Page 32 of Playing Games

“Okay,” he says, though his tone doesn’t match the word. “I’ll text or call you.”

“Sounds good.”

“Lex—”

“Bye, Blake,” I say, cutting him off before he can say anything else—anything that might make me stay. Because if I stay even a second longer, I fear I’ll do something stupid like let him kiss me.

Or worse, kiss him back.

I turn and bolt out of the weight room, power walking through Mavericks Stadium, out to my car, and all the way back to my apartment just outside Dickson’s campus. My heart pounds harder than it should over the simple exertion, my mind spinning like a hard drive at the end of its memory life.

I want to go back. Back to when everything was about the lab, my research, and the predictable comfort of knowing exactly who I was and where I fit.

I don’t want to bethisgirl—trying to earn a third PhD in Blake Boden. A girl who has developed an AI-assisted app to decodewhy he has this infuriating effect on me and why my reaction to him feels so uncharacteristically…uncontrollable.

Because for someone who thrives on control, losing it is terrifying, even if it’s to something that feels good.

And Blake? Well, he makes me feel good.

Too good.

And that’s a problem I have no idea how to solve—a genius’s uncharted territory.

I don’t like it one freaking bit.

Friday, May 30th

Blake

Fluorescent lights flicker above my head as I walk down the hall of Ferris Research Lab, a bag of Chinese takeout hanging from my right hand.

I’ve never been inside this building before, and with how deserted it is tonight, I’m starting to think no one ever has.

My footsteps echo on the tile floor as I walk the halls aimlessly, searching for the infamous computer lab in which I know I’ll find Lexi. After the shift between us at MKC earlier this week, I was naïvely hopeful that she would reach out to me if I didn’t reach out to her.

Instead, we’ve gone a full day and a half with no contact, and I’ve been properly humbled into being the pursuer again. I texted earlier to no response, but when my plans for dinner with Ace and Finn fell through, thanks to a prank-war emergency with Ace’s dad Thatch, I decided to take matters into my own hands. They asked me to come, but I excused myself, saying I had something with my football teammates I should do instead.

And while Iwasinvited to party with the team, I figured trying my hand at making Lexi Winslow notice me was a much better plan.

Not to mention, an in-person meet-and-greet is much harder to ignore.

Turning the corner at the end of a long, dark hall, I see a light finally beckon in the distance. It’s the subtle glow of the lights of a room, shining through the glass window in the door.

An irrational pang of insecurity rears its head as I approach the door to find a keypad and a locked handle.

What if she doesn’t let me inside?

My inner psyche both laughs and cries. Because damn, that would be one hell of a sign that I need to give it the fuck up, wouldn’t it?

Carefully, I peer through the narrow window to look inside, finding Lexi sitting at one of the computer desks on the back wall, clicking away at the keyboard in front of her. I lift a hand and knock, hoping I don’t scare the shit out of her.

She jolts and turns to look, cupping her hand over her eyes and squinting to see through the window. I wave, and she jerks her head back as if struck.

She doesn’t look angry—just surprised.Thank God.

I don’t know how well she can hear me through the door, but I chance talking anyway, feeling only slightly like a goober. “Hey, Lex. Let me in. I brought dinner.”

She spins in her chair and types furiously again, clicking something that makes the screen go black before getting up and jogging over to the door.

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