Sebastian leans toward me as I’m getting up to head out, his voice lowering into an easy whisper. “Colson left his key inside the apartment. He should be downstairs in the next few minutes. Can you take my spare down to him if you’re leaving?”
“Sure.”
“You’re the best.”
He pulls his key ring out, twists his spare from it, and hands it over. I slip it into my pocket, so I don’t lose it. He cracks a grin. “Guess he didn’t feel like searching high and low in this place for me.”
“I don’t blame him.”
His smile, so magnetic that I’m sure it charms the pants off loads of girls, smooths out into a serious line. “Thank you, Vi. Not just for taking my key down but for welcoming Colson the way you have. Not everyone has been so friendly.”
I look around the table, grateful Sylvia never showed up to study with us. I’m not sure if Sebastian has spoken to her regarding the cruelty she spat his cousin’s way at Lucy’s or not, but I usually leave the apartment while she’s still in bed. At night she sneaks in long after I settle in my room, so we haven’t had the opportunity to discuss how she slung Nelson my way, or the fact that she ripped Colson a new one when it was the last thing he deserved.
“You don’t have to thank me for being a decent person, Sebastian.”
“He’s been through a lot, so yeah, I kind of do.”
Nodding the tiniest bit, I offer him a smile back and say my goodbyes. Helping Sebastian out in a way that puts me in the same perimeter as his cousin is no sweat off my back. A blush creeps up on my cheeks after I leave the table and think about our kiss at Lucy’s.
I panicked. I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t want Colson being dragged out of there like he was the only one in the wrong. Judging by the way Nelson held himself, I thought it was best to move quickly and stay the hell away from him.
The tantalizing way Colson’s tongue swept across mine. The way he sucked my tongue gently into his mouth and held my hands above my head only to tease his way down past thesensitive parts of my wrists. It felt too good. Too addictive and easy to get lost in.
I find him only a few steps outside of the library. Clad in basketball shorts and a T-shirt, I admire him from afar. His sharp jaw and the five o’clock shadow curving down under his chin. The ink on his forearm that fades out before wrapping around his arm gives his appearance the edge it needs to drive that sword of attraction deeper into my lower belly.
How is he be so attractive juststandingthere?
“You’re not Sebastian,” he says when he notices me, a sly grin turning the corners of his lips upward.
I smile, and it’s sweet like honey. Warm like the embers that whip around a fireplace. “A little taller, different eye color, maybe some muscle, and I could double as him.”
“Let’s not.” His eyes move down my legs and back up. “I like this version of you better.”
My stomach flips, and I dig into my pocket, pulling Sebastian’s spare to give to him. “I was on my way out, so I told Sebastian I’d bring it down for you. He’s still studying.”
“Thanks. I went for a run after work and forgot the key in my room. Did you walk here?”
“Yeah, are you heading back to the complex?”
“That’s the plan.” He lifts a palm out, offering me the chance to walk ahead of him.
We fall into easy conversation after, following the path that twines through the quad and spits us out on the main road leading to the apartments.
He shares vague pieces of his workday with me, and my heart jumps at the fact that he isn’t acting weird after our last encounter. We went our separate ways pretty quickly that night and never got the chance to dive into having our tongues shoved down one another’s throats.
When I pull my phone out to check the time and he comments on my daisy-printed phone case, I share how they’ve been my favorite flower since I’m little. That I love their simplicity and how they remind me of memories with my dad.
“Tell me about your day.”
“Mine?” I pause, thinking back. “It was uneventful. I had classes all morning. My Social Foundations of Early Care and Education professor is hammering us with assignments. Then a couple of us had a study session this afternoon, but I couldn’t look at the textbooks anymore. Oh, and Webber pulled me aside.”
This catches his attention enough to have him glancing over. “No shit. How’d that go?”
“He misses me. Says the night at Lucy’s helped clear things up for him.”
I’m not one hundred percent on it, but I swear I hear the tiniest scoff come from him. “Doyoumiss him?”
“In the beginning I did, yeah. We shared a lot of time together, but it’s clear we want different things. It’s crazy. Sometimes you have to pull yourself away to realize what you had isn’t what you want anymore.”
