“Don’t take this the wrong way,” he said slowly, “but you look like you’re thirty.”
“Ouch dude. I’m twenty-six.”
“No shit? I’m twenty-seven. Spent some time in the Army, and now I’m going back to school on Uncle Sam’s dime. What’s your excuse for the late start?”
“Already had a false start,” I explained. “I was a student here for two years. I was on the basketball team.”
“Oh shit. Like, you didn’t just ride the bench? You actually played?”
“Yeah. I had a scholarship. That was eight years ago, though.”
Jace whistled between his teeth, then took a sip of his Sprite. “What happened?”
“I had to drop out,” I said while focusing on my food. “Personal stuff. Now I’m back for round two. This time I’m focusing on academics rather than athletics. It feels weird starting in the spring semester, but better late than never, I guess.”
“You flamed out, huh? Too much partying, or couldn’t handle being a student athlete?”
I shrugged. “Something like that.”
Thankfully, he didn’t push me for more details. Today was emotional enough for me without having to tell my sob story to a random guy I’d just met.
“So, how’d the rest of the conversation go with Professor Carrington?”
He groaned. “It didn’t really go at all. She ran away from me like I was swinging a chainsaw.”
I laughed out loud. “Can’t blame her. She can probably get in trouble for flirting with a student like that.”
“She didn’t know I was a student when we exchanged those messages,” Jace said. “Nothing happened.”
I stared at him while he picked at his food. “Why does it sound like you wish it had?”
“I don’t.”
I shrugged, and let the silence stretch for a little while.
“Okay, I do,” he finally admitted, tossing down his sandwich. “You saw her, man. She’s a smokeshow. And we had this insane chemistry. Even just chatting on Tinder, it’s obvious there’s a spark there. I was looking forward to going out with her.”
“I guess it’s not meant to be,” I said. “Although a relationship being forbidden makes it super fucking hot.”
“Isthatwhy you dropped out six years ago?” he asked.
“It’s not. I hooked up with the athletic assistant when I was a senior in high school. I was over eighteen, and she was twenty-one, so there wasn’t anything creepy about it. But the way we had to sneak around…” I smiled. “It was a fun two months while it lasted.”
There was a kid sitting two seats over from Jace, and he turned to us and cleared his throat. “Hey, I hate people who eavesdrop, but I haven’t been able to stop listening since I heard you say Professor Carrington. You matched with her on Tinder? Seriously?”
Jace glared at me. “Now look what you’ve done.”
“Sorry.”
The newcomer slid his tray over to sit directly next to Jace. “I’m Cam. I’m in Professor Carrington’s Criminology 204 class. She was all flustered today. Late for class, forgot her laptop. Like something really rattled her this morning.”
I gestured. “That would be our friend Jace here. The professional rattler.”
“Shut up.”
Cam ran a hand through his messy blond hair and grinned. “I thought she just had first-day jitters, but shit, now I can’t blame her. You said you two didn’t do anything, though?”
“Nothing happened,” Jace said.
