by Renee, Holly
“No. I’m not.” She was still staring at me. “You’re wearing more makeup than normal. Wait. Did you curl your hair?”
“I didn’t have classes this morning.” I brushed her off and hoped she bought it. “I didn’t have to rush to get ready.”
“Uh huh.” She huffed skeptically before snapping her fingers. “Don’t you have that group project today?”
I stuffed a huge bite of salad into my mouth and nodded my head like it was no big deal. Like I hadn’t been freaking out all week about being alone with Easton. Who cares that we’d be in the library where there will probably be a hundred other students.
All I could think about was me and him.
“Who did you say your partner is?”
“I didn’t.” I unscrewed the cap of my water and took a long sip.
“Okay. Well, it’s time to spill the beans.”
“It’s not a big deal.”
“Obviously.” She waved her hand in my direction, and I cursed myself for spending so much time on my hair and makeup. I knew I was overdoing it.
“I got partnered up with the TA.”
“What?” She practically choked on her candy bar as she laughed.
“Male or female TA?”
I rolled my eyes. “Male.”
“Ohh. An older guy. I totally approve.”
“How do you approve if you don’t even know who he is? He could be forty years old and going to college for the first time. Or he could be a total slob.”
“Is he a slob?”
“No.” I shook my head.
“Is he hot?”
I took another bite of my salad and nodded my head again.
She let out a small squeal, and I reached across the table to cover her mouth before the entire student body looked our way.
“What’s his name?” Her lips moved against my hands.
“I’m not telling you.”
“What?” She jerked my hands away from her mouth. “You have to tell me.”
“No. I don’t. You have a loud mouth and a wild imagination.”
“Does Theo know about your study date with the handsome older guy?” She wiggled her eyebrows at me.
“First of all, you’re insane. Second, why would I tell Theo?”
“Because it might make him jealous.” She looked at me like I was an idiot. “Hello, friend zone. I’d like to get out of you.”
I rolled my eyes even though she hit the nail on the head and looked down at the time on my phone. “Theo doesn’t care about my group project, trust me. What about you? You have any big plans tonight?”
“Well.” She leaned closer to me so no one could overhear our conversation. “As a matter of fact, I have a date with Cam.”
“Theo’s friend, Cam?” I had met him briefly at the party, but I didn’t know anything about him other than he was also a part of Theo’s fraternity.
“That’s the one.” She sighed like she already had it bad. “I saw him on campus this morning, and he asked if I’d like to go to dinner before going to their party after.”
“What if the date is horrible? Then you’re going to be stuck at a party with him.” I made a horrified face, making her laugh.
“If it’s that bad, I’ll nine-one-one text you, and you’ll come save me from my misery.”
“Oh.” I clapped my hands together like she was promising me the moon. “I’ve never had to do one of those before. I need to start thinking of my life crisis now.”
She cocked her head to the side and assessed me with far too much seriousness. “Did you have no girlfriends growing up?”
“I did, but I wasn’t super close with any of them. Not close enough to have like explosive diarrhea to help them get out of a bad date.”
Dillon patted my hand and looked at me in pity. “You really are going to have to start thinking about your excuse now. Diarrhea isn’t going to help me. I need your cockatoo to die or something.”
“Faking the death of my cockatoo is bad juju.”
“You don’t have a cockatoo, so it doesn’t matter. Hopefully my date will be magical, and you won’t even hear from me.” She sighed like she was a Disney princess about to be rescued when she was in a situation she could clearly handle on her own.
“I’ll keep my phone on just in case.”
…
I pulled my notebook out of my bag and laid it on the table near the back of the library. I couldn’t believe how damn quiet the library seemed with so many people in it. I looked over the questions I had written down for Easton and me to discuss about the book and tried to think if there was anything else we would need to cover.
I wanted to be as prepared as possible. Not only did I not want to look like an idiot, but I also wanted to make this the least amount of awkward as possible.
And the chances of me being awkward as hell were pretty high.
The chair across from me drug against the ground, and I looked up just in time to see Easton smiling at me as he took a seat. A few people were looking over at us from the loud noise, but he didn’t seem to notice.
“Hello, Maddison.”
“Hello…” I hesitated. “What should I call you? Easton or Mr. Cole?”
His deep chuckle wasn’t built for the library. “For the love of God, do not call me Mr. Cole. Only the professor does that.”
I shifted a little in my seat. “Okay. Well, hello, Easton. Did you read the book?”
“About four years ago.” He was still smiling at me.
“Do you need to reread it? Refresh your memory.” You know. So I wouldn’t fail this project.
“Nah.” He tapped against his temple. “I have a great memory.”
I rolled my eyes and picked up my pen. “Okay. I’ve come up with some discussion questions.”
He completely ignored what I was saying. “What’s your major?”
“Undecided.” I tapped my pen against my paper.
“The girl who prepares discussion questions for the first day of our group project is undecided?” He shook his head.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you.” I hated that he seemed to already see through me.
