Page 65 of Level Up

“Colt…” Maddy shot him a look.

“I don’t have a good history with the ocean,” I said. Understatement of the fucking century. Thankfully, Colton didn’t probe any deeper. I was okay with talking about what happened to me, but it always left me feeling beyond drained, and there was way too much shit to do today.

“I still want to be heavily involved in planning it,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee. “And, I dunno, I might decide to go. I have to think about it some more.”

Maddy looked up at me, shocked. I hadn’t brought it up before. Hadn’t really been thinking about it, but for some reason, now that my life felt all kinds of new, I realized it was time to move past the old. “Just don’t do anything you’re not comfortable with,” Maddy said.

“Thanks, friend.” I lifted my paper cup and tapped it against hers. “I can’t be missing the spotlight, though. You know me.”

“What kind of show can we put on, though?” Maddy asked, back to chewing on the cap of her pen.

“Musical?” Colton said.

“That’s really involved,” I said. “The drilling project is set to start in a couple of months. We need to be ready in three weeks or less.”

“A comedy sketch?” Maddy asked.

“Maybe…but those bomb so often. And I don’t know if that’s the vibe we’re going for.” I rubbed my forehead, feeling the frustration start to bubble up.

The door to the coffee shop chimed as it opened. I looked over my shoulder and felt myself smiling wide. Ryan walked in, backpack slung over one shoulder, backward baseball cap sitting on his head, a tuft of dark brown hair sticking out of it. He had a rosy tint to his cheeks and neck. He wore the rowing crew’s shirt with a pair of dark blue shorts that showed off his sexy thigh tattoo, the snake curling around his muscular leg.

Just like that, any frustration I’d been feeling went poof.

He came over to where we sat and gave me a kiss, my heart skipping a couple of beats. We didn’t have enough spots where we sat, so we gathered up our stuff and moved to a small table on the palm-tree-shaded patio. A couple of other students hung out around us, studying or chatting, a few glancing our way. If it had been weeks earlier, I would have instantly started to worry that they were aware of the protest and the conflict of interest going on.

Fuck that noise. I reached over for Ryan’s hand, his big fingers interlocking with mine so perfectly.

“Sorry I’m late. I wanted to get some extra pumps in at the gym.”

“Isn’t the big race coming up?” Maddy asked.

“Sure is, in about three weeks,” Ryan said. “Depending on how we place, we might make it to the championships.”

Ryan had been training for hours and hours lately. He’d come back to the dorm exhausted as fuck, but not exhausted enough to not fuck. It was actually really hot. Sometimes he was still sweaty and clearly ready to rearrange my guts, which I gladly let him do.

He hadn’t invited me to see him practice, nor did he invite me to the big race. I knew it was because of him respecting my past but it did make me feel a little sad that I wasn’t going to be seeing him compete.

Maybe…

“You guys are still working on the protest, right?” Ryan asked. I had already texted him, which was why he came straight here after the gym instead of back to our dorm. He’d been extra supportive about it. He never tried to hold me back or stop this from happening, which made me even more certain he was a great guy. In this case, the apple fell far, far, farrr from the tree.

“We are,” I said, pointing at Colt. “I just finished handing out flyers with this one. Did you know he likes to dare people out of nowhere?”

“Oh yeah, been his thing since we were little. What’d he dare you to do?” Ryan asked.

“We were handing out flyers for the protest and were losing a little steam, so he dared me to make the next one dramatic and memorable.”

Colton started to laugh. “It was a good idea!”

“Actually it kinda was,” I said. “I went up to a group who were talking about roommate problems. So I channelled my early days with you and went off. Improving the entire thing. I think I even called you a stoner.”

Ryan dropped his head forward, smiling. “A stoner?”

I shrugged. “It was off the cuff. They for sure didn’t see me and Colt cracking up as they walked away, either. Anyways, I’m sure they’ll show up now just to see how my ‘roommate’ troubles turned out.”

“They’re going to be surprised.” Ryan answered with a sexy smirk. I leaned in for a prolonged kiss, my smile pressed against his.

“You guys are so gross,” Maddy said. “I fucking love it so much.”

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