Page 5 of Fire of the Fox

“Cinnamon roll.”

She quirked her eyebrow at me. “Oh God, is Dax here? Please tell me—”

I frantically shook my head. “Cinnamon roll. Table up front, near the windows. White hair.”

She slowly peeked out from the booth. Her bread slipped from her fingers. “Hot damn. That is definitely a cinnamon roll.”

The waiter came up to the table to take our orders. Dallas went first, ordering something overly complicated as always. Daring to take a chance, I glanced up past the waiter at the front table. My heart leapt into my throat when I found his golden eyes staring back at me. His chin rested in his hand, which was propped on the table, and even from behind his fingers, I could see the smirk on his face.

I sucked in a quick breath and mumbled, “A steamy, fresh cinnamon roll with extra icing.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but we don’t have cinnamon rolls.”

“Huh?” I looked at the waiter, who watched me with a look that questioned my sanity. Dallas bit back a laugh, and I cleared my throat as I hid behind the menu. “Uh, right, sorry. I’ll have the cheese ravioli.”

“Great choice!” He took our menus, sparing one more concerned look at me before leaving to put in our orders.

“I’m an idiot.” My head collapsed in my hands, and I wished I could shrink away behind them.

Dallas spent the rest of dinner laughing and reminding me of how embarrassing I was. I spent it trying to distract her with other topics, while also sparing glances at Cinnamon Roll. It was as if he could sense when I looked at him because when I looked up, so did he. Our eyes would connect for a fraction of a second before I glanced back down at my lap, flaring red.

This was the longest dinner of my life.

Despite getting to the restaurant after those guys, Dallas and I managed to finish before them. We would have to walk right past their table on the way out, and I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. Was I supposed to say something? Was he supposed to say something? My feet felt heavy as I followed behind her, and to distract myself, I was making a point to count each breath I took as we drew closer.

Right as we neared their table, Dallas glanced over her shoulder at me, and said in a much too loud, giggly voice, “Hey, Bria. Wanna go get a big cinnamon roll with extra icing now?”

My face heated to a steaming temperature, and I glanced sideways at him. His eyes lit up with amusement, and he tilted his head at me. Thank God no one else knew what she was actually suggesting, but because I knew, I ducked out of there, too embarrassed to be near him.

When Dallas came out the door, she was clutching her belly, laughing so hard that I thought she might pee herself.

I smacked her hard on the arm. “That was so not funny!”

She grabbed onto my shoulder for support as I rushed along the sidewalk for her car. I couldn’t get her to stop laughing about the whole thing as we got groceries and drove back to the dorm. It wasn’t until we changed into our pajamas and crawled into our twin beds that she finally calmed down.

“Man, what a day. Who knew I’d find me a pizza named Rance, and you’d find yourself a cinnamon roll.”

I pulled my pillow over my head, groaning. “Good night, Dallas.”

She gave one more hearty laugh before slowly dying down to silence. “Night, Bria.”

Chapter Three

“ALL RIGHT, EVERYONE, class dismissed. Have a great Friday,” Professor Lichen said as she shut down her powerpoint presentation.

The loud buzzing of chatter immediately filled the room as students started talking about their Friday night plans, and I took my time to gather my things. The first two weeks of the semester had flown by. I already adored my art professor, Lichen, but my English teacher was questionable. She thought way too highly of poetry and smelled too much like baby wipes. The assignments were plentiful, but it was nice to stay busy. It made free time all the more interesting.

Dallas often threw highlighters across the room while groaning about the workload, and oftentimes, I would end up tossing aside my textbook as she read me a sweet text Rance had sent. The two of them had been texting every day and had even met up on campus multiple times. She and I had designated girls’ nights when we ignored all homework and boys to binge on junk food, watch rom-coms, and talk about everything.

Life couldn’t get any better.

“Bria.”

Looking up from where I’d been loading my sketchbook and pencils back in my bag, I found Professor Lichen beaming down at me.

“Oh, hi, Professor!”

“Hi, dear. Do you have another class after this?”

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