“The only thing disappointing me is this new roadblock in our future. Our poor children.”
I rolled my eyes and watched him as he watched me.
“Well, Ms. Undecided. What do you want to do?”
“I just told you.”
He waved me off. “I’m not asking what’s your major. I’m asking what you want to do.”
“Isn’t that the exact same question?”
“Not always.” He was resting in his chair like we weren’t just having a casual conversation about the rest of my life.
“I don’t know.” At least that was what I kept telling myself over and over. It made it easier to swallow.
“Really? There’s nothing that you love. Nothing you would choose to do if money, success, and all that shit didn’t matter.”
“You’re nosey. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“They have.” He leaned forward in his chair, a few inches closer to me. “Just answer my question, and I’ll answer one of yours.”
“Who says I want to know anything about you?” I did. God, I totally wanted to know everything about him, but I wasn’t about to let him know that.
“Ouch, freshman. You wound me.” He rubbed his hand over his chest.
“How old are you?” The question slipped past my lips without much thought.
“Old enough to be your TA.” He arched one of his dark eyebrows.
“Which is?” I didn’t want an answer that I already knew. I wanted the truth.
“Twenty-one.”
He was a bit older than I expected, but I should have known. He had to at least be a junior or a senior to be a TA.
“Your turn.” He nodded in my direction.
“I’m eighteen.”
The corner of his mouth jerked into a small smile. “I figured that. I’m talking about what you love.”
&nbs
p; “Oh.” I could feel heat rising in my cheeks. “Photojournalism.”
“Really?” He sounded like he was actually interested. “That’s cool. They have a pretty good journalism program here.”
“Yeah.” I nodded my head because I already knew that. I knew that even though I wouldn’t be majoring in journalism at the University of Georgia. My parents had it all planned out for me. If I wanted them to support me through college, I would be majoring in business. Then I was expected to work for my father.
“But you aren’t going to pursue it?” He asked the question like he already knew the answer.
“What’s your major?” I was tired of talking about me.
He tapped his finger against the book in front of me. “English.”
“Oh. Of course.” I felt like an idiot. “What are you planning to do with your English degree?”
“Well, I want to get my master’s degree. I want to be a professor.”
That would be a distracting English class.
“So, what you’re telling me is that I should get a one hundred on this project since my partner is a professor in training.”
“I’d say we have a pretty good shot. I’ll even take your picture when you get the blue ribbon.”
I rolled my eyes at him but couldn’t stop smiling.
“I might need to borrow your camera though.”
I lifted my phone and shook it. “It takes pretty good ones.”
“A photojournalist without a camera. That’s tragic.”
“I’m not a photojournalist.” I straightened myself in my seat and tried not to fidget.
“Oh right.” He cupped his hand around his mouth as if he was sharing a secret with me. “A closet photojournalist.”
“Are we going to work on the project or not?”
He laughed, and the sound seemed to run over every inch of me.
“Let me see your questions.” He held his hand out toward me, and I hesitantly handed him my notebook. “These are good. You sure you don’t want to be an English major?”
“I’m positive.” I laughed.
“Okay. Let’s do this.”
His bottom lip was slightly fuller than his top lip, and I watched the way they moved as he read the question out loud. I swear I barely heard a thing he was saying. He was discussing his thoughts on my question, and all I could think about was what those lips would feel like against mine.
“What do you think?” His tongue peeked out of his mouth and wet his bottom lip.
“What?”
“The first question.” He tapped his finger against my notebook. “What are your thoughts?”
“Oh. Right. The Awakening. My thoughts.” I tucked my hair behind my ear and started rambling about everything I had prepared to say the night before.
Easton was smiling at me again, and I swear that my gaze traveled to his mouth with every couple of words I spoke.
“Those are excellent points.”
His words surprised me because our opinions were polar opposites. “Did I sway you to my side?”
“I’d say you’re pretty convincing.” He grinned.
My phone dinged beside me and I looked down to see a message from Theo.
Theo: What are you doing tonight?
“Are you hungry?”
I looked up from my phone. “What?”
“Hungry. Food. Dinner.”
“We’ve only finished one question.” I looked down at my notebook.
“And we have plenty of time to do the others. We can even discuss them over food. I’m not a good partner when I get hangry.”
I couldn’t stop smiling. “Do I get to pick where we eat?” I arched an eyebrow at him.
“That depends on what you pick.”
“Chinese food.” I rubbed my stomach over my shirt. “Do y’all have any good Chinese food in this town?”
Easton closed my notebook and stood. “Grab your bag. I’m about to blow your socks off.”
My stomach tightened in excitement as I did what he said. “I have pretty high standards,” I joked.
“Noted.” The way he smiled at me made me think that we were talking about more than food.
I followed him as he led us out of the library, but stopped when he turned right. “My car’s over there.” I pointed in the opposite direction.
“We’re walking.” He tugged on the strap of my bag until it fell in his hand. “It’s only about a block from campus.”
