Page 71 of Maybe You

I’m too elated to be embarrassed, so I just laugh. “Thanks.” But because I need the confirmation, I eye him for a moment before I ask, “So… to clarify, we’re doing more of this?”

He sends me one of his arrogant, cocky looks.

“We’re just getting started,” he says.

THIRTEEN

I’m completely useless the next day. I do my best to concentrate, but I’m pretty much wandering around in some sort of euphoric post-sex haze the whole Sunday, while trying to hide it from my family. I have to suppress the urge to skip, for fuck’s sake. I’m like a Disney princess who just got laid for the first time, and if I’m not careful, soon I’ll be heading to the nearest park to sing under a tree.

I get lucky because Theo is out with friends, Jordan is working, and Remy has some sort of project going on in his workshop he’s so obsessed with he barely shows his face the whole day, so I get to hide in my room and not answer any nosy questions.

On Monday, I accidentally sleep in, so I run out the door without breakfast and with a lot of swearwords trailing in my wake because I’m an idiot. An idiot who jerked a guy off recently. But still an idiot.

The rest of the Monday follows in the same vein. It’s like somebody peered down on me and thought, “Hey, he seems cheerful. Can’t have that.”

I forget the charger of my laptop, and the battery dies sometime in the middle of my second class, so I’m forced to scribble notes on the margins of my textbook because of course I don’t have anything to write on. I grab a sandwich and a coffee from the deli at lunchtime and somebody walks straight into me, so I don’t get to so much drink my coffee as wear it.

I have a meeting for the group project after school, which goes to hell because Cooper and Jill, the two people I’ve been assigned to work with for this, are also a couple. And when I walk into the room we’ve booked in the library for this, they’re in the middle of yelling at each other because one of Jill’s sorority sisters proposed a threesome and Cooper took too long to say no. So instead of working on the project, I somehow become an unwilling spectator, until the library kicks us out an hour later because of noise complaints.

By the time I’m finished with work, I’m very much not in any type of haze anymore, other than exhaustion.

At least Remy managed to fix my bike during the weekend, so I don’t have to find alternative means of transportation.

Unless… Considering how things have been going for me today, there’s a good chance there’s been an earthquake or a flood or a freak snow storm while I was inside mopping, and the world is in chaos or something. I’m not saying I think that has happened. I’m just saying I won’t be totally surprised if it has.

I’m preparing myself for the prospect so thoroughly that I’m actually startled when the only thing out of the ordinary when I step out the door is Sutton lounging on the front steps, legs stretched out, scrolling through his phone.

There’s an actual moment where I blink because I’m thinking I might be hallucinating him.

“Hey,” I say and my forehead wrinkles as I take him in. “What are you doing here? I thought you were done with your punishment.”

I take him in. He’s once again dressed to the nines. The suit is probably Armani or Burberry or some other luxury brand so exclusive I haven’t even heard of it. He’s loosened the tie, and the suit jacket is casually dropped on the steps next to him.

I lift my chin toward him. “What’s with the fancy getup?”

“Drinks with some of the most tedious people you can ever imagine. I had to fake an emergency to get out of there.”

“Poor little rich boy,” I say. “What brings you by?”

He makes a non-committal noise and instead of answering the question, takes me in, eyes moving up and down. I’m suddenly very aware he’s seen me naked, but it doesn’t feel like a bad thing right now. Because he’s seen me naked. So he knows what’s going on underneath the clothes. And by the way he’s looking at me, it seems like he wouldn’t mind seeing me naked again.

“You look tired,” he says, which kind of ruins the seen-me-naked effect, even though he’s probably right.

I rub my palm over my face before I drop my backpack down and sit down next to him. I stretch out my legs, lean back on my arms and close my eyes. I draw in a deep breath of the cool night air and feel my shoulders start to relax slowly.

“I’ve had a day,” I say.

“What happened?” he asks.

I peer at him from one eye. “You ask a whole lot of personal questions for somebody who claims not to give a shit.”

“This is purely self-interest at play,” he says. “We still have a lot of ground to cover when it comes to sex, and I need you not to be distracted for it by everyday bullshit.”

I laugh and let my head drop back and tell him about my day, and he actually seems to listen and not just pretend he is. By the time I get to the part where I got kicked out of the library thanks to Jill and Cooper, he’s laughing out loud.

“Tragic,” he says with very little sympathy.

“I can’t even get new partners because we’re not allowed to switch groups.”

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