“Oh.” I glanced around again, and when Coffee Abuser left the counter at that very moment, I darted into the open space before the guy behind me could take my place. “Hi,” I greeted the lady behind the counter. “I live at the suites off of Blossom Parade, and our generator is down.”
The admin woman clicked on her computer. All the while, he stood beside me, casually leaning his back on the counter, his elbows propping him up, with his head turned toward me. I could feel his smugness, and I desperately didn’t want what he had said to me to be true, because I genuinely couldn’t cope with the thought that I would be indebted to him.
“Yes, this is already listed as a repair. We’ll have someone out there this morning, probably after ten,” she said as she looked at me, and I felt the weight of weary resignation hanging around my neck. Like a noose.
“Oh, um, thanks,” I mumbled as I went to turn away. “Do I need to be there?” I added as I half-turned back.
“No, it’s an old fault outside,” she told me with a firm but polite “move along” smile, and with heavy feet, I walked away from the counter.
I didn’t look at him until we were outside the admin building, and he seemed content to wait for it. Biting my tongue to keep any harsh words from escaping, I wrapped my armsacross my chest, gripping my elbows as I stared over the quad. “Thanks.”
“Physically hurts you, doesn’t it,” Jett said, humor thick in his voice.
“No.” It really did. “Why?” I dared a glance at him, and when I saw that self-satisfied smirk, I knew I would punch him.
“Figured I owed you after yesterday,” he told me with a casual shrug. “Even though it’s a closed campus, girls shouldn’t be sitting out in their PJs at three in the morning to cool down because their housing facilities are screwed.”
I huffed out a laugh despite myself. “It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity,” I uttered the well-known saying, and he gave a low rumble of laughter.
“Exactly.” Jett still sounded amused. “Call us even?”
“I wasn’t aware I owedyouanything.” Why did my mouth have to speak without my brain intervening?
“I told you that you owed me a finish.” His slow smile was almost my undoing. No one, I meanno one, should be able to look like that before nine in the morning.
“Right, you did. I ignored you then too.” Too bad my tummy was fluttering like it was full of butterflies. My body was not on my side when it came to Jett Santo. Jett laughed out loud, causing a few people to turn and look at us, which made me tilt my head down so my hair covered my face, hiding me from curious eyes.
He noticed. “You ashamed to be seen with me?” he asked me curiously.
“No, I don’t know you to be ashamed of you.”Lie, I know you better than I should.
“You’re a smartass.”
“You’re a dick.”
“You enjoyed looking at my dick.” He leaned against the wall, completely at ease.
“When?” I gasped in horror as I finally made proper eye contact with him.Had he remembered who I was?
“Yesterday, in class?” Jett had lost his smile and was looking me over with more interest. “Or . . . do we already know each other?”
I did not like the way his eyes suddenly narrowed as if he was trying to place me. “Absolutely not,” I told him hurriedly. “We’ve never spoken.”
“You really are very uptight.”
“Yeah, you said.” Looking around at the grounds filling with students, all of whom knew exactly who he was, I knew I needed to get away from here. “Look, it was kind of you to use your connections, I guess, in helping me. The suite is a shit place to be in the heat, so thanks. But if you wanted anything else . . .”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jett snapped to attention, and I took a hesitant step backward. The irritation was clear on his face, and this time when he looked me over, it was less complimentary.
“Wh . . . what?”
“I was messing with you earlier. I didn’t help you so I could fuck you.”
“Whoa, that is not cool to say out loud, dude!” My look around us now was more frantic, and I hoped to God the guy walking past within three feet of me hadn’t heard.
“Not cool to say out loud, but okay tothink?”
“I didn’t know what you meant; if I thought wrong, well, can you blame me?”
