“Jayce Gregory?” Kylie asked, turning her body towards mine, eyes growing wide.
“That’s the one.”
“Dude. Jayce Gregory is, like, really popular around here.” Kylie shook her head, looking disappointed in me.
“Really.” I rested my head against the couch and closed my eyes, wishing I wasn’t too tired to haul my ass to bed.
“Yes, really,” Kylie said. “He’s a notorious bachelor. All the women want him, but he doesn’t really date because it takes away from baseball.”
“We must be talking about two different people,” I said with a chuckle. “The man I met tonight had zero reservations about hitting on me.”
“He hit on you?”
“Yes,” I said. “Don’t look so surprised, Kylie, jeez.”
“I’m not surprised because it’s you,” my friend said, but somehow, I didn’t believe her. “I’m just surprised because Jayce Gregory doesn’t hit on anybody. Like I said. He’s the primetime bachelor at Eagle River.”
“Meh. He wasn’t really my type.” I rubbed my hands over my face and pushed myself off the couch, anxious to fall into bed, refraining from telling her that Jayce had not only hit on me but had asked me out on a date, and I’d turned him down.
“But he’s so cute,” Kylie said, standing up to follow me up the stairs. “And I’ve heard he’s super sweet, not so arrogant like the others.”
“He seemed just like any other over-inflated jock,” I muttered, pushing open my bedroom door. Kylie followed me in, still talking, but I started to undress anyway, pulling on a pair of sweats and the t-shirt I always slept in.
“When will you see him again?” she asked as I went to the bathroom to comb my hair and brush my teeth.
“The schedule varies. It depends on his practice schedule.”
“God, I amsojealous.”
“Of what?”
“Of all the quality time you get to spend with him!” Kylie wailed. “Don’t you know that every girl at ERU just wishes they could spend that much quality time with Jayce Gregory?”
“They can have him,” I said with a shrug, side-stepping Kylie so I could fall face-first onto my cozy queen bed. I kept my face hidden in the pillow, hoping she’d get the hint and go away. She didn’t.
“I’m just saying, consider yourself lucky,” said Kylie, and when I finally looked up from my pillow, I found her checking herself out in my vanity mirror.
“Goodnight, Ky,” I said with a groan, reaching for my bedside lamp to switch it off. “I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
“I’m just saying,” said Kylie, backing out of my room. “You could do worse than Jayce Gregory.”
“Repeat his name and I might just stamp it on your forehead,” I said with a yawn. I didn’t tell her that ever since leaving the library, I couldn’t get Jayce Gregory off my mind. And I knew damn well that the wetness between my legs had nothing to do with fatigue and everything to do with the golden boy himself.
Jayce Gregory.
