Page 15 of Follows with Intent

“No. I don’t think so.”

“Is this one of those tricks to make me forget what we were talking about? Because it’s not going to work. At a bare minimum, you owe him an apology. Especially if you want a second chance.”

Jadon pulled his gaze back to Allison. “I don’t want a second chance. Haven’t you been listening?”

“Yeah, I’ve been listening. You’re being a pussy.”

“We’re literally at a sensitivity training. You realize this is why they sent you and Vic here, right?”

“Here are the facts: you need to pull your life together, fast. You need to get laid, fast. And you’ve got this total babe practically melting every time you look at him. Plus, you need to apologize for being an asshat.”

“This is why they sent you to sensitivity training. You get that, right? You’re a bully. This is emotional abuse.”

“It’s dinner, Jay,” Allison said as a woman stepped up to the microphone. She turned forward with a tiny smirk. “You have to eat sometime. It might as well be with a guy whose ass can strangle your dick.”

6

Nico

By the time the seminar ended on the first day, Nico felt like someone had put him in the dryer to tumble for a couple of hours. All he’d done was sit, take notes, and occasionally try to answer mind-bending questions (scrambling, of course, to make a good impression while the other grad students in the room tried to do the exact same thing). But his body ached, and his head throbbed, and he had a mountain of reading to do overnight.

All of which meant that, when Kaylee said, “We should all go out for drinks,” Nico began thinking of excuses.

“Wipe that look off your face,” Maya murmured.

Nico whispered, “We’ve got two hundred pages of reading. For tomorrow, Maya.”

“This is a networking event, isn’t that what you said?”

“I could use a glass of wine,” Gio announced.

“There you go,” Nico whispered to Maya. “That’s the answer. Hard pass.”

“Nico and I are probably going to hit the library,” Clark said, his hand coming to rest on Nico’s shoulder again.

Nico shrugged him off. “Maybe I will get that drink.”

At least Maya had the decency not to laugh.

They emerged from Eldridge Hall into the evening gloom. It was a little past five, but in another hour, it would be full dark. Old-fashioned lampposts made islands in the evening, and every so often, the familiar blue light of an emergency call box broke the gathering shadows. A guy in Chouteau sweats sat on a bench, watching something on his phone. The smell of the leaves whisked past them on a breeze. Ridson and Gio were arguing about something that had come up in the seminar, and Kaylee was tapping on her phone (looking for a wine bar to impress Gio, Nico guessed), and the sounds seemed louder because the campus was so still.

“Are you sure you don’t want to have a study sesh in the library?” Clark asked in a low voice as he strode along next to Nico. “It could be like old times.”

“I’m sure.”

Clark laughed quietly.

“Nico?” It was the guy on the bench. And then, Nico realized with a start that the guy was Jadon. He jogged toward them, a smile forming on his face. Nico had forgotten how big he was—tall and muscled and solid. Right then, it felt disorienting.

Nudging Nico, Clark whispered, “Who’s he?”

“Hey, sorry.” Jadon thumbed at the bench. “I didn’t want to interrupt.”

The murmurs between Ridson and Gio faded. Maya was watching Nico with bright eyes. Kaylee’s gaze whipped up from her phone and then back down again. The humor faded from Clark’s face, and he examined Jadon.

Then he stepped forward and held out a hand, “Clark Beaumont.”

“Hey, man. Jadon Reck.”

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