He started walking again, and I had to jog a few steps to catch up with him after my hesitation.
“Okay. I can carry my own bag though.”
“I heard your thoughts on men in classic literature, freshman. I don’t need anyone talking shit about me like that.”
I rolled my eyes but didn’t push the subject more because who was I to refuse a gentleman. A gentleman who I wasn’t expecting to be so attracted to. Sure, his high cheekbones only seemed to accentuate his pouty lips and his dark hair was kind of wild in the wind.
But I had been able to resist both of those things before.
We turned a corner and kept walking past the college buildings, and Easton reached his hand out to me as he jumped down from the sidewalk to cross the street. My hand was only in his for a brief second, but as my fingers slipped from his, I already craved his touch.
Other than the small glance he gave me over his shoulder, I wasn’t sure he even noticed that he had done it at all.
Easton held the door open for me, and I slipped under his arm to head inside.
“Easton!” An older lady behind the counter shouted his name before quickly moving in our direction.
He didn’t hesitate as he opened his arms and gathered her in a tight hug.
“I’ve missed you.” She patted him on the shoulder as they finally let each other go.
“I’ve missed you too. But my figure hasn’t been missing your cooking.” He patted his stomach and I couldn’t stop thinking about what lay under his black t-shirt.
She smacked his arm and pushed him to the side to look at me. “Who is this?”
“Mei, this is Maddison. Maddison, this is Mei.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” I said, smiling.
“You too. Come, come.” Mei waved us to follow her toward the back of the restaurant, and I slid into the booth across from Easton.
Mei set a couple menus in front of us before heading back to the front to help another customer.
“You come here often?” I asked as I looked over the menu.
“You can say that.” He chuckled. “I worked here my freshman and sophomore year.”
“No way. So you have all the insider secrets?” I tapped my fingers together as he chuckled. “So, what would you recommend?”
“Everything here is good.” His eyes roamed over the menu. “But the General Tsao’s chicken is fucking amazing.”
“I don’t know if I trust you.”
“You should.” He looked up at me, and I swear the deep blue of his eyes turned molten.
“Do you have any references?” I propped my hand on my chin and stared at him.
“References?” He scratched at his jawline. “Job references? Mei will vouch for me.” He nodded his head toward the front of the store. “Character references? I could call my mom.”
He smiled, and I couldn’t help joining him.
“No exes that will vouch for you?” I didn’t know why I asked him that. Easton Cole was off-limits to me. Not only could he get in trouble for being involved with a student, but he was also older than me. Not to mention he was Theo’s frat brother.
“Oh.” He shook his head in laughter. “Do we really want to go there?”
“Why not? I might find out about your sordid past?”
He leaned forward, just a couple inches closer to me, and lowered his voice. “Exactly. I’m an authoritative figure to you now. I can’t have you knowing all about my deep dark secrets.”
“So, we went from future husband to authoritative figure just lik
e that, huh?” I snapped my fingers.
There was no hesitation in his smile, and I loved that. He was so easy to be around. So easy to feel comfortable with.
“I blame you for that. You just had to take the one English class where I was TAing, huh?”
“I blame fate.” I shrugged my shoulders.
“Fate?” His forehead scrunched in confusion.
“Yeah. Maybe it was fate that we met in your bathroom then fate again that you were my TA. Maybe the universe was showing us that we’re going to be the best of friends.”
I couldn’t help but grin as I spoke because with every word that passed my lips, his forehead creased deeper.
“Thrown straight into the friend zone. Damn.” He grinned as he pushed his hair out of his face.
“It’s not such a bad place to be. I’m a pretty awesome friend.”
He arched an eyebrow at me. “Has anyone actually ever told you that or is this a self-proclaimed affirmation?”
I opened my mouth in shock and pressed my hand to my chest. “You don’t think I’m fun? I’m so fun.”
“I didn’t say that.” He shook his head quickly. “I’m just saying maybe you’re not as fun as you think you are.”
“You can ask Theo. I’m the best.”
The laughter in his eyes fell the smallest bit, and I wished I had never even said Theo’s name.
“What’s the deal with you two anyway?”
“Me and Theo?” I tucked my hair behind my ear. “We grew up next door to each other. We’ve been best friends for as long as I can remember.”
“So, he’s in the friend zone too?” He laughed, but it sounded a bit forced.
“He kind of rules my friend zone actually.”
“So I have some competition.”
“You could say that.” I didn’t know what it was about him, but bantering with him was the most fun I had in a while. I knew how pathetic that sounded. I was a college freshman for crying out loud. Not some spinster who hadn’t seen a strapping young man in too many years to count.
But I was enamored by him just the same.
Mei came back to our table carrying two waters and both of us placed our orders. I followed his suggestion and ordered the General Tsao’s chicken, the same as him. He smiled as I did, and I had never been so intrigued by someone’s smile before. Especially from someone who seemed to give it away so freely.