After I popped in earbuds and cranked up my study music, I settled into my seat, pen on paper. Loud, pulsing beats vibrated my cartilage and I paused every once in a while to absently thump my pen onto the paper, catching myself tapping my feet too.
I worked for maybe ten minutes before my thoughts strayed to Nathan. Which was how my entire week had been; intense concentration broken by a thought of him. I was particularly thrilled to find how focused and assertive he was as a professor, much like how he’d been in my bed, throwing me down, flipping me over; making what I expected to be a quick romp in the sheets more of an Olympic affair.
And as far as my sexual history went, he most definitely won the gold medal in orgasms. And a world record in taking them from me in quick succession.
My table shifted and a bag fell onto it, interrupting me from my thoughts. I looked up into Leo’s face as he shrugged off his jacket and set it on the back of the chair opposite me. I tugged on an earbud.
Pointing a finger at me, he asked, “Want a pumpkin latte?”
I made a face. “Gross. No.”
Grinning, he walked around to the counter. I heard the distinct giggles of one of the baristas, having fallen victim to Leo’s flirting. That was his power: his charisma. He used his charms to smoothly talk his way through any sticky situation. It was why we got along strictly as friends, because I possessed the same power, but I wielded mine with my tongue and not just with words, but with action, too.
My phone vibrated across the table and I picked it up.
Celeste: Mom would like you to come home for Dad’s birthday.
I took in a deep breath, willing my mother’s nagging voice away from my head.
Me: Well, I’m not. I have school work to catch up on.
Celeste: Already falling behind?
I imagined her saying that, her blonde hair delicately curled to rest upon her shoulders, her green eyes, echoes of mine, narrowed on me with a snide smile spreading her paper thin lips. And the visual was so close to reality that I shook it from my head and turned my phone on silent.
Rolling my eyes, I moved my eyes back to the paper, wholly uninspired. My eyes caught on the doodle I’d drawn during class. It was just a small sketch on the upper corner of my paper; a loose white blouse with taut lines from the weight of the eyeglasses that hung from the opening. I may or may not have embellished with the cleavage above it, not that I needed to.
Leo returned and unceremoniously deposited a cup in front of me, sending droplets spilling out of the mouth opening and over my notebook.
“What’s that?” I asked, eyes flicking from the cup to him as I rubbed the mess on my papers.
Leo leaned back in his seat, shrugged. “Try it.”
I ran my tongue over my teeth as I mulled it over before taking a tentative sip. Instantly, a spoonful of liquid sugar hit my tongue and I made a face. “What the fuck, Leo?”
“Salted caramel hot chocolate.” He shook his head. “Girls like that stuff!” he exclaimed, pulling the offending beverage from my hand.
“Not this girl.” I turned my face back to my paper and found myself tapping along again to the beat that came from the lone earbud still in my other ear.
“True that.” He drank from the cup he’d given me. “You’re right, this is sickly sweet.”
Teasing him, I said, “Like your girlfriend … what’s her name? Darlene?” I waved a hand at the cup. “I bet she’d like that liquid poison.”
“Darcy,” he corrected. “And she’s not my girlfriend, remember? We’re on a break.”
I snorted, flipped a page in my textbook. “Oh, that’s right. Who’s the tits-with-legs I saw you with Friday night? Darcy two-point-oh?”
“She’s no one,” Leo said flippantly. I gave him a look, the don’t-treat-women-like-they’re-a-drive-thru look. In and out, that was the Leo way. It was another reason we worked as just friends: because I would never take him seriously. He sighed, losing some of the gloat he’d come in with. “She didn’t give me her number,” he said. I resisted laughing, just barely. Leo seemed actually hurt by it. “She rubbed her body on me for hours, went to the bathroom and never came back. And I sat there like a little bitch, nursing my beers thinking she was coming back.”
“Aw.” I reached a hand across the table and rubbed his arm. “Cheer up, pumpkin. There are other fish in the sea, or whatever that nonsense is.” I flipped another page in the textbook, knowing studying was futile but giving it a shot anyways.
“What about you? Who was that guy you left with?”
My eyes didn’t lift from the page, but my body stilled. “Some guy.” Not lying. “I didn’t get his number, either.” It still stung a bit, knowing he’d left me without making plans to see me again. Which I knew was the reason I wasn’t letting him off the hook easily. That and the fact that I liked to watch him squirm.