“Holy shit,” said Candace, and three different students stopped what they were doing to turn to look at us. “I wasn’t sure if you guys were serious or not.”
“Okay.” Taking Candace’s arm gently in my hand, I corralled her out of the extra small coffee shop and back into open space where students were too busy hurrying past us to their next classes to stop and eavesdrop. “Don’t make a big deal out of this,” I insisted, still unconsciously dabbing at the dried stain on my shirt. “Jayce asked me to be his girlfriend, like, super soon after we had met. I’m just stepping into this. We’re still getting to know each other.”
Candace’s eyes lit up like a Fourth of July night, and I could basically see the glee filling her soul, oozing out of every orifice.
“I knew as soon as I met you that we’d be good friends,” she gushed. “I just hoped it would be because of Jayce.”
“Thanks...I think.”
“Welcome to our group,” she continued, taking my hands in hers. “I’ll see you soon?”
“Probably.”
“Awesome.” Still grinning like a high school girl on prom, Candace turned on her heel and scurried away, only looking back once to smile at me before she vanished around a corner. I stood there for a moment, kind of flustered, then looked down at the coffee stain on my shirt. There wasn’t time to go home and change, but it didn’t matter. This was me. All of me.
Jayce could take it or leave it.
Chapter 19
Jayce
Candace got ‘it’ outof me. I hope that’s okay. She’s quite...excited.
Shading my eyes from the sun with my cap, I grinned down at Macey’s text message, already envisioning my girlfriend getting bombarded in some hallway by Candace, ever the gossip queen. I’d seen her do it to other girls, but she was harmless. If anything, Candace was exactly the friend Macey needed right now. I had a feeling she and her roommate weren’t terribly close, but Candace wanted to be friends with everyone.
Candy is good people. Sorry if she freaked you out.
Ps.
I miss the shit outta you.
Sending the message, I dropped the phone back into my bag and rallied up my team to finish practice. It was late afternoon and I’d managed to catch my last class of the day right before practice. We’d done well today, exceptionally well, in fact, and I had no doubt we’d beat the Falcons during our next game.
“Hey, man, what are your plans?” Kurt asked afterward as we changed out of our sweaty clothes in the locker room. “Wanna grab some food?”
“I was actually going to stop by the fire station to see Macey,” I told him with a shrug. “But if everyone is ready to eat, maybe we can all swing by and see if she can join us?”
