Page 14 of Study Buddies

“Tori, are you?—”

I nodded, even before she trailed off. “I’ll do it.”

7

TORI

“Kyle?”I asked a young man as he neared my table. I’d chosen a sunny spot outside the union for my first meeting with the guy I was going to tutor. To be honest, I didn’t really know what to expect. I’d never watched much baseball, though my stepfather—ex-stepfather, that was—often had a game on back home.

The guy who approached had sandy blond hair and looked reasonably fit. If he was Kyle, he made no apology for being over ten minutes late. He smiled, his gaze raking over me. In honor of the importance of the situation, I’d opted for a pink button-down blouse and a skirt, rather than my usual comfy clothes.

“Not Kyle, but can I interest you in a Randall?” While I was still processing that, he sat down in the seat opposite me.

“I’m waiting for someone,” I stammered, taken aback.

“Randalls are far more fun than Kyles,” he said with a cheeky grin.

I stared at him, unsure what to do. I was nervous enough about meeting my new tutee, especially given the stakes. I didn’t need some random guy hanging around.

“I’m waiting for someone. A baseball player.”

He grinned. “I can play baseball. And I have a really big… bat.”

Ew. This guy was like Todd 2.0.

Then a shadow fell across the table. “Get lost,” a new voice growled.

I squinted up in the sun. The man who stood over me definitely looked like he was an athlete. He was tall. Lean, but muscled. And currently glowering at my unwelcome tablemate.

But Randall was already on his feet, backing off. Once standing, he was almost the same size as the newcomer, but he didn’t waste any time leaving.

Weird.

“Kyle?”

“Yeah.”

He sat down across from me, and I blinked.

Wow.

He wore a tight gray t-shirt under a black jacket that hugged the muscles of his broad shoulders and pronounced biceps. His stomach was flat as he set his phone on the table in front of him. He stared at me with one eyebrow raised, and that’s when I met his eyes. They were a piercing light blue kind that seemed to drill right into my soul.

“I’m Tori,” I said.

He assessed me for a moment before glancing down at his phone. “What kind of a name is that?” he finally asked.

His hair was dark, as was the stubble lining his jaw. I’d purposefully not looked him up online prior to this first meeting because I wanted to start out with no preconceived notions. But now I had the funny feeling that if I looked him up on social media, he’d have a ton of female followers.

“It’s short for Victoria.”

“Victoria…” He said the name slowly, as if measuring it. “It suits you. Kind of old-school and rigid.”

I froze, not sure what to say to that. And not really happy with how this was starting off, but I rallied. “I’m in Composition 102 also, in Professor Abrams’s section. Do you have a paper due next Friday, too?”

“Probably.”

I glanced at the table, where only his phone sat. He had no books. No backpack. That wasn’t a particularly good sign.

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