasn’t as if she were a homebody at Jasper; she got out as much as anyone else. But since Harvard had accepted her, and since her father had gotten worse, there just hadn’t been much time for this sort of thing. She felt foolish, out of her element.

“So, the Procedure.”

She looked up, realized Keller had spoken. It was hard to get a feel for how big he was, how solid his frame was until you were sitting close to him. There was no softness at all on his body. But he was also good-looking, with kind, quiet eyes and a mouth that always seemed to be bent into an ironic smile.

“What about it?” she asked. Their beers came.

“Stupid, isn’t it? To get caught up in books that way? It’s almost like they wanted to find a hole and slip right into the Fallows novels.”

“I don’t know,” she said, thinking, a rabbit hole . . .

Keller cocked his head. He smiled, intrigued. Alex had caught him off guard. “You thought the game sounded fun.”

“I can understand why he did it,” she said. She looked beyond him, saw Melissa Lee in a corner booth. She was talking to three or four other English majors, and Alex was surprised to see Michael Tanner among them. Lee caught Alex looking, and Alex turned back to Keller, her cheeks burning.

“I think it’s high nerd,” Keller was saying. “But I do want to hear more about his trip to Iowa with this guy . . . what was his name? Locke.”

“I thought you distrusted Aldiss.”

“I sure as hell do. But I also want to see where this thing is going, Alex. I want to find out what he knows, what he found out inside that prison. He’s hooked me, which is exactly what he intended to do with this class. But still . . .”

“Say it,” she said.

“It sounds corny.”

“Come on, Keller.”

“It’s like things just aren’t what they seem with this guy.”

She laughed, and Keller flushed.

“Maybe it’s just me.” He lowered his eyes to the table, pulled his beer into the cradle of his arms. “Maybe I’m just paranoid as hell.”

“You’re not paranoid.”

“So you feel it too?”

Tell him, she thought. Tell Keller about the book, about the message there. Tell him that Aldiss is innocent. She opened her mouth but nothing came out. She put the bottle to her lips and took a long drink.

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