Page 73 of Frat House Fling

“So I noticed.”

God, he was practically radiating happiness. It couldn’t all be because of our naughty activities yesterday, could it? “What’s with you?” I asked. “Did you get an A on a test or something?”

“Sort of. But I don’t want to bore you with school talk after I already told you so many stories about my advisor.”

“How’s he doing by the way?”

“Pretty well. I’m going to go visit him tomorrow.”

I nodded. “So go ahead.”

He frowned. “Go there now?”

“No, bore me with school talk.” I rubbed my leg against his under the table. “I’m ready to be bored.”

He grinned. “If you truly mean that, you read some of those medical books I’ve got upstairs. But anyway, I was about to tell you about the other thing.”

“Other thing?”

“Yeah. I got some good news. A while back, I applied for this special grant, and this morning, I found out I got it.”

“Congratulations!” That gave me an excuse to reach out and squeeze his hand. “Did you get a Bennett, too?”

He looked genuinely confused. “A what?”

“Well, you said you got a Grant, so I was wondering if you got a Bennett, too.”

“Oh, I get it.” He laughed. “Grants are more fun.”

“Have to agree with you there.”

He grinned. “I’m still kind of excited about the lowercase grant though. It’s a stipend, really, enough to cover my rent here for the entire school year.”

Shock filled my mind. “It’s—it’s a housing stipend?”

“Yeah. I applied for it last month. I worked my ass off on the application, so it’s nice that it paid off.”

“Yeah. Congratulations,” I said again, because honestly, I didn’t know what else to say. I’d had no idea that he’d applied. Had Theo told him about it, too? But why would Ian even need to? That stipend was supposed to be for people like me who didn’t have enough money for housing. Of course, he didn’t know I was a student, but still…

I needed time to process this, away from him where I wouldn’t be in danger of revealing my secret or telling him off. “You know what? I should get back to work.”

His face fell as I stood up. “Was it something I said?” he said it jokingly, having no idea it was true.

“Nope. I’ve just got a lot to do.”

“Want me to lift some more sofas for you?”

“Nope,” I said. “ I’ve got it.”

21

THEO

Grant,Ian, and I sat out on Bennett’s balcony in the evening, enjoying the night air and the peace and quiet. As fraternity members, we were allowed to use this balcony whenever we wanted, but we usually didn’t if Bennett wasn’t here.

But he wasn’t here tonight. There was some bigwig who knew his father passing through town, and they’d met at a restaurant.

It was nice, the three of us. But I kind of wanted it to be the four of us. But the fourth person I wanted to join us was definitely not Bennett. “Hailey couldn’t come out?”

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