“Why did we go there?” I asked. He leaned into my neck, nuzzling.
“Wasn’t it obvious?”
“No. I mean, whythere? How was that place inspiration?”
He took a drink from his beer, draining it. “I like looking at the colors the taggers are using. Some of the designs. It gives me ideas for tiling jobs.”
“You mean you’re going to do a tile mosaic of the president in my steam room?”
He smiled, placed a soft, warm kiss on my lips, then shook his head. “Nah. I’m thinking more like penises and boobs.”
I laughed, reveling in our private joke. Jane and Stick had been silent since we’d gotten back in the car. From the stiff set of Jane’s shoulders, I guessed I was looking at more liketwomonths of doing her laundry.
As we got back to the small, swanky area of town, the car slowed down along a row of parked cars. A fancy French restaurant was on one side, a trendy fusion place on the other. Valets were running cars for both places, as the street had no parking. Diners got out of expensive cars and headed into the restaurants.
I hadn’t known about this small pocket of town, and figured it’d be about the only area my parents would deign to go to when they’d come to pick me up for break.
Stick pulled the car over onto a side street just past the row of restaurants. In a moment, a valet came over to Stick’s window.
I was confused. Were we going to one of these places to eat? Stick and Lucas did not seem the valet-parking kind of guys. More like they’d be the valets themselves.
But no, the valet handed Stick something that I couldn’t make out, looking at Jane first, then into the back seat. “Hey, Lucas,” he said. Lucas didn’t say a word, just gave a slight chin raise to the guy.
“Hour and a half, max,” the valet said to Stick.
“Got it,” Stick said. The valet stepped away and returned around the block to the restaurants.
“What do you think, Lucas?” Stick said. “Getting any more inspiration?”
“No inspiration here,” Lucas said, his voice sure, and with just a touch of steel in it. “Move on, Stick.”
“You never know, you might find something that strikes you,” Stick said as he put the car in gear and drove.
I cuddled into Lucas, but his hand in my hair had gone still.
“Nope. Not here. Let’s just take Lily and Jane home,” he said.
The drive home was quiet until just as we were reaching the dorm and Lucas asked me for my phone. Jane got out of the parked car as I handed my phone over to Lucas and he punched in some numbers as he got out and let me past him. His phone rang and he disconnected the call he made to himself.
“There,” he said, handing the phone back to me. “Now we have each other’s numbers.” He looked like he wanted to kiss me, but he just got back into the car and Stick sped off.
“Oh, he’s got your number, all right,” Jane said as she turned and walked into the dorm.
I stood and watched until I couldn’t see the car lights anymore.
Chapter6
“Yeah I’m thinkinglaundry for two months,” Jane predictably said the next day when we were in our one shared class—Intro to Creative Writing.
She’d been blessedly quiet after Lucas and Stick dropped us off at the dorm. Although it helped that she’d gotten a phone call from her father. They’d argued, as usual, while I’d gotten ready for bed. And when she’d hung up, she’d been too preoccupied to grill me about Lucas.
I’d woken up earlier than her this morning and dressed quietly, not even showering, and left the room before she woke.
But the instructor was late, also as usual, and it was obvious that Jane had filled Syd in during their walk to class, because they’d sat on either side of me and given me “okay, spill” looks the moment they sat down.
“Where is Montrose? You’d think an eleven o’clock class wouldn’t be too taxing to get up for. I mean, we usually party on Thursday nights and we make it on time,” I said, trying to deflect.
“Yes, that’s right, weusuallyparty on Thursday nights. But that’s not what we did last night, is it?” Jane said.
