When I reach my room, I swipe the keycard over the sensor and text Tally.
Flip
You around?
Tally
I am! Nice win tonight. That was an intense game.
Flip
Thanks. Can I call you?
Tally
Sure!
I stretch out on my bed and hit the video-call button.
Tally’s face appears. “Hey!” I can barely hear her over the background noise. “I didn’t realize you were video calling. Give me a second.” She moves around someone. “Can I use your room for a few minutes?”
A guy says yes.
She weaves through bodies, sayinghiandexcuse meandI’ll be back. She rushes up a flight of stairs, knocks on a door, then slips inside.
“Where are you?” The anxious jittery feeling makes my spine hot.
“Mac’s. It’s Gage’s birthday, so they’re throwing a party. Half the campus showed up.”
I may or may not have met these guys in the past. “Who are Mac and Gage again?”
“Chase’s friends. They all play for the university team.” She drops into a computer chair. “Mac and Gage live with Brody. We’re at his house.”
“Right. I remember them.” Brody has nice friends. I feel better. “Whose room is that?” I note the Terror poster on the wall featuring me, Tristan, and Dallas.
“Mac’s. He’s Terror obsessed.” She kisses my two-dimensional face on the poster while grinning.
“He’s a good guy?” I can’t see her using his room if he was a douchebag.
“Super good guy,” she confirms. “He and Fee are a thing.”
“Oh yeah? Has Roman met him?”
“It’s only a matter of time. Poor guy.”
On the wall behind her is a whiteboard with a class schedule taped to it. The age gap is glaringly obvious right now. When we spend time together, it’s with our Terror friends. We have mostly civilized dinner parties, we go to the Watering Hole and exclusive clubs. I’m separate from her university friends. She can’t invite me to a house party. I’d be mobbed by the Tilton players and flirted with by the girls.
“Is everything okay?” She bites her thumbnail.
“Yeah, kitten. Everything’s good now that I’m looking at your gorgeous face and talking to you.”
She tips her head. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was going to a party tonight.”
“Don’t apologize, I don’t want you to stop living your life when I’m on an away series.”
She spins in the computer chair. “I’d rather be cuddled up next to you than at this party, though.”
“When I get home, we will have a serious snuggle session.” It’s a physical ache to be looking at her, but unable to wrap my arms around her.
