Heart Racer by Marian Tee

more than any fresh graduate of Molecular Physics had the right to be.
    Sean had been her first and only sign language teacher, and he had been a very strict one, not communicating with her in any other way but gestures, forcing Bobby to check her sign language dictionary for every word he acted to her.
    It had only been when he was truly convinced of her determination to talk to him that he had allowed himself to soften towards her.  
    “How have you been?” Sean asked with a smile.
    She told him everything, even the things that she had tried to keep from him in the past because then he had been too vulnerable. Letting him know about her troubles would have just hurt him even more.
    Sean suddenly whitened. “Valerie Martin?”
    “Yes. Why? Do you know her?” She was alarmed when Sean paled even more at her confirmation. “What is it?” She gestured as she spoke, feeling like Sean was so disturbed right now he might not be able to read her lips properly.
    “It’s because of me,” he said grimly. “I am the one she thinks you stole away.”
    “You?”
    “She must have seen us together all the time and because no one knows about us…” His hands moved, a sign that Bobby knew was roughly equivalent to ‘goddamn motherfucking shit ’.
    Bobby agreed silently. No wonder Valerie hated her. She gestured to him, Don’t blame yourself. She played around. You didn’t. She just thinks you did.
    I should have told her about you.
    She should have asked first—
    “Hello, mégaira .”
    Bobby jerked. Leandro?  
    She looked up and there he was, still dressed in his leather jacket and dirty pair of jeans and causing a commotion everywhere. Most didn’t seem to realize that it was Leandro Christopoulos in their midst, their disdainful expressions telling Bobby that they were all going to request management to throw Leandro out.
    Bobby hastily got to her feet, not wanting Leandro to be involved in any kind of newsworthy incident that could hurt his father’s chances. “You’re causing a commotion, kópanos .”
    Leandro stiffened. This time, the Greek term did not sound like an endearment. This time, it did sound like exactly what it meant – a jerk. Or better yet, an arrogant jerk, a stupid asshole for swallowing Bobby’s every word as truth.
    Bobby’s smile started to waver when Leandro only looked at her, his stormy blue eyes cold. “L-Leandro?”
    “Congratulations,” he said bitterly. “We’ve both successfully fooled each other.”
    She shook her head in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
    He gritted out, “Who is he? Can you tell me that at least?”
    “Lower your voice. People are looking—”
    One of the waiters approached them. “Ms. Granger, is this man bothering— Mr. Christopoulos !” The waiter’s exclamation had shock rippling through the engrossed crowd as they realized that this was no quarrel between an heiress and biker scum. It was something far more delicious.
    “I don’t give a fuck what they hear. What’s there to be ashamed about? We both played each other for a fool—”
    His words finally sunk in. “Y-you played me for a fool?”
    Leandro laughed hollowly. “Are you fucking serious? You have the gall to look hurt when I’ve just caught you with another man? Valerie—” He saw both Bobby and her unknown date stiffen at the name and he said coldly, “Yes. It was Valerie who told me that I’ve an unfaithful bitch for a girlfriend.”
    “And you?” she asked hoarsely. “H-have you been unfaithful to me, too?”
    “You really think you have right to—”
    “Answer the question!” she screamed.
    He shouted back, “No. I wasn’t unfaithful. I just never loved you in the first place.”
    She stumbled back at his words, and she would have fallen if not for the other man being there to catch her.
    “Don’t touch her,” Leandro lashed out before he could stop himself, but the words didn’t even seem to register, the other man’s every moment speaking of