“That means you’re nice,” she supplies, sitting down at a free table. “Like, Ian-nice. Youhavemet him, right?”
“I have.” Pausing, I join her at the table. I take a sip of coffee and burn my tongue, but I’m beyond caring. “He gave me this jacket out of nowhere, after all.”
“Believe me, that’s normal for him,” Laura says. “Sabrina even gave me a heads-up before she introduced me to him, and then hegave me a four-hundred-dollar bottle of champagne as a housewarming gift.”
Wait. Ian is with Sabrina, Sabrina introduced Laura to him, then he gaveLauraa four-hundred-dollar gift, while being withSabrina…
“Are you both…friends with Ian?” I ask.
Laura opens a packet of sugar and dumps the contents into her cup. “Yeah. Sabrina more than me—she and Ian were friends before we started dating.”
Wait, so are Ian and SabrinaandLaura?—
“Right, Sabrina andIare dating, just in case that wasn’t clear,” she adds quickly. “Ian is single.”
Oh. They’re…okay. And all this time, I thought Ian and Sabrina were a thing. Whoops.
“That’s cool,” I say. “He’s a nice guy.”
“Heis. Kinda hard to find one of those, so keep him around…” Laura squints and peers behind me. “Speak of the devil.”
I swivel my head and make direct eye contact with none other than Ian, who saunters over with a smile on his face and a pair of flattering light gray jeans on his legs. He lifts his chin in a nod, and I do the same to get those killer thighs out of my over-appreciative vision.
Ian fist-bumps Laura and gives my shoulder a gentle squeeze. My body goes all hot just from that. What isn’t helping is Ian standing right next to me, allowing me to feel the warmth radiating off his body and making heated arousal expand from my chest.
“Hey, guys, what’s up?” he asks.
My stupid dick. Unfortunately.
“Nothing much. We’re chatting and bitching about French class,” Laura says.
“Cool, cool.” Ian thankfully steps back, giving me room to breathe air that isn’t filled with his clean, seductive scent.
But it lingers. My god, it lingers, that fresh, musky bliss that invades my senses and makes my stomach twist with guilty longing.
Jesus. Ian is innocent in all this, and it'smewho's way out of line.
“And what's good, Cal?” he asks, turning his handsome face to me. Then he frowns. “You’re a little red. Is everything okay?”
Crap.“Yeah. I burnt my tongue on coffee.”
“Ah, shit. Sorry to hear that.” Ian drops it, but when I flick my eyes over to Laura, I can't help but think she doesn’t believe me. It’s subtle, but her eyes are slightly narrowed, and unless my mind is playing tricks, there’s a near-imperceptible smile tugging at her lips.
“Ouch,” I add, for effect.
Ian stays quiet for a second. “Anyway, I have to get to my next class, but I saw you guys and thought I’d say hi. See ya!”
As quickly as he got here, he’s gone, which leaves a strange, inconvenient vacancy in my stomach.
Imisshim.
Ian said maybe twenty words to me in two minutes, and I miss him afterthat? I’m worse than I thought.
“You two seem to be on the same wavelength,” Laura says. She stays quiet for a second, twisting a strand of her black hair between her fingers. “Ian notices a lot about you. It's cute.”
I sputter. “Cute?”
Crap, crap, crap. Laura can't think I like him.
