“Looks like we’re both avoiding a scene.”
We exchanged a look as Jamaica gathered her things.
“See you at the RA meeting after dinner,” she said as she headed to the stairwell on the opposite side of the commons.
I made my way to the back of the short line for coffee and pulled out my phone. Mindlessly scrolling social media let me appear as if I was ignoring Finn and the antics of the girls demanding his attention, while surreptitiously paying attention to him because I couldn’t seem to help myself. Yet somehow I missed him moving to stand directly behind me as I placed my order.
“Make that two,” he said over my shoulder to the barista behind the counter.
“Name?” the barista asked.
We answered simultaneously.
“Chessly.”
“Finn.”
“I can buy my own coffee. Thanks,” I said letting the frost in my tone crackle in the air.
“Yeah, but I want to buy you a coffee.” He smiled that contagious smile of his on purpose.
I fought not to return it. “You buying for all the girls you arrived with too?”
Confusion pulled his eyebrows together. “I’m not with any girls.”
“Which totally explains that giggling group you walked in here with.” I shook my head and pulled my wallet from my backpack.
Finn beat me to it, tapping his phone on the card reader.
“I’ll pay you back.” I went to pull some bills from my wallet, but he covered my hand with his.
“No need.”
Tingles shot out in every direction from where his calloused palm met my skin, momentarily immobilizing me. Our eyes locked, and I swear I experienced a moment of entanglement. Until this second, I’d thought the orchestrated objective reduction theory of quantum consciousness was closer to science fiction than to physics, yet standing here with Finn’s skin on mine, our gazes ensnared with each other, a sensation of awareness I couldn’t explain nor deny shuddered through me.
“Finn! Two coffees for Finn!” a barista called, breaking the spell.
Flustered, I stuffed my wallet back into my backpack and stepped over to where two steaming café au laits waited.
“Thank you, but you didn’t have to pay for this.” After that fleeting encounter in front of the register, my tone had warmed up considerably and without my permission.
“I did if I wanted to talk to you. Which I do.” He ushered me in front of him.
“What about your entourage?” I glanced behind him to see the jersey chasers glaring at us as they placed their orders. Curiously, Tory had vanished from the group.
“Chessly, I’m not with them. I came here to do some studying and ran into them at the bottom of the stairs outside. I’m totally not with them.” The hitch in his voice pleaded with me to believe him.
“Okay.”
He relaxed.
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
Tension returned to his shoulders. “That night before finals. I didn’t invite those girls.”
“Sure, Finn. Whatever you say.” I started walking toward the main doors.
He fell into step beside me. “It’s true. I didn’t have a clue they were coming over.”
