That gets a smile out of me, and I follow Ian in. Those twomighthave an unfamiliar dynamic with each other, but they seem like good friends.
And they’re both being nice to me. Unexpected, but not unwelcome.
CHAPTER THREE
IAN
“Is there a reason you’re smiling into your laptop?” Sabrina asks, waving her hand in front of my screen and snapping me out of my editing.
I force my face into a neutral expression. “No. Why do you ask?”
“Bullshit.”
There’s no escaping what’s about to come next. Sabrina and Nick are two of my best friends on campus, and they’re equally good at reading me.
“What’s their name?” She walks around to my side of the library table and plants herself next to me, giving me a knowing, side-eyed smirk.
“Callum,” I supply. “Group project partner.”
I’m in the middle of editing the video for the Human Movement project, which involves a lot of looking at Callum. Mostly the same close-ups of his toned forearm and listening to his deep, sultry voice pouring through my earbuds whenever I refine a section of the video.
And then there’s that pretty face of his right at the beginning when he’s introducing the project. I go back to that shot alot, because I want to get the color grading right. Not because I need an excuse to look at him, not at all.
He’s a tough one—it’s taking more than twenty-four hours to be normal about him, but I’ll get there eventually. Not seeing him for almost a whole week helped, I think. Or hope.
Sabrina clasps her hands together when Callum reappears in the video. “Ooh, I didn’t know you went for the broody type.”
“Shut up. He’s, like, a hundred percent straight.” I keep my voice firm, with the hope of driving the point into my brain. “I’m not going there.”
“Yeah, straight until proven otherwise, right?” She pauses, shifting a strand of her light brown hair out of her eyes. “Is he nice, though?”
“Why? Do you want his number or something?” I reach for my phone, and she backhands me across the chest.
“Totally. Laura might have something to say about that.”
Laura is Sabrina’s girlfriend. Neither of them are into men.
“You didn’t answer my question,” she says. “Is he nice, or just a pretty face for you to fawn over?”
Oh, yeah. I don’t know much about him, but that quiet shyness, coupled with how eagerly he got his part of the project done, speaks volumes. The guy’s endearing as hell, I’ll give him that.
“I think so,” I say. “Cal’s pretty quiet, though.”
Sabrina snickers. “You're already on a nickname basis with him? That's so cute!”
I shrug, taking a sip of my iced coffee that isn’t playing too nicely with my ADHD medication. And what if we’ve only exchanged a few sentences here and there? He was polite enough to put up with me and Nick’s petty bickering during our first official meeting, and he returned the filmed clips way before his self-imposed deadline. All signs point to him being at least a decent person.
“He seems like a good guy,” Sabrina says. “He’s got kind eyes.”
“Prettyeyes,” I supply. “My god, and those eyelashes?—”
She slaps my shoulder. “Ian, stop it. You’re gonna get a crush on him if you keep that up.”
“Yeah, well, crushes are fun,” I mutter.
“Only if you have a chance with the person. You’ve already written him off as straight.”
She’s got me there.
