“Nope. Nothing interesting. At all.” Piper's voice is flat, dangerous.
“Really? Not even?—”
“Ethan.” She says my name like a warning. “Drop it.”
“What compatibility?” Riya demands. “What did you not tell me?”
“Nothing. There's nothing to tell.”
“Oh, there's definitely something,” Riya says, studying Piper's red face. “We're discussing this later.”
Troy looks between us, confused. “Did we miss something?”
“Piper's building a dating app,” I explain, enjoying how she squirms. “Uses algorithms to find your perfect match. Very scientific. Very accurate.”
“It's still in beta phase and has lots of work to be done,” Piper says quickly.
“It’s about…ninety percent accurate though, right?” I can't help myself.
She kicks my shin. Hard.
“Ow!”
“Mosquito,” she says sweetly. “Got it.”
I rub my leg, grinning. She's so easy to rile up. And the fact that she's this defensive about our compatibility score? That has to mean something.
But ninety percent? What does that even mean? That we'd work nine times out of ten? That there's only a ten percent chance of failure?
The thing is, Paige has made mefuckingsuspicious of everyone. She was smarter than me too. She was a PhD student in astrophysics—literally studying the cosmos while I struggled through undergraduate game design.
Don't get me wrong—I'm not intimidated by women who are smarter than me. Hell, I find intelligence sexy as fuck. I love learning new things, love when someone can teach me something I don't know.
Bug Paige…she used her brain to play me. Turns out I was just convenient. Easy. Someone to warm her bed between study sessions.
And now here's Piper—brilliant, a little awkward, building algorithms I can barely understand. Another girl whose brainworks on levels I can't reach. What if I'm just the dumb jock again, entertainment until she finds someone who can actually keep up with her intellectually?
Plus, I'm not exactly relationship material right now. I can barely figure out what I want to do after graduation, let alone be what someone else needs. Piper should be with someone who has his shit together, not someone still trying to prove to his dad that game design is a real career.
Plus, she's my student. There're probably rules about that. Definitely rules.
But…it can’t hurt to be friendly, right? Maybe a little harmless teasing? It’s just so much fun.
I can see Riya watching us with laser focus.
When Piper's phone buzzes, her whole demeanor changes. Her shoulders tense, her jaw tightens slightly.
I bump her shoulder with mine, gentle enough to seem casual but deliberate enough that she knows I'm here.
“Everything okay?”
“Fine. Just... school stuff.”
School stuff, my ass, but I don't push. Not here, not in front of everyone.
When she stands to leave, I have to physically stop myself from asking her to stay. Her tank top has ridden up slightly, showing a strip of skin above her jeans, and I'm having very impure thoughts about my tutee.
“You're both coming to the party next Saturday, right? Alex invited you?” Freddie asks the girls, but I'm watching Piper.
