Mia Cole's best day turned into her worst in five minutes flat.
She got into her dream university. Then she caught her boyfriend, Jake, in bed with another girl.
Heartbroken and furious, Mia did something wild. She walked into a bar, locked eyes with the most dangerously handsome man she had ever seen, and let one electric night erase all her pain.
She never got his name. She never planned to see him again.
But when Mia walks into her very first college class, her heart stops cold. Standing at the front of the room, in a sharp suit with those same dark, unforgettable eyes, is him, Professor Ethan Cross. Her new literature professor. The man she slept with the night before.
Now they are stuck in the same room, three days a week, pretending that night never happened. But the more Ethan tries to push her away, the harder Mia falls. And the more Mia grows into her own power, the harder Ethan fights to keep his walls up.
One wrong move and they both lose everything. But the heart does not care about rules.

I write the date at the top of my notebook page.


That is the only thing I wrote for the entire lecture.


Professor Cross is talking about the syllabus. Then he is talking about the nature of storytelling. Then he is talking about something called subtext, the meaning underneath the words, the thing a story is really saying when you look past the surface. He uses examples. He asks questions. Students around me are nodding, writing, and raising their hands.


I am staring at the same four words I wrote at the top of my page.


I cannot hear the lecture properly. His voice reaches me, but the words keep dissolving before they get all the way in, like trying to catch rain in your hands. I know he is saying important things. I know because the girl next to me is filling her second page of notes, and the guy across the aisle looks genuinely fascinated.


Chapter 7 - Understood