Chapter 1
Anna’s POV
The first thing I noticed about Lance Walker was his confidence.
Not the good kind.
The annoying kind.
The kind that made him walk into a room like he already owned it.
I was sitting in the front row of my Advanced Business Strategy class, organizing my notes and preparing for the lecture. I always sat in the front. It helped me focus.
College wasn’t a place for distractions. It was a place for success.
At least for me.
That’s when I heard footsteps stop beside my desk.
“Well… this is new.”
I didn’t need to look up to know who it was.
Lance Walker.
I slowly lifted my eyes and there he was—leaning casually against the desk like he had all the time in the world.
His dark hair looked slightly messy, like he had just woken up and didn’t care. His confident smile made several girls in the classroom whisper to each other.
Unfortunately, that smile did absolutely nothing for me.
“Do you need something?” I asked flatly.
He shrugged and slid into the empty chair beside me.
“Just wondering why you look so serious all the time.”
“I’m here to study,” I replied. “Not socialize.”
Lance chuckled.
“Relax, Carter. College isn’t supposed to feel like a military academy.”
I ignored him and turned back to my notes.
But Lance wasn’t the type of person who accepted being ignored.
“So,” he continued, “did you already prepare the entire semester’s work?”
I closed my notebook slowly.
“Some of us actually care about our grades.”
“And some of us,” he said with a smirk, “don’t need to panic about them.”
Before I could respond, the classroom door opened and Professor Daniels walked in.
The room quickly became quiet.
“Good morning, class,” the professor began.
As he started explaining the semester project, my attention sharpened immediately.
“This semester,” he said, “you’ll be working in teams to develop a business strategy proposal.”
A project.
Good. I liked challenges.
“The best proposal,” he continued, “will receive a recommendation for the international business scholarship.”
My heart skipped slightly.
That scholarship was exactly what I needed.
I had been working toward opportunities like that since my first day at this university.
Professor Daniels looked down at his paper.
“And the first team will be…”
I waited anxiously.
“Anna Carter and Lance Walker.”
For a second, I thought I heard him wrong.
I turned slowly toward Lance.
He looked just as surprised as I felt—though his reaction quickly turned into amusement.
“Well,” he said, leaning back in his chair, “this should be fun.”
Fun?
I stared at him.
Working with Lance Walker was the opposite of fun.
“This isn’t going to work,” I said quietly.
“Oh, it’ll work,” he replied confidently.
I raised an eyebrow.
“And why is that?”
He leaned slightly closer, lowering his voice.
“Because I don’t lose.”
Something about the way he said it made my competitive side immediately wake up.
I met his gaze without hesitation.
“Good,” I said.
“Because neither do I.”
At that moment, I had no idea that being paired with Lance Walker would become the beginning of the most frustrating…
Complicated…
And life-changing relationship of my life.
