Divine Vices Read Online Free PDF Page B

it takes trial and error.”
    I
leaned back so that I was resting against the row behind us, giving the two the
opportunity to be face-to-face for their war of words, in the hopes that I
wouldn’t be dragged in to settle the score. Oh, wishful thinking.
    “Okay,
Cassie, how many guys have you dated?” asked Gwen.
    I
shrugged.
    “Seriously,
how many?”
    “I
don’t know,” I said, seeing the answer would not suffice. “Two.”
    “And
did you get anything out of them?”
    “Other
than free dinners and trips to the theater?” I joked lightly.
    “Exactly,”
said Ian, eyeing me rather surreptitiously.
    “What
about Minnie?” suggested Gwen, turning to Ian. “She’s had her eye on you for
some time now. What’s wrong with her?”
    I
couldn’t wait for his response. I immediately laughed. “Sorry, but... Minnie?
Really?”
    “What?”
    “Are
you kidding?” I said. “Can you honestly picture those two together?”
    “Thank
you,” said Ian, relieved. “Talk about as far from my type as humanly possible.”
    “What?
She’s cute... in a kind of, um, understated way,” Gwen replied.
    I
laughed again. Minnie wasn’t unattractive, but considering her exceptionally
short and rather stout frame that garnered clothes similar to that of a bag
lady’s, Ian would look like a ridiculously well-dressed beanpole beside her.
“Gwen, I can assure you that matchmaking is not your forte.”
    “Not
to mention that Minnie’s a gossipmonger. That’s the last thing I need,”
clarified Ian.
    “She
is not,” rebutted Gwen.
    “Seriously?”
I cracked. “She works with Trish and you for the school paper. The three of you
together are a deadly combination of scandalous skills.”
    “Yow,
look at those muscles!” exclaimed Gwen suddenly, seeing Jeff Mundy shooting
baskets at the free throw line in a fitted wife-beater shirt.
    He
looked our way and cast a smile at her as he took the next shot. Nothing by
net.
    “Damn,
he’s fine,” she growled delightfully, taking in his firm, toned, towering build
and messy, textured cropped blonde hair.
    “I
swear, she has the attention span of a hummingbird,” Ian laughed.

    “I’ll
be outside,” I said to Gwen as the locker room began to fill with a surplus of
toxic perfume combinations.
    I
headed out into the gym and took a place by the main doors, seeing Ian exit
from the locker room as well.
    “Hey,”
he said on arrival, “Coach Whitmore asked if he could speak with you. He said
he’d be out in a minute.”
    “Oh,
great,” I deflated, shuffling back across the gym. “Now what?”
    I
took a seat at the bottom of the bleachers just outside the guys’ locker room,
praying that Coach would make it fast. I had lunch next, and my stomach was
growling.
    “So
what do you think of New Haven’s stock of chicks? Happy hunting grounds, or
what?” echoed a voice from inside the locker room. It was Luke Briar, a total
hothead and lady-hunter.
    “I
don’t think our man here has to do any hunting himself. Seems dinner and
dessert have served themselves. Watch out for Stacy though. She’s a total
man-eater,” said another, who I assumed was his friend, Nate.
    “Since
when was no-strings attached ever a bad thing? She’s hot.”
    “No
way in hell she gives it for free. She’ll have you on your knees begging for
mercy by the time she cuts you loose. Remember Ken Higgins? That poor guy
hasn’t recovered from her wrath, and it’s been a year.”
    “What
about Cassie?” asked another voice.
    I
immediately recognized it. Jack.
    “Foster?”
laughed Luke. “You’re really barkin’ up the wrong tree there, Matthews.”
    “Seriously?
Like playing-for-the-other-team wrong?”
    “Nah,
but no one here has had any luck with her.”
    “Doesn’t
look much like a prig to me,” replied Jack.
    “Good
luck with that then,” said Nate. “It’s still a wonder how the hell Callaghan
got with that.”
    “What?
The magician? Are they a thing ?”
    “Who
knows? My guess,