The Billionaire’s Burden(29)

The rest of my shift was boring and easy.

Though I tried my best not to, my mind frequently wandered back to the conversation with Eli Hunter, going over each word one more time, trying to figure out how I could have played it a little cooler.

Why couldn't I be cute and coy just once in my life? Twirled my hair a little or batted my eyelashes, instead I'd looked like a total stalker.

There was no help for me. Eli would probably avoid me for the rest of his time as our neighbor. He'd already gone a year without speaking to us, he would probably go the next few months no problem.

After my replacement clocked in at the bookstore, I was off.

Thankfully, now, my grumbling stomach distracted me from the plight of my humiliation. With a glance at my wristwatch, I headed quickly towards the cafeteria, where Lucy would be waiting for me.

As I walked in, inhaling the scent of day old rice and stew surprise, I caught sight of Lucy's dark brown head among the sea of people happily noshing down on whatever "meat" they loaded into the soup of the day.

Lucy sat quietly, flipping raw broccoli around on the plate in front of her. She'd recently gone total vegan, even going so far as to not eat anything cooked.

“It’s raw or nothing, baby.” She’d told me proudly.

I thought she was crazy, but she seemed to enjoy it. Different strokes.

Loading up a salad, I slid into the cramped table with my roommate.

"Salad?" Lucy said skeptically, arching an eyebrow as she glanced over my greens drowning in pure, blissful ranch. I was more of a French fry and less of a fresh vegetable type of girl.

"Have you looked at the menu?" I shot back, jerking a thumb towards the huge pot of ugly brown stew.

My roommate smirked, shaking her as she viciously bit the head off of a piece of broccoli.

"Ranch?" I said, pushing my salad towards her.

Lucy recoiled as though I'd offer her a huge meaty steak.

With a shrug, I pulled my bowl back towards me.

"How was your test?" I asked, shoveling lettuce and carrots into my hungry mouth.

Lucy had been up all night studying for some class I couldn't remember. I could barely keep my own schedule straight.

The girl leaned forward, dark eyes suddenly blazing, "You would not believe what a jerk the professor was!" She began, "He said the material was only half way through chapter five, but he definitely went up to three quarters!"

Her voice began to fade between my ears as my eyes wandered the cafeteria.

I was making tons of mistakes today, including getting Lucy riled up about her schoolwork. Tomorrow, I was determined to keep my mouth shut. I would go the entire day without speaking.

Mostly, the entire day. Or maybe just the first few hours.

As the crowd of students swarmed around, a familiar, handsome, fair-haired head appeared through the people. I leaned slightly to the side, peering intently.

Like the red sea parting, the students all seemed to drift apart, leaving me with a free path to stare at the glorious face of Eli Hunter.

He sat alone at a table in the corner of the cafeteria, shoveling the stew surprise into his mouth with the veracity of a starving peasant. I'd never seen anyone eat so much so quickly. The guy was going to have a mad case of the hiccups later, though he'd be lucky if he wasn't struck with Montezuma's Revenge too.

Looking over the food offered here, it was pretty clear why Lucy was going vegan. The only thing you could trust to be edible were the things the workers hadn't been trusted to cook, though that was what the school got for hiring students to work in the cafeteria.

"Can you believe that?" Lucy said angrily, slapping her hands on the table and briefly recalling my attention, "That was like an extra ten pages that none of us read!"

"Ridiculous." I murmured offhandedly, nodding my head with the vigor of someone as roused as my roommate.

Fortunately, she was too busy spewing hatred to notice the fact that I was just barely paying attention to her.

Eli, meanwhile, stood up, loading bowl after empty bowl onto a tray as he took it to the dirty dish loader in the corner.

Just as he began to turn, I forced myself to look back at my roommate, nodding vigorously again as though I’d been wrapped in her tale the entire time she’d been speaking. Though words were still spilling from her lips, I had zero idea what she was saying. All of my peripheral senses were locked on my sexy neighbor as he moved elegantly towards the cafeteria exit.

There was absolutely no way I could let Eli know that I was staring at him again. I didn't want to get a restraining order served to me.

"I emailed the dean about it." Lucy concluded smugly, waving a broccoli head at me before crossing her scrawny arms over her chest, "I'm sure he'll understand, at least."