Unspoken(58)
Until I realized this: she had made the first move.
AM
“I NEED A POSTGAME RUNDOWN,” I informed Ellie when we met for lunch again. This time we were having fancy ramen noodles.
She smiled a bit sheepishly. “I’m just glad we don’t live in the dorms anymore.”
“Why didn’t you bring him home?”
“Dunno!” Ellie exclaimed. “Erik went home with someone else, so the room was empty.”
“Did you do the walk of shame, then?”
“Nah, I left early in the morning so I could shower and get to class.”
“So now what?”
“I’m not sure.” Ellie ran her finger around the top of her glass and looked around our apartment pensively. “He’s not someone I think I can hook up with and then leave behind. He might make a mark.”
“Would that be so bad?” I asked quietly.
“I don’t know. What’s stopping you from hooking up with Bo?” she challenged.
“Me,” I admitted. “I’m afraid that he’s only good for a short-term fling, no matter what he might say in the heat of the moment. You know how attached I get. I don’t think someone gets a crush on Bo Randolph and comes away unscathed.”
“We’re a couple of sad sacks,” Ellie said. “So what now?”
“Now I wish I’d switched classes with you in Rocks for Jocks,” I said glumly. “But I guess I’m just going to have to learn to be friends without developing some huge crush on him.”
“We need condoms for the heart.” Ellie got up and refilled her water bottle.
“So you aren’t jumping into anything with two feet either,” I said.
“At least I’m putting my toes in the water.”
“Traitor,” I mumbled. Because I didn’t want to spend another hour going around and around about why Bo was a bad bet, I left to study in a coffee shop downtown. Only Ellie knew I liked to study there. It was perfect and private and secret.
Which was why when I arrived there and Bo Randolph was ensconced in one of the chairs, I stood mutely with my mouth agape for a good minute. Perhaps it was only a few seconds, but it felt like a long time. Bo simply sat and smiled at me. I wanted to hit him. No, I wanted to hit Ellie. The only way Bo would have found this spot was with insider knowledge.
“How’d you get here?” I threw my bag on the floor and dropped into the chair that sat at a right angle to Bo’s. Our legs were far closer than I wanted once I’d sat down, in part because of the chair placement and in part because Bo’s legs were just so damn long.
“Can I plead the Fifth?” He held up his hands in mock surrender.
“I actually don’t think this is funny. Are you stalking me?”
“If I say yes, will you report me to the Honor Code Committee?”
Again with the flippant response. I had an urge to fling my heavy messenger bag across his face. “Spill.”
“I saw your roommate earlier today and asked her where you were. She said you’d be studying here.”
I scowled at him. There was no way Ellie would have revealed my off-campus study place to him based on a simple request.
“What else?”
Looking contemplative, he steepled his fingers under his chin as if he were weighing what information to reveal.
“I want to hear all of it. And if not from you, I’ll get it from Ellie later.”
Bo sighed and dropped his hands to clasp them loosely between his spread legs.
“I told her that I needed to see you about an important lab issue and that I wanted to apologize. She said, by the way, to tell you that you need to be more open-minded.”
Goddammit. Ellie was always trying to meddle, as if she were some kind of hippy fairy godmother or, probably in this case, some kind of Cupid. I needed to talk to her seriously about the Beauty and the Beast folk story where there’s no happy ending and the Beast gets slain by the mob of townspeople.
“Since I know that what you told Ellie is a lie and you’ve already apologized, what’s your real reason for stalking me?”
Bo shifted, bringing his one leg closer to mine, and I drew away from him, slipping my legs to the side and moving into the opposite corner of my chair. The recoil was instinctive, but it caused Bo to flinch a bit, his eyes darkening.
“Do you think I’m going to hurt you?” His voice sounded lower, almost raspy.
“No, why do you ask?” I lied.
“You’re about as skittish as a newborn foal.”
“I’m not an animal, and I’m not afraid of you. You’re just always invading my space.” I had to keep my annoyance levels up because I was doomed if Bo ever figured out how attracted I was to him.