Celine’s face falls. “Oh, boo. I have a WOTF meeting tonight.” The unintelligible word sounds like something between a sneeze and a dog’s bark. Her features brighten again, and she gasps. “Oh my god, will you come?” she practically shrieks.
“WOTF?” I ask.
“Women of the Future! It started as a women in STEM group a few years back, but it’s grown to become a much bigger association. Now basically any enterprising women on campus can join. I’m on the board. The meetings are pretty big, we’re holding them in lecture halls this year. It would be thehugestcoup in theworldif you would speak—”
“Whoa,” Ryan interjects. “Boundaries, Celine. You can’t just ask Ana to speak at your school.”
Celine looks crestfallen. “I thought you didn’t have firm plans tonight,” she says to me.
“Still,” Ryan says. “Ana gets paid a lot of money to speak at universities. You’re putting her in an awkward position to have to turn you down.”
“Oh,” she breathes, rattling her head. “I didn’t think of that.” After a beat, she squints one eye. “But if you don’t have plans, and you wanted to—”
“Celine,” Ryan warns.
Before I know what I’m doing, I drape my hand over his, hoping to calm his tirade but only sending sparks of electricity through my skin. I remove it immediately, but his gaze remains glued to the place where I touched him.
“Of course I’ll speak at your WOTF meeting,” I say.
“Ana,” he says, “you don’t have to—”
“I’d love to. Truly.” I smile at him. “I mean, these women are thewhole future.”
There is no word for the sound Celine emits as she leaps out ofher chair, sending it flying backward. She hugs me while I’m still seated, blathering gratitude and endless praise.
Ryan still looks grumpy.
“This isn’t a conflict of interest, is it?” I ask, smirking. “My speaking at your sister’s school?”
Pink creeps across his face even as he narrows his eyes with good humor. “I suppose we can make an exception.”
“Phew.” I smile.
Celine wraps her slim arms around his broad shoulders, and he softens into the hug. Seeing her bring out this more…unfettered, laid-back side of him makes me feel like I’m being let in on some kind of secret. She throws me a wink he doesn’t see. “He’ll do anything for me,” she coos. “Always has.”
She excuses herself to go call her fellow board members and let them know about the change to the agenda for the evening.
When she’s gone, Ryan turns soft eyes to me. “You really didn’t have to say yes.”
“I know.” I shrug.
He shakes his head. “She’s tenacious.”
“That’s the best kind of person.”
The skin around his eyes crinkles. “I couldn’t agree more.”
The Berkeley campus is just outside the city proper and takes forty-five minutes to get to by train. The three of us agreed to meet in the lobby before heading to the station, but when I arrive, Ryan is waiting alone.
“Celine had to head back early for a seminar,” he says. “She’ll meet us at the student union.”
Oh. Okay.This will mark the first time we’ve been alone together since the kiss. No big, right? Here’s my chance to introduce my chill.
Chill as lava.
Settling next to each other on the train makes me think of when he shared my earbud on the way to Portland. It’s becoming habit, sitting next to Ryan in a moving vehicle. No matter that his scent makes me want to do lewd things to his body, his very presence is starting to feel…expected. Comfortable. Welcome.
As elevated freeways and low-rise buildings whip by outside the window, I finally say, “You know, you may be taking the whole professional boundaries thing a bit too seriously. You could have told me your sister lives here and you wanted to spend time with her.”
