"Just warming up," I lie. My arms are shaking. Fifty-five. Sixty.
I glance up and catch Piper definitely checking out the flex of my shoulders. She realizes I've caught her and immediately becomes fascinated by her phone, but her cheeks are pink.
Oh, this is too good.
Seventy. Troy's form is breaking. Seventy-five and he collapses.
"Fuck!" He gasps. "You win, asshole."
I do five more just to be obnoxious, my shoulder screaming the entire time, before collapsing next to him. When I sit up, I catch Piper's eye and wink. "Like what you see, Renner?"
She turns even redder. "I was making sure they were all valid reps."
"Right." I flex unnecessarily while reaching for my water bottle. "Very academic of you."
Troy throws grass at me. "Stop flirting and put your shirt back on. You're making us all look bad in front of Piper."
But I catch Piper biting back a smile, and yeah—the shoulder pain was absolutely worth it.
And when I lean across her to grab Alfie's water bottle—completely unnecessarily—she doesn't pull away.
“Speaking of this lovely lady, she's basically a genius,” I announce, needing them to know she's brilliant. “Got into Jenkins' AI research lab for next year.”
“Jenkins?” Alfie actually looks up from his book, which never happens. “The behavioral prediction lab? With the supercomputer access?”
Piper turns pink. “It's not that big a deal?—”
“Are you kidding?” Alfie interrupts. “I know three insanely smart dudes who got rejected.” He looks genuinely impressed. “That's incredible.”
“Yeah, well.” She fidgets with her phone. “It all depends on me passing Creative Writing, which depends on Ethan actually being a decent tutor.” She glances at me. “He's actually been really helpful so far. Surprisingly.”
“Surprisingly?” I put a hand over my heart, playing up the offense, but inside I'm ridiculously pleased. Piper Rennerthinks I'm helpful. “I'm an excellent tutor. Tell them about the three-act structure breakthrough.”
“There was no breakthrough?—”
“She finally understood that stories need emotional beats, not just plot points,” I tell the group. “Only took two sessions.”
“Two very long sessions,” she corrects, but there's warmth in her voice that makes my chest tight.
“Jenkins' lab, though,” Alfie continues, still looking star-struck. “You'll be published before you graduate. That's a solid pipeline to MIT, Stanford—anywhere you want.”
“If I can keep my GPA up,” Piper says quietly, and I see the stress she's carrying.
“She will,” I say with more confidence than I probably should have. “She's too stubborn to fail. And she’s got the best tutor around.”
“Stubborn?” She turns to me, eyebrow raised.
“Determined,” I correct. “Forcefully determined.”
“That's just stubborn with extra words.”
“It's stubborn with respect,” I counter, and when she almost smiles, I count it as a victory.
“Speaking of determined,” I say, unable to resist, “how's that app of yours coming? Still matching people at scientifically proven rates?”
Piper's eyes narrow. “It's fine.”
“Find any more interesting... compatibilities?” I keep my voice casual, but Riya's head whips toward Piper so fast I'm surprised she doesn't get whiplash.
