“10-4,” she quipped.
“Roger dodger, I’ll see you soon,” he joked back.
“You’re a goofball.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. But I like that about you.” Love that about him.
In about fifteen minutes, she arrived on campus and called home to let her parents know she’d arrived. She hesitated and then said, “I’m going to stop by Jesse’s dorm for a little bit and give him his jersey.”
“You go into a boy’s room alone at night? No!” her father protested.
“Sam, she’s a good girl.”
“Mom, Dad, Jesse and I aren’t going to suddenly jump into bed. We barely started dating.”
“That’s enough for these American boys!”
“I’m an American girl!” Sophie winced, thinking of the dolls. “I do not need to be chaperoned and I trust Jesse. He’s not going to turn into a monster just because I go to his room.” She parked her car on the tree-lined avenue in front of Ramsey Court, thankful that Sunday night parking wasn’t strictly enforced and that a lot of kids from nearby towns were probably going to drive back to campus Monday morning, leaving her a space. “Besides, it is a dorm. If he tried anything I didn’t like, I think I could probably outrun him,” she knew her parents were aware how fast she was, “or I would scream and people would come running. I’ll text you when I leave, okay?”
“Fifteen minutes,” her father growled.
“No! I’m not leaving in fifteen minutes, but I’ll text you to let you know I’m okay. I haven’t seen him in four days. I want it to be longer than fifteen minutes.”I could be lying through my teeth and you wouldn’t know the difference anyway.
“This is hard on your father,” her mother said softly. “We were preparing for this for years, wanting you to have friends and get out more. Our protective instincts have been idling and now they are all revved up. Sam, go take a B-vitamin.”
“Ali, I don’t want a vitamin.”
“It will make you calm. I will make you tea.”
“You guys are adorable. Jesse is also pretty adorable. I’ll text you soon.” Sophie rolled her eyes, grinning as she ended the call.
SOPHIE REALIZED THATher dorm really was a slum as soon as she entered Ramsey Court. Ramsey looked like a nice hotel, including a lobby with overstuffed chairs, a polished, curving reception desk (currently vacant), and soft lighting. The place was silent, no milling students, no upperclassmen studying or playing video games in the common room she passed.
Most people aren’t back yet.
I’m sure there are some people here.
Her stomach was tight. What if Jesse wanted to escalate things, now that they’d put “I love you” out there? What if she wanted to do things and he was still reluctant? How could someone who made her so happy make her palms so sweaty and her stomach ache so much?
“Here! Hey, Beautiful!” Jesse flagged her down at the entrance to the stairwell. “It’s kind of dark in the basement level, I didn’t want you to walk down alone.”
“Aww. You’re sweet. Which is why I bought you a little Philly souvenir.” Sophie ran to his side and found herself pulled intoa hug, cool cheek to cool cheek. The plastic bag with the jersey went from her hand to his. “Open it!”
“Yes, Boss,” he teased, walking her to his room.
Sophie swallowed a gasp when she entered. This wasn’t a room, it was a little apartment. There was a little sitting area with a table and kitchenette, and two doors, one halfway open that revealed a bathroom and the other one closed, which must be a bedroom. “What? WHAT?” she twirled inside, bumping into him. “We could have been coming over here to sit on your actual couch instead of perching on my desk chair and the edge of my bed, or eating outside in the rain!” She lightly slapped his arm.
“I didn’t want you to come to my room in case you thought that wasn’t... proper. You know. Guys can pull that ‘come back to my place’ stuff.”
“Hate to tell you, girls can pull that ‘stuff’, too.” Her eyes roamed the room. It was still furnished in the same style as the lobby, with mass-produced lamps, cheap tables and chairs, and neutral carpeting and paint. Some touches had made it uniquely Jesse’s. There was a huge stack of books on the corner desk, a couple of posters taped to the walls. There was a framed photo by the television with Jesse and a beaming man and woman.
As Jesse put down the bag on the table and shook out her jersey, Sophie’s eyes tried to move in two directions at once. She half-registered his laughter and thanks at her gift, his playful voice telling her he would never “cheat on the Lumberjacks” like that.
The other half of her brain seemed to be zeroing on that photo.
Jesse. Golden-peach skin, almost about the same age as he was now. It was a high school graduation photo she realized as she spotted the cap in his hand.
