“That must have been from her. I know you can’t hit like that.”
We take our drinks into a TV room.
Zander drops onto one end of the couch. Ricardo takes a chair, and Daniel sinks onto the floor, extending his legs. I take the remaining spot on the couch.
I’m curious what they do here and don’t have to wait too long to find out as Zander clicks on the remote.
The opening credits of a show filling the screen is vaguely familiar.
“Reality TV,” I realize.
“Rival teams of treasure hunters travel the world and compete to find the biggest hauls,” Ricardo confirms.
“We’re highbrow by day, lowbrow by night,” Daniel tosses over his shoulder.
“Your wife wouldn’t let you watch it?” I ask.
“She’d let me but I’d never hear the end of it. Which is crazy because this is far more educational than Selling Sunset.”
Ricardo grins and Zander smirks.
It’s stupid and I like it.
“So they tried to take my office,” Ricardo says at a commercial after Zander mutes the TV.
“Ricardo’s getting the runaround on tenure,” Daniel supplies. “Power struggles.”
“This place isn’t for me. The politics suck.”
But Ricardo only grins.
“What?”
“It’s a game. I told them I’d turn down a teaching load.”
The easy way these guys deal with the bullshit makes me think about mine in a new way.
“But it’s still garbage.”
“So? You can make your own way without being bitter about it. And working anywhere else has the same problems.”
“You don’t get bored of assholes looking down on you?”
Zander smirks and spreads his arms—even the undersides are completely covered with color. “I like it when they look.”
“Don’t get attached,” Daniel warns. “Sawyer’s leaving.”
“When?”
“End of the semester,” Daniel looks at me to confirm.
I shrug, because the end of the semester suddenly feels too soon. “I have an open house tomorrow, but the property could take a while to sell.”
“You want another drink?”
I said I’d come for one, but I’m in no hurry to leave.
“Yeah, I’ll take another.”
16
Olivia
The sociology text blurs together in front of my eyes.
I get up and flick on an extra light in the corner of my room. My roommates are out for the night—Kat at a party, Jules at a theater club thing.
Sawyer’s a mile away, but it might as well be another world.
I’m rereading the underpinnings of capitalism so I can be in a position to graduate college in eighteen months while he’s selling a house with his eager realtor at his side.
I’m grumpy, both because she’s with him instead of me, and because I broke my own rules by playing house with him.
The way he opened up to me made it impossible to deny how much I care about him.
Earnest. I never expected this kind of earnestness from that man as when he told me about his ex-partner’s daughter.
“I’ve never been with someone younger, before you.”
He’s raw and real, imperfect and irresistible. I want him, but more than that, I want to know he’s mine and I’m his.
All I can think is how easy it felt to spend a morning with him. To talk on the phone over a simple question like meeting up with friends.
Telling him to make friends and bring wine…he probably thinks I’m crazy.
But what’s even crazier is that I can’t spend a day without obsessing over him.
Leaving his place to study was the hardest thing I’ve done in a long time.
I wanted to climb back into bed with him, to lose myself in the way he touches me and makes me feel like no one ever has.
I stare at my phone on the desk.
Through some miracle it rings. I reach for it, hoping it’s Sawyer.
It’s not.
“Mom. Everything okay?”
“Where are you?”
“At home, studying.”
I reach for another text on my bookshelf—the next one I’m going to hit up once I’ve finished prepping sociology.
“On the weekend?”
“Yeah. I’ve been slammed with lab work and I have a midterm coming up for my elective.”
“Well. We need your car back.”
The book thuds onto my desk as I release it. “What are you talking about? I paid for half of it with money from my internship last summer.”
“Money from his company.”
“But I earned it,” I press. “I need it to pay for tuition.”
This car is the only thing I have of value besides what’s in my residence room.
“Don’t take it out on me. The company is being investigated. All assets need to be accounted for.” She pauses. “Your father wanted it back in forty-eight hours, but I told him you wouldn’t have time given your school and social commitments. So do it by the end of the week.”
I’m numb when she hangs up.
Our door buzzer sounds, and I hop up to answer. “Yeah?”
“Hurry up, babe, we’re gonna be late.”
“Adam?”
The next voice is even more surprising. “Let’s go, fearless leader.”
“Royce. What are you doing here?”
I buzz them up and a moment later, three people wearing black spill into my dorm.
“How come you’re not dressed?” Madison chirps.
“For what?”
“The ultimate team challenge.”
“Black Build. Don’t tell me you forgot.”
I blink. With all the stuff going on, I did.
Participating in the annual Engineering Society event, open to all engineering students of any year, never occurred to me. Last year, Adam and I did it but were nowhere near winning.
“But we have midterms. And after midterms, we have the justification to prep. This is a totally optional campus prank.”
“We need to find all these items”—Royce holds up a list on his phone—“then make a tower in front of the engineering building.”
Adam’s grin disappears. “Basketball’s been rough and you’ve been working your ass off to try to make this project work. I thought this would be a good chance for the team to, you know, bond. But if you don’t want to hang out, we can go.”
I stare into Adam’s hopeful face.
This won’t help us with Stars, but they want to do it. Me being with Sawyer has put pressure on our team. This could help.
“Okay. I’m in.”
I go to my room and change into an all-black outfit of leggings and a long-sleeved turtleneck.
When I return, Royce’s eyebrows lift. “Save the fish doesn’t extend to save the cows?”
I glance down at my faux-leather leggings. “They’re vegan.”
“Oh, and we need your car,” Madison says.
I hesitate only a moment before grabbing my keys and heading for the door.
On the way to the parking lot, we review the list together.
“Must be composed of no fewer and no more than twenty unique objects sourced from within a five-mile radius of Russell U,” Royce rattles off. “Must be freestanding. Must be able to be disassembled after end of competition without use of torches or chemical agents. Bonus marks: items sourced from members of the campus community, not including the team.”