Page 28 of The Chemistry of Us

To us.

And then he pulled away.

He didn’t ask for more.

There were no tricks.

No lies.

No come-ons.

It was simply a kiss I’d never forget.

Just the way he wanted.

Vaughan

Now:A week later

I had startedpractice the morning of the first day Tru tutored me, and I already felt so sore that I wanted to jump into an ice bath and stay there for days.

I could barely move as I walked into the library and sat beside her. She didn’t look up, giving me time to check her out. The girl even added in some Chucks and still looked hot as fuck.

“You ready to get started, or do you need to check your TikTok again?”

She sighed, dropping her phone onto the table. “I don’t really do social media. I just had to look at my schedule; it was a long day.” Her eyes looked like they were welling with tears.

I suddenly felt like shit.

Why the hell does this woman constantly make me want to save her when she doesn’t need saving?

“We can reschedule if you’re tired.”

“No.” She slammed open the chem book and stared me down. “Take notes, alright? We only have an hour to go over this, and I need you to get it through your thick skull before my next student gets here.”

I cocked my head to the side. “How many do you have?”

“Like, maybe twelve.”

I nearly fell out of my chair. “Tru, that’s way too many. You have your own workload on top of that. How many credits are you taking?”

“Don’t pretend you care about me or my workload.” She cleared her throat and looked away. “Now, open to chapter one. We’re going to go over the basics of the?—”

“Tru.” I waved a hand in front of her face. “You don’t need that many students.”

She shoved my hand away and started reading the first chapter. “Okay, so with chem, you have to understand that…”

And that was literally how my next hour went. She ignored anything personal and talked about organic chem like I was a fucking idiot. Which apparently, I was. No professor explained it the way she did, and I was thrilled I was getting it right. I solved almost every problem after she explained it in words I could understand.

“Alright.” She stood and then stumbled backward. I grabbed her before she could fall.

“When did you eat last?” I asked.

“I hate you.”

“Same.” I smiled. “But when did you last eat?”

She shook her head. “I had a lot of students and classes today, okay?”

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