“Kachoo!”
It’s freezing in here. The air conditioning is on blast and my nips are as hard as ice cubes.
“I don’t want a piece of anyone,” I emphatically say.
“Are you cold, Teach?”
“A little,” I admit.
“Penny!” He yells across the restaurant. “Can you bring over a pot of hot water and some of those assorted teas y’all have back there?”
Our server nods her head vigorously in acknowledgment. “Okay, Freak.”
She’d probably serve the tea to him in a bikini if he asked her to.
“I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t drink tea,” I tell him.
“You just ordered an unsweetened iced tea.”
“I don’t drink hot tea.”
“You’re a complicated kind of girl, Teach. I bet you like oranges, but don’t drink orange juice or you love apple juice but don’t eat apples.”
Freak pulls his navy-blue CGU hoodie over his head and hands it to me. It’s almost like watching one of those dirty Cinemax After Dark movies as he lifts his well-defined arms and pulls the sweatshirt up and over his head. As the triceps in his arms flex with movement, the ones in my vagina clench.
“Put this on.”
I really want to turn the offer down, but I’m too cold to say anything but yes. I’m practically swimming in the huge sweatshirt, but I don’t care, because it feels like a warm hug as it envelopes me with his residual body heat and the smell of cedar and soap.
“Thanks.”
“No worries, Teach.”
“By the way, why are you wearing a sweatshirt in the middle of an unseasonably warm day?”
“Are you kidding me? The restaurants in this town are always freezing. I dress appropriately for the weather inside and outside of any place I’m going to be for a considerable amount of time. You act like you just moved to town.”
Before I can come up with a witty retort, my attention suddenly turns away from Freak and over to the main entrance of the cafe. I can’t believe my eyes (or my luck) as Aaron walks through the door of the restaurant. I watch closely as he asks the owner a question, and she points over in our direction, giving me a knowing smile as she does.
Oh my God.
He’s coming this way.
Willow
“I thought you said you made a switch with Aaron?” I immediately quiz Freak in a panicked voice.
This is a Carrie Bradshaw moment.
Only this kind of drama would happen to her.
Aaron makes a beeline straight for our table and he doesn’t look happy, but he looks as handsome as ever.
“You’re here?”
Aaron addresses Freak first and familiarly. They must know each other, which makes perfect sense. Party gods like Aaron and school jocks such as Freak probably travel in the same circles all the time.
“Wassup, Aaron.”
