He was so pretty and cool… and he looked just like the type of person that would take the nameMurphquakeand freaking run with it.
Please don’t work here, please don’t work here, please don’t work here.
“Are you new here?” he asked.
FRICK!
My face wasburning.
“You don’t have to help me…” I said, scrambling to gather up my orientation sheets, doing my best to snatch them out of his hands before he could get to them.
He frowned, cocking his head to the side.
“Why wouldn’t I?” he asked, his voice rolling over me and causing me to shiver.
Dammit.
I was attracted to him.
Oh no. Oh no. Oh no.
Painful memories of the last time I developed a crush on someone this far out of my league smacked me in the hippocampus, and I kept my gaze down so he wouldn’t see it in my face and ridicule me further.
“That asshole who clipped you should have at least stopped. You went down pretty hard.”
“Yousawme go down?” I groaned before I could stop myself.
I still wasn’t looking at him, so it took me a moment to realize he was holding a big stack of my papers and reaching out to offer me a hand up.
I ignored it and got to my feet on my own, awkwardly accepting the papers from him.
His face appeared in my line of sight, and I blushed harder as I realized he’d twisted his torso at a weird angle to force me to look at him without touching me.
He was smiling.
“Yeah, I saw. Don’t be embarrassed. It wasn’t your fault. You had the right of way. Anyone on a motorized device is supposed to yield to pedestrians. You okay?”
“Yep!” I squeaked, shoving my glasses so hard up my nose they poked the inner corners of my eyes. “Thanks for your help. I really gotta get going. I’m going to be late for orientation,” I murmured, shuffling away from him.
Oh, god. Why was I like this? Why couldn’t I go one day without making an idiot of myself!?
A low, amused chuckle rolled out from behind me, and I nearly whimpered from humiliation.
“You’re going the wrong way.”
“What?” I asked, finally glancing back at him. He had his hands shoved in the pockets of his slacks, and he was watching me with a surprisingly kind look on his face.
“Orientation is that way,” he said smoothly, jerking his head to the left.
The completeoppositedirection I’d been scampering off to.
“Oh… shoot, yeah, I knew that,” I lied, and he chuckled again, the corners of his eyes creasing.
“I’m headed that way. We could walk together?” he offered, and my mind went into a panicked tailspin.
I didn’t see a way out of it. I would look like a psycho if I said no and then started walking in the same direction as him.
“O-oh… okay,” I stammered, and he gave me a horrifically attractive smile.
