INTRODUCTION
Before the nonsense, there were numbers.
There are many things Camille Rosewood considers unforgivable.
People who chew with their mouths open.
People who think they are better than others.
People who say logic is superior to reasoning
And Nathaniel Cross.
Especially Nathaniel Cross.
Unfortunately, the universe has a rather questionable sense of humour, and apparently, hers is its favourite target.
Because Nathaniel Cross has been ruining Camille Rosewood's life since before either of them understood what a GPA was.
They attended the same elementary school, where he beat her in mathematics and she beat him in English.
They attended the same middle school, where their teachers stopped announcing their academic rankings separately because the two of them would inevitably turn the results into a competition.
They attended the same high school, where awards ceremonies became less about celebrating their achievements and more about discovering which one of them had managed to beat the other this time.
And then came college.
Four years of lectures, examinations, departmental rankings, scholarships, academic awards, and arguments so ridiculous that their classmates began treating them as free entertainment.
If Nathaniel won first place, Camille would take it back the following semester.
If Camille received an award, Nathaniel would find a way to earn one of his own.
If one of them scored ninety-eight per cent, the other would spend the next week trying to figure out where those two missing marks had gone.
They were rivals in every sense of the word.
Competitive. Stubborn. Infuriating.
And, according to several exhausted teachers, completely incapable of behaving like normal human beings around each other.
Camille blamed Nathaniel.
Nathaniel blamed Camille.
Neither ever accepted responsibility.
Naturally.
By the time they graduated, Camille had collected enough awards to fill a cabinet, Nathaniel had accumulated enough achievements to make an entire department proud, and both had developed an unfortunate habit of measuring success against the other.
They had spent practically their entire lives trying to be better than each other.
And neither had any intention of stopping.
Then, for the first time in their lives, they went separate ways.
Camille moved to Haledale.
Nathaniel remained in Rivergale.
She built a life of her own, pursued her love for literature, and eventually became an English lecturer.
He pursued mathematics, established his career, and became a professor at Rivergale College.
Four years passed.
Four years without academic competitions.
Four years without arguments over examination scores.
Four years without Nathaniel Cross appearing beside her name on a list of award recipients.
Four years without Camille Rosewood turning his achievements into a personal challenge.
Four years of peace.
Beautiful, wonderful, uninterrupted peace.
And if you asked Camille, those had been the best four years of her life.
She had no reason to think about Nathaniel.
No reason to remember the boy who had challenged her at every opportunity, the man who had somehow managed to be both her greatest academic motivation and her greatest source of irritation.
No reason whatsoever.
Until life decided that four years of peace were more than enough.
Because, as it turned out, the universe wasn't finished with Camille Rosewood.
Not even close.
And Nathaniel Cross?
Well, he was about to become her problem all over again.
Some rivalries end with graduation.
Theirs were just getting started.
