I catch her chair, stopping it so she's facing me. Her cheeks are flushed, glasses slightly crooked, and she's looking at me with this expression that makes me forget we're in a public computer lab.
“Hi,” I say stupidly.
“Hi, yourself.” She fixes her glasses, still smiling. “You know we're never going to finish our work at this rate.”
“I'm okay with that.”
“Your assignment is due in thirteen hours.”
“Worth it.”
The PhD student across the lab coughs pointedly. We both turn to look at him, then back at each other, and Piper dissolves into giggles she tries to muffle with her hand.
“We're being those people,” she whispers. “The annoying couple in the library.”
“We're not a couple, or in the library.” I say automatically, then immediately want to take it back because her face does something complicated. “I mean—we are. We're just... new. Fresh. Still figuring out...”
“Ethan.”
“Yeah?”
“Stop talking.”
“Good plan.”
We try to go back to work, but our chairs keep “accidentally” rolling into each other. She steals my coffee. I draw silly diagrams on her scratch paper. She throws balled-up post-its at me when I hum too loudly.
“What are you so happy about?” she asks after catching me grinning at nothing.
“Just... this.” I wave my hands at the lab, at her, at us.
“A few weeks ago, you were just some guy with a plant fetish who overtipped at the diner.”
“I don't have a plant fetish.”
“You brought Greg to a party.”
“Greg is a social butterfly!”
She's laughing again, and I'm struck by how easy this is. How right. Even in a fluorescent-lit computer lab at midnight, even with homework we're definitely not doing—this feels like exactly where I'm supposed to be.
The PhD student shuts his laptop with aggressive force and storms out, muttering something about “undergraduates.”
We wait until the door closes, then burst into laughter.
“We're terrible,” Piper says.
“The absolute worst.” I pull her chair closer with my free hand until our knees are interlocked. “Want to be terrible somewhere more comfortable?”
“We could be terrible right here,” Piper says suddenly, and her voice has dropped to something that makes my whole body go on alert.
I almost choke. “What?”
She bites her lip, looking up at me through her lashes in a way that should be illegal. “I mean... the PhD guy left. We're alone...”
“Piper Renner,” I manage, my voice coming out strangled. “I thought you were a good girl who got good grades and followed rules.”
She considers this, still biting that lip in a way that's definitely going to kill me. Then she smiles—not her usual sweet smile, but something wickeder. “You're right. I am a good girl.”
