I look at Matt and he gives me a double take when he catches me staring.
“What?” he asks.
I switch the phone to mute and point Daniella at my sketches. “My sister wants to meet you,” I tell him. “Is that okay?”
He tucks his phone back into his pocket and nervously resettles the strap of his laptop case. “Have you told her anything about me?”
“Just the basics,” I answer.
“With the basics being...” He trails off, leaving me to fill in the rest.
“The basics being that you’re my diabolical roommate who’s hell-bent on destroying me. But other than that, all good things.”
“I’ve been called worse,” he says with a shrug. “Go ahead.”
I flash him an ‘I’m sorry’ smile before flipping the camera toward me and giving Daniella a stern look as I unmute the phone. “Be nice,” I instruct her. I then turn the screen around and my sister and Matt are digitally face-to-face.
“Wow,” Daniella says without missing a beat. “And here’s the infamous Matt.”
“Here I am,” he answers. “And while I realize that Violet and I probably didn’t give each other the best of feedback initially, I think at this point we’d both agree that we’re in a much calmer space.”
“That’s wonderful. Let me ask you this, though. Are you standing in some really flattering Italian lighting right now? Because you’re offensively handsome. Violet never mentioned that.”
“Let’s tone it, shall we?” I suggest, not appearing on the phone but making sure I’m loud enough to be heard. Daniella isn’t fazed.
“I’m in an open marriage,” she quickly tells Matt.
“No, she’s not,” I counter just as fast.
“Monogamy isn’t realistic. My husband feels the same way.”
I take the phone out of Matt’s hand and point the camera at my unamused face. “Calvin doesnotfeel the same way. He cried when you cheated on him in a dream and he had tears in his eyes for a week.”
“He did,” Daniella begrudgingly replies. “For all my faults, the guy’s obsessed with me. Bless his heart.”
I shake my head. “Alright, so this was a fantastic interaction. I hate to run, but the professor is coming so I’ll see you later.”
Daniella isn’t buying it. “The professor’s not really coming, is she?”
“No, she’s not. I’ll call you tomorrow, hopefully when you’re no longer in heat.” I hang up before she can solicit Matt any further and when I glance over at him, he doesn’t seem as annoyed as I thought he would. He actually doesn’t look annoyed at all.
“You two have a very interesting dynamic,” he says.
“Yeah, we have this problem with not having any filter when we’re talking to each other, and then when other people join our conversations, we forget to revert back to socially acceptable behavior. We shared a room from birth up until I was twenty and she was twenty-two, so boundaries don’t really exist with us.”
“That must have been nice,” Matt says a little wistfully. At least, it sounds wistful for him. “I always wondered what it would have been like to have a sibling.”
For all the luxury he grew up with, a sad kind of image flashes in my mind. A gloomy little prince alone in his castle. Wanting someone to play with but who wrote down stories instead. I get a fleeting idea of what it could have been like if we’d known each other then. I would have chased him around and bothered him endlessly. He would have hated me. Or maybe he wouldn’t have.
Professor Leoni’s voice grows a little louder on the balcony and we both turn toward the sound. She’s standing up from her chair, seemingly wrapping up her consultation with Holly.
“Listen,” Matt says quietly, his fingers suddenly wrapping around my wrist. I look down at the contact, at where our hands are touching. When I glance up, he seems almost startled, like he only just realized what he did. He starts to drop his hand away, but I catch it back. He stays still, probably wondering what I’m doing. I have no idea. All I know is that touching him feels like one of the most exciting things I’ve ever done and I’m not scared, but I should be, because I’m definitely playing with fire.
Soon enough, his fingers curl inside my grasp, brushing my palm and sending wave after wave of nervous anticipation right to my stomach. No one can see what we’re doing, thanks to Matt’s towering frame, but I remind myself that we’re still in a room full of people. I need to look casual.
Right. That’s totally going to happen.
Matt seems more confident than I do in this topsy-turvy reality. His face is as unreadable as ever as he says, “I didn’t only stop in to look for my mom. I was hoping to talk to you.”
