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“If they put up with me, the Grinch, I’m sure you’ll be golden.”

And just like that, the room erupts again. Laughing. Shouting over each other. Popcorn being thrown by Will. It’s chaos. But it does something to ease the anxiety inside of me. If I’m safe with Daniel, I know I’m safe with his friends.

The time passes quickly. And I don’t actually win anything. I barely make it off the side of the track once I wipe out. Eventually, I give up trying and just enjoy myself. When we leave, that loose happiness you get from being with good company has filled my chest. They are similar to Christine, Vee, Sarah, and Lincoln. I bet we would all have fun together, if Lincoln wasn’t so against hockey players. But Eli didn’t seem that bad and the rest were from the football team, I’m pretty sure.

Daniel waits until we are down the block before he lets his shoulder brush mine. I don’t move away.

“You survived,” he says.

“I drove into the grass for most of it.”

“Iconic. Luke liked you.” His hands are in his pockets, and he’s smiling at the sidewalk. “He actually laughed for the first time in months. I’m glad he’s getting his spark back. I was worried. Thank you for coming tonight.”

“I liked him, too. He wanted me on his team before he knew if I sucked or not.” I push up my glasses. The night is cold, and the anxiety from being late is gone, replaced by the other thing I’ve been trying to ignore since we left the dorm. “I didn’t win a race.”

“I noticed.”

“So the deal is void.” I say it with a straight face. “One race. That was the terms. I didn’t win. You can’t bend me over the desk since I didn’t win.”

He stops walking. I make it two more steps before I stop, too, and when I look back, he’s biting his lip, delighted and trying not to be.

“You told me to let you win.”

“You didn’t.”

“You launched a banana into your own face, Quinn. There is no possible way to let you win that. The console wouldn’t allow it.” He closes the distance and hooks a finger into my sleeve. “Amend the deal. You had fun tonight. You like my friends. It wasn’t terrible, right?”

“I didn’t win.” My smile tries to sneak onto my face, and I look away and bite the inside of my cheek. “Rules⁠—”

“Are made to be broken,” he growls and scoops me up by my ass, pulling me against him, making me squeal and cling to his shoulders. “Now, we are going back to the dorm and I’m collecting my prize.”

“Daniel.” I’m laughing, which ruins the objection. My legs lock around his waist because I like being in his arms. “People can see. Put me down. This is not friend behavior.”

“Game night is over. It’s dark and the campus is empty. No one will see, and you are way more than just a friend.” He kisses my jaw and keeps walking, like I weigh nothing, which does something to my pulse.

I stop arguing. The deal was a tease, and he knows it. I know it. I have known it since I said it. Holding the line on a race I was never going to win is just me enjoying the sound of him asking. I tuck my face into my neck so the empty sidewalk doesn’t get the rest of my smile.

“Fine,” I say. “The deal is amended. You can have the prize. I was never going to make you let me win at Mario Kart for it.”

“I know.” He sounds unbearably pleased. “You’re a terrible liar. It’s one of my favorite things about you.”

The lobby is quiet and bright. He doesn’t put me down in the elevator, and I don’t make him. The doors shut, the floor jolts, and then his mouth is on mine, finally, the way it hasn’t been allowed to be all night. I kiss him back with my hands in his hair. He tastes like soda and smells like popcorn. His scruff drags over my chin. Somewhere between the first floor and ours, I forget we’re in a metal box that could open on a stranger, and I don’t care enough to stop.

The bell dings. He pulls back just enough to breathe, forehead against mine, both of us smiling like idiots.

“Desk,” he says.

“Desk,” I say, and the doors open.

EPILOGUE 2 - DANIEL

Four years later

The summer light is heading for the horizon, the waves from Lake Michigan lap at our back deck. The temperature is dropping the way it does up north, but it’s a relief to the hot day. I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that we were able to buy this place in April. And it’s not far from my family, which has become Quinn’s family too over the years. My job is less than twenty minutes away with a local crime lab, and Quinn is working his dream job in a lab the next town over.

I pull him against me and kiss his temple. “My parents texted, they are on their way.”

“Did you send a reminder to Bryson?”