I keep my own volume low. “You’re on a first-name basis with the librarians?”
“I spend a lot of time here. My own place…sucks. Apart from Todd. He’s all right.”
“How many people do you live with?”
“Four,” he answers. “Everyone else is an undergrad, including Todd. I’m the only lifer.”
I roll that information over. The confirmation that Isaac is in grad school. The implication, even, that he plans to stay. “You want to teach?”
“I hope to,” he says, tapping his highlighter against his textbook in a rhythmic back-and-forth motion. “But there’s no telling if I’ll be able to get a position anywhere around here.”
I hum. “I’m sorry, you know. For being snarky with you the first time we met.”
Isaac stops his tapping, an eyebrow raised. “That was you being snarky?”
My huff is small. “It was. I thought, well… I’m used to people judging me, and I went on the offensive. I could have just moved tables.”
“Or you could have told me to fuck off, but you didn’t. Why would I judge you?”
The genuine confusion on Isaac’s face has warmth blossoming in my chest. “Most people judge me, Red. The size. The tattoos. They form opinions fast.”
Isaac’s gaze lingers on the back of my hands. “I thought you might have been a jock.”
“I remember,” I reply around a chuckle.
His eyes lift to mine. “But my hang-ups were my own. They had nothing to do with you.”
“I know,” I say softly.
Because yes, Isaac was prickly when we first met. I wasn’t much better. But he’s never once shied away from me. He doesn’tlookaway from me, not the way so many people do.
Isaac regards me now, unguarded in a way he hasn’t often been. “‘The question is not what you look at, but what you see.’”
My lips pull into a smile at the corner. “Thoreau.”
“I’ll stump you one of these times,” he says, clearing his throat.
“I doubt it. But you can try.”
Isaac scoffs, but there’s a smirk on his face as he uncaps his highlighter, his eyes back on his textbook. I’m tempted to ask what he sees when he looks at me, but I know I won’t get an answer right now.
That’s okay. I’m patient.
By the time my alarm goes off, I’ve barely gotten any work done.
Isaac sips his coffee as I pack up my things. “Will I see you on Wednesday?”
“Would you like to see me tomorrow?” I counter. “I have some time in the afternoon if you’re free.”
“To…study?” he asks, that blush starting to rise on his cheeks.
I swallow down the many things I want to say about the heat pooling on his skin. “A date,” I answer, fairly sure he knows as much. “I want to take you out.”
“Where?”
The question has me chuckling, Isaac’s perplexed expression matching his tone. “Iswherethe important part?”
“I mean, it’s not unimportant,” he says. “If you want me to meet you out in the desert, I’ll have to assume you’re planning to work on your bow-and-arrow skills.”
