Her expression stayed grim.
“I’m Serendipity.”
That was a new one. “It’s pretty.” Like you. I had the good sense not to say that out loud. I got the impression it wouldn’t be fucking welcome.
“Hmmm.” She eyeballed me.
I felt like a specimen up for examination.
“I’m called Wren for short.”
“Like the bird.” Wren’s were petite and brown, full of motion.
“It’s one of the syllables. Se-ren-dipity.”
“I get that.”
“Shame you didn’t get the resemblance between the sisters. Seriously, don’t you need to save some girls to sleep with in your second year or will you move onto boys then?”
My mouth gaped open. There were some girls who weren’t interested. I had no issue with that. But there were a lot who were and I was enjoying myself. Working hard and playing hard. There had been a boy as well because I was curious.
“It’s consensual.”
She looked taken back. “I didn’t say it wasn’t. Sorry. I didn’t mean to accuse you of, you know.”
My jaw went hard. “Not my style. And I’m sorry if my idea of fun goes against your morals. But so you know, I keep it wrapped up and I’m not a shit. I don’t brag about it.”
“No, your friends do that for you.”
I saw her eyes drift over to Jonah, one of the boys who had a room on the same floor in my halls.
I grinned. I’d found her kryptonite.
“Why don’t you come grab a coffee with us? I usually meet some of my mates at the union café after a lecture. Jonah’s one of them.”
Her eyes went wider. “I can’t.”
“Why’s that?”
“I was planning on going straight back to change…”
She fucking wasn’t. I laughed. “I smell of trains and this really sweaty guy who stood next to me on the tube. That lot probably reek of the sheets they’ve not changed since the start of term.”
“That’s fucking nasty.”
“And true. Jed doesn’t know how to work a washing machine and none of us will show him.”
“And you do know how to use one?” She definitely didn’t believe me.
“My mum wouldn’t let me go out if I hadn’t put at least one load on and sorted another.”
“So you’re a mummy’s boy?” I think she was teasing me.
“Yes. She’s my step-mum and I know better than to piss her off. She has ways of getting revenge that no-one’s had chance to make illegal yet. Come on, come and get a coffee.” I had no idea why I was pleading with her.
There was that eye roll again. “Fine. But you’re buying.”
I smiled. I had no intention of trying to get her in between my clean sheets. There was something different about her.
