Page 6 of Blueline Baby

“The apartment with the college girls?”

“How do you know they’re in college?” I get a glass of water and drink it at the sink. My head’s pounding and there’s a lump on the back of it where my skull bounced off the hardwood.

“Because the dark-haired one’s been hooking up with Smitty for a month. He won’t shut up about it.” He takes a bit of toast and then speaks with his mouth full of bread. “Wait. Did you hook up with one of them?”

“No. The blonde let me in. Kind of.”

“What do you mean, kind of?”

“I fell into their apartment last night,” I say.

“Sure you did.”

“Straight through the door, flat on my back. So I figured I’d have some fun with it and crash on their couch.”

“And?”

“She didn’t kick me out.” I finish the water. “Then I offered to show her the Cup.”

“You’re still using that line?”

“It works most of the time.”

“Did it work on her?”

“Of course not. She’s kind of a buzzkill.” I fish my dead phone out of my pocket and plug it in. “Anyway, then I passed out and here we are.”

“I like her.”

Not the point. The point is she doesn’t like me. I’ve been alive twenty-two years and I honestly can’t remember the last time that happened.

He chews. “What’s she even look like, this girl who’s immune to you?”

“Blonde. Little. Freckles. Looked at me the whole time like I was dirt on her floor.”

“Sounds awful.”

“Yeah.” I’m grinning again. “It was great.”

I don’t chase women. I’ve never had to. They mostly just show up. But she told me no and now I can’t stop thinking about it.

My phone finally turns on and starts vibrating like crazy. The team chat. Coach. A couple women whose names I don’t remember. Everybody who wants a piece.

“She know who you are?” my roommate asks.

“Yeah.”

“And she still told you no.”

“Twice.”

He grins. “Okay, now I really like her.”

“So you keep saying.” I reach over and steal a piece of bacon off his plate.

“You’re gonna forget her by Thursday,” he says. “You forget everybody. You forgot you owned a phone.”

“I’ll remember her.”