His grip is solid and warm, his calloused fingers curling around my wrist in a way I must admit does something funny to my insides.
I freeze.
So does he.
“Whoa—careful there,” he says.
His voice is calm. Almost too calm. Like he’s working hard to sound unaffected. His hand lingers a beat too long before he lets go, and my skin tingles where he touched me. Stupid body.
“Um. I—sorry,” I manage, letting my hair fall into my face like that’ll help hide my embarrassment.
“All is well, Miss Sophie.” His tone is flat and professional. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hate the way it sounds.
Miss Sophie.
He didn’t sound like that at the bar. Now it’s all clipped and formal, like we’re strangers. Which I guess we are. Technically.
“What are you doing here?” he asks after a pause. “Pretty sure students aren’t allowed off-campus during lunch.”
“You caught me.” I shrug, trying to sound breezy and casual, even though my stomach is still twisting into knots. “The cafeteria isn’t great. I needed real food. I’ll be back in time for fourth, I swear.”
He looks at me for a second too long. There’s emotion hiding behind his eyes, a flicker of something I can’t quite get a read on.
Then he nods. “Alright. I’ll let you off the hook this time.”
And then—he winks.
WINKS.
My brain short-circuits.
Before I can even begin to react, he’s already turning back to the buffet like nothing happened. Like he didn’t just fry my nervous system with one twitch of his damn eyelid.
I stand there for a second, trying to remember how walking works, then head back to the table with my overflowing plate and feeling like I’m about to suffer from a full-blown heart attack.
Sal’s halfway through a brownie, watching me like a hawk.
“You saw him, didn’t you?”
“Yep.”
“And youtalkedto him?”
“Briefly.”
“And hetouchedyou?”
“Sal—”
She gasps, slapping the table with an open palm. “He touched you. Holy shit. Hetouched you.”
“I almost dropped my plate, and he caught me. Calm down.”
“Okay, but was it ateacher grabor a‘we’ve danced before and I know exactly how your body feels under my hands’ grab?”
I blink at her. “What the hell kind of scale is that?”
She just raises an eyebrow like it’s obvious.
