“I guess I’m doing it wrong. Thanks for clearing that up for me.” Cade smiled as if he’d had a brilliant idea. “Hey! I just happen to have a bunch of bread and cold cuts and stuff laid out here. How ’bout I make you a sandwich, for old times’ sake?”
“You’re top of the class in honors engineering,” Paul said. “I get it—that’s hard to do. You need to work a lot. But you can takeone nightoff, can’t you?”
Cade nodded. He hadn’t realized that Paul’s little revelations had stung, but something seemed to have kicked his temper up a notch. “Sure. I need to work hard, but I could take one night off, if I wanted to.” He smiled sweetly. “But if I did, I’d spend the time doing something I actuallywantedto do. I wouldn’t waste it hanging around with a bunchof loser frat boys so insecure that they have to actually join a friendship club and pay hefty dues just to be sure they aren’t ever alone long enough to realize how pathetic they are.” Cade stepped back from the counter a little, and said, “Last call on the sandwich. If you don’t want one, I have other stuff I should be doing.”
Paul’s face was red. “You’re pretty fucking mouthy for a—”
“Paul.” The voice wasn’t loud, but there was an authority to it that made both Paul and Cade turn to find the source. It was Aiden, the original golden boy, still holding his tray, looking back at them from near the cash registers. “It’s done. We asked him, but he’s not interested. It’s kind of against the whole point of the night if we have to bully people into coming.”
“Did you hear what he said about frats?” Paul whined. “I am so tired of hearing that shit!”
“So stop talking to him,” Aiden suggested levelly. “It’s not like he’s chasing you down to say it. Not likeyou’restuck behind a counter at work just trying to make sandwiches andhe’sstanding there bugging you about something.”
Paul gave them both a disgusted look, then stalked off to join his friends at the tables.
Cade wasn’t sure if he was happy or sad that the golden boy stayed behind. No, he told himself. He was neither. Sure, he’d noticed the guy before. It was hardnotto notice someone like that, someone who practically glowed with beauty and confidence and serene, gentle good nature. But noticing wasn’t the same as caring. If the golden boy stayed or went, it was all the same to Cade.
So there was no reason to feel nervous when Aiden slowly approached, looking around to make sure there was no line before coming right to the counter. “I’m really sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have dragged you into all this. I was trying to… I don’t know. It made sense at the time. Trying to show people that fratsaren’twhat you think they are. Aren’t all about buying friends and partying and whatever. We end up hanging out with fellow Greeksall the time, and I thought….” He stopped talking and shook his head. “Never mind. It doesn’t matter what I thought. I’m sorry I dragged you into it.”
“Not you,” Cade said, trying to be fair. “I mean, maybe it was your general idea. But draggingmeinto it—that was Paul, right?”
“No,” Aiden said slowly. “It was me. I’d seen you, and I’d thought….” He made a face that turned into a rueful grin. “Well, we’ve already established that my brain isn’t as functional as it should be. So never mind what I thought. But I was the one who suggested you. Paul said he knew you and he gave us a bit of background—I like the Monk thing, makes you sound like a superhero—but it was me who put your name on the invitation list. Sorry.”
Cade needed some time to digest that bit of information. “Are you inviting everyone the same way? Like, the full team approach? ’Cause it’s not my business, but I don’t really think that’s going to work for you.”
“So if I’d asked you differently, you might have come?” Aiden’s voice was soft, his gaze too direct for a casual conversation.
Cade felt something stir inside him, a butterfly of excited anticipation stretching its wings and wondering whether to fly. He stomped on that butterfly with a heavy mental boot. “No,” he said firmly. “I wouldn’t have.”
New customers arrived then, complaining about the class they’d come from as they collected their trays, and Aiden stepped back out of the way. He seemed reluctant to leave, but Cade didn’t have the energy to try to make the guy feel better about having a bad plan for helping the socially uninterested. He was too busy making sandwiches.
Busy. And that was the way he liked it. He didn’t notice when Aiden left and went to sit at his table, didn’t watch him eat, and didn’t see him pause at the doorway and look back toward the counter as if hoping to wave good-bye. No. Cade didn’t see any of that. He refused to. He kept himself busy at his sandwich station, and when his shift was finished, he lifted his apron over his head, grabbed his knapsack, and headed for class.
It wasn’t until he was in the lecture hall and pulled his laptop out that he noticed the sheet of folded cardboard wedged into his bag. Louisa had obviously felt he needed a chance to reconsider his decision.
You’re invited to a casual evening for meeting new friends and exploring new interests, Cade read. If he squinted a little, he could make it sound almost kinky. But while he was sure the frat boys had developedtheir own brands of debauchery, he doubted very much that they announced their intentions on cardstock invitations. No, this was… well, he had no idea what it was, and he wasn’t going to find out. He tossed the invitation onto the desk next to him. He’d put it in the recycling bin on his way out.
“I heard about this!” Estelle said excitedly as she slipped into the seat beside him, grabbing the card. “A top frat and a top sorority, reaching out to the campus’s nerds. You got an invitation?” She was a fellow honors engineering student, the only serious challenge he had to his place at the top of the class. They’d managed to become friends despite the potential for competitiveness. Cade wasn’t there to beat other students, just to do the best he could, and he supposed Estelle felt the same way.
But now, as she held the invitation almost reverently before her, Cade grinned. “You should go. I’ll be at the library studying, but I’m sure it’s a good idea for you to go chase cute frat boys instead.”
“I’mmultifaceted,” Estelle said, patting the side of her head, as if her black hair were arranged in a sophisticated bob instead of a long ponytail. “Ican excel academicallyandsocially.”
“Go for it, then.”
Estelle frowned and suspiciously turned the sheet over. “This is legit? Like, it’s a real invitation? And you seriously don’t want to go?”
“Why doyouwant to go?” Cade asked, genuinely curious.
“Uh, you already said it—cute frat boys!” She smiled and ran her fingers sensuously over the cardboard. “Rich and fit, and not too bright.”
Cade snorted. Yeah, that sounded about right. “I think it’s legit,” he said. He knew it was stupid to be too trusting, but he really couldn’t imagine the golden boy—Aiden—couldn’t imagine Aiden doing anything underhanded. “And I don’t see my name on the invitation anywhere. I’m not going to use it, so if you want to….”
“Are you sure?” She peered at him curiously. “You don’t want to go check it out, at least? I mean, I know the sorority girls aren’t your style, and maybe the frat boys aren’t either, but there’s going to beotherpeople there. Maybe someone interesting?”
“I’m not going,” Cade said. “It’s not my thing. If you want to use it, go ahead.”
The professor stepped up to the lectern then and Cade called up the notes he’d taken on the readings, then directed his attention to the front of the room. He was at school to learn, not to meet people. He had his priorities straight.
