“About Aubree?” I’m still waiting to hear anything at all about her conviction. Personally, she still scares the hell out of me.
“Nope.” Laney spins her cup with a devious look in her eye. “Actually it has to do with Jeanie Waters.”
I suck in a breath. “God, did Aubree try to off her, too?” I can just imagine Thing One and Thing two quivering with fear.
“No.” Laney ticks her head back, and her dark glossy waves bounce around her face. “My roommate, Amanda Ester, agreed to room with her. And, now, I have a free bed. It’s yours if you want it.”
“Oh.” I pull a bleak smile. “Trust me, one week with Jeanie, and your roommate will be back.”
“Not true.” She holds up a finger. “I have enough dirt on Mandy to send her packing to the Alps if I wanted.”
“So it’s really mine?”
“It’s really yours.”
“Wow, thank you!” I lunge over and give her a big rocking hug.
“That’s great for you guys.” Roxy sets her lips in a pout. “I wish I could bunk with you. My roommate snores like she’s blowing bubbles under water all night. I swear I can’t get a wink in. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. What I really need is a place with a bona fide oven. There’s a big baking contest coming up—with a ten thousand dollar award on the line.”
“You wouldn’t think she needed the cash.” Laney rolls her eyes into me. “Her father owns half the country.”
Roxy nods. “My dad is a firm believer in me making my own way in the world. He’s paying for school, then I’m on my own.”
“She can’t even squeeze an oven out of his tight ass.” Laney shakes her head.
Roxy sighs into this sad reality. “Anyway, there’s an apprenticeship awarded to the winner at the Sticky Quickie bakery. And, I know for a fact, the owner is a master baker. This could be big for me. Especially since I plan on opening my own shop one day. I know I can ace this, I just need somewhere to bake a damn cupcake.”
“How about the caf?” Laney tightens her coat around her as the wind picks up.
“They gave me a big fat no.”
“Sorry to hear that,” I say. Poor Roxy. It’s the last thing she needed after nursing a broken heart all semester. “How are things going, you know…” I bite down over my lip half-afraid to finish the thought.
“With my love life? I’ve been eating a lot of forbidden sweets—translation I’m on the cupcake diet, and it sucks because I can’t even make the damn things myself.”
“Cupcake therapy can only get you so far.” Laney pushes into her shoulder so hard she just about knocks her off the chair. “You got to get back out there.”
“No way. I’m swearing off boys for a good long while. They’re pigs—every last one of them.” She thumps her cup against the table as if to annunciate her point. “Well, maybe not Bryson. You got sort of lucky with that one.”
Definitely not Bryson. “Sometimes you just have to take a risk.” Sort of the way my boobs did that first day in Founder’s Square. I blush at the thought. “Hey, there’s a party at the Black Bear tonight. Rumor has it all the hottest boys in the tri-campus area will be there.”
“So soon after I’ve sworn off penis slingers?” Roxy mocks my attempt to get her mind off a boy by way of more boys.
Laney leans in as if to coax her. “Plus, Baya and me.” She blinks a smile.
“I’m in.” She raises her coffee. “To hot boys, who Istillwant no part of.”
“To hot boys,” Laney and I say in unison.
Only, Laney doesn’t seem that convinced either.
It looks as if I’m the only one lucky in love around here. I have Bryson Edwards—and that really does make me the lucky one.
Bryson
Bodies bump and grind at the Black Bear Saloon as an endless stream of people filter in, but it’s Baya I’m waiting for. I’ve had great news to share with her all day, and I wanted to do it in person.
“Dude,” Holt moans. “How many times do I have to tell you, we don’t need to run happy hour all night on weekdays.”
