Page 2 of Endgame

The next hour or so was a practice in self-restraint, as Lila forced herself to concentrate on all of her other tables, only allowing the most peripheral of glances toward the guy in the blue hat. Admittedly, though, she felt like a spotlight was on her every time she walked swiftly by. Which was probably due to her own self-consciousness. She wished they’d leave as hard as she wished they’d stay. That he’d stay.

The next time she turned the corner, she noticed that the booth was empty. A busser was clearing dishes off the table. She felt a strange twinge in her gut, like she missed the mystery man, which was ludicrous because she didn’t even know his name. Hell, she couldn’t even gauge what color of hair was hidden underneath his hat. After their departure, the night got even busier, so Lila couldn’t really dwell on it.

After closing, Lila sat in the back room rolling silverware with her best friend, Wren Wright. Jason slid in next to them and began to do the same. He slipped Lila ten bucks as a thank-you for letting him wait on his friends. She took it gratefully because it had been a rough night for tips.

“So, did ya think any of my buds were hot?” he teased with an impish grin and an elbow to her ribs.

Lila tried to hold back the flushing of her cheeks as she thought about the guy she’d noticed earlier.

Jason, of course, picked up on her embarrassment and pounced on it. “How about it, Alexander? I noticed you scoping them out.”

She cleared her throat and tried to combat the redness of her cheeks, which only made it worse, much to her best friend’s delight. Wren was constantly pushing her to come out of her shell, and slowly but surely, Lila was emerging. Emphasis on the slow part.

“Seriously, speak now. If you don’t, I’ll start singing the latest Bieber,” Jason threatened with a wink. He knew Lila hated everything Bieber-adjacent.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“You know I totally would.”

She clicked her tongue. “Jason Carter, you never let up, do you?” She shifted uncomfortably in her seat as Wren watched the exchange with growing amusement.

“Actually, Li, I’m dying to know myself,” Wren smirked, her shoulder-length auburn hair bouncing as she raised a carefully manicured brow.

Jason waggled his brows knowingly. “C’mon…out with it!”

“Well, maybe I thought one of them was cute… The one on the end with the hat.”

“King?”

“Wait, you have a friend named King? Like, that’s his actual name?” Wren interjected. “Is it pretentious, ironic, or both? It’s gotta be both, right?”

Jason laughed. “King’s actually his middle name, and, given the way he dominates on the soccer field, I’d say it’s appropriate. I’m kind of shocked that neither of you have heard of the magnificent King Spencer. He’s practically a legend at Bradley. At least among those of us who actually pay attention to sports.”

He shifted his attention back to Lila as Wren huffed her disapproval. As a general rule, athletes weren’t Wren’s favorite. Lila just shrugged, because what the hell did she know about soccer or any of the other kinds of sports ball? Sure, she went to the football and basketball games because they doubled as social events, and she happened to like the occasional soft pretzel, but she didn’t know any of the athletes’ names. It was bad enough that most of Bradley U’s population treated the jocks like they were gods among mere mortals. She didn’t want to add more fuel to that particular fire.

Jason didn’t let up, though. “Well, Alexander? King’s the one you noticed?” he prodded.

Lila lifted a shoulder. “I mean, obviously I don’t know his name. But if King was the one wearing the hat, then…”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Lila laughed, but she couldn’t stop the way her heart sped up at his words. Because, as a general rule, guys like King didn’t notice socially awkward girls like her. She definitely wasn’t going to let Jason know how badly she wished that weren’t the case. So instead, she smirked. “Soccer’s boring anyway.”

Jason clutched his chest in mock horror. “How dare you blaspheme the beautiful game!” He happened to be on the team, too. A defender, she was pretty sure. At Lila’s shrug, he rubbed his hands together. “I already have plans. You aren’t ready. Trust me.”

“I am so going to enjoy this!” Wren replied in response to Lila’s look of abject horror. “Come on, Li. You know you need to find the fun, and even though I personally have a ‘no athletes’ policy in place, there’s no reason why you can’t dip a toe into the pool.”

“Traitor,” Lila mumbled as she threw a napkin at her friend amid Wren’s and Jason’s uproarious laughter.

Chapter 2

Lila trudged up the legendary 150 stairs that most of the students who lived south of Bradley U took to get up to campus, satisfied that they no longer winded her in the same way they had at the beginning of the year. As was the custom with most freshmen, she’d lived on campus her first year in a tiny apartment-style dorm room on the east side of campus with a kitchen and five roommates.

She hadn’t known any of her roommates when she moved in but had been pleasantly surprised by how much she enjoyed living with them that year. The summer before their sophomore year started, they all decided to move to the same apartment complex but split up into different groups, with Lila deciding to share a room with a friend of theirs who she’d met during freshman year. Which, in hindsight, hadn’t been the best idea. But she liked her other new roommates, and her old roomies were nearby.

She crossed the grid-like campus, expertly designed to ensure that all students could walk the length of it in any direction in 15 minutes or less, passing by a mixture of older buildings from the late 1800s and newer, more modern buildings along the way, each shortened into quirky abbreviations of their actual names. For instance, the student union building’s official name was the Jonathan Bradley Student Center, which everybody just referred to as the “Brad.”

The administration buildings were situated to the south, the business school building and the athletic facilities to the west, the law school, law school library, and dorms to the east, and the football stadium and basketball arena on the northwest and northeast corners respectively, flanking the buildings housing the science museum and the museum of art. The main library and liberal arts buildings sat in the center of campus, as did the Brad, which was her current destination. After hearing Wren’s telltale ringtone, Lila answered her phone.

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