For some reason or other, Callum is backing himself into the wall, and I’m not sure if he realizes. I fight the urge to close the growing distance between us so that I don’t encroach on him.
But then Callum nods. “Sure, that sounds good. Thanks for the offer.”
Nick gives him a fist bump, I do the same, and yeah, I should probably say something now.
“You play baseball?” I ask Callum.
He furrows his dark eyebrows, which throws me off balance even more than my random comment. “No?”
“You should try out for intramurals next month,” I find myself saying. “You have serious guns right there, and I heard the Kinesiology team is down a few strong hitters.”
Oh my fucking god.
Why the ever-loving hell did I have to saythat?
I should have stayed shut up before making a fool of myself. Nick is red in the face, stifling a laugh with a series of bad fake coughs, and I will the earth to swallow me whole.
“Nah, I don’t think I’d be any good at sports.” Callum’s tone is deadpan, but the tiniest hint of a smile materializes around his full lips.
It’s weak, but the effect that smile has on me? Outsized. My hands were already sweating when Nick dragged me over, and now they’re drenched.
My voice comes out way higher than I’d like. “That’s cool, no problem.”
Callum shifts from one foot to the other. “Yeah, so, it was great talking to you guys, but I have to get to class,” he says before spinning around and marching out of the lecture hall.
Someone slap me now, please.
“That didn’t go bad, did it?” Nick says, his eyes watering.
I sigh. “He hates me.”
“No, he doesn’t. Besides, you gave him a flirty little compliment! How could he hate you after that?”
Heat creeps up my neck, and I resist the urge to smack Nick across the chest. “I’m an idiot,” I mutter.
“Nah. You just get flustered around attractive dudes. How are you so smooth with chicks but so inept around the guys you’re into? Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around?”
“Dudes are intimidating, man.” They’re intimidating,andI lean toward them. Maybe those two things are related.
“Or maybe you have a type.”
Tall, attractive, and almost certainly unavailable? It’s possible.
“Anyway.” Nick breaks the silence. “He’s working on the group project with us, so try to avoid jumping him when we meet up for that.”
“Because I need the reminder, of course. No. I’m more than capable of behaving myself.” Sighing, I leave the lecture hall with Nick in tow.
Iamcapable of behaving myself. My initial interactions with cute guys always play out the same way: I get a little crush on them for a day, and then my mind goes elsewhere. Sure, I give myself more than a day if it’s mutual, but that hasn’t been the case for a while. I can be a lot, I hate rejection, and avoiding that is what’s most comfortable for me.
Callum can have the next twenty-four hours. Then, if everything goes to plan, we might be friends.
CHAPTER TWO
CALLUM
Is it normal for student athletes to proselytize to people who apparently look the part? And then ask you to join them for a group project?
College is turning out to be weird as heck, but at least meeting people isn’t as hard as I expected. I just didn’t think the first students I’d strike up a conversation with would, one, approach me first, and two, be student athletes with team backpacks and more swagger than I've seen in my life. When I saw the two of them walk up to me, my first thought was to get out of their way.
