Page 32 of Campus Daddies

I jump and pull my arm from under her hand. “Leann. What are you doing up here again?”

“Just wondering if we’re going to stop for a bathroom break any time soon?” She’s not making any of the uncomfortable moves I’m used to seeing with that kind of request.

“There’s a bathroom in the back of the bus.”

Her face twists with disgust. “Ew. A rest stop, then? To stretch our legs?”

“We’ll be at our hotel in the next few hours. If we keep making stops to stretch, we’ll waste too much time,” Sofia chimes from the seat beside me, saving me—again—from Leann’s incessant need to rope me into a conversation or ask something of me.

Leann narrows her eyes at Sofia over my head, but I don’t feel Sofia stir even the slightest bit.

“Well, that’s rude. I’m paying for this trip. My comfort should be accommodated.”

“We all paid to be here. We’re not making special stops for you. If it’s bad enough, you’ll use the bathroom on board.”

It’s hard to keep my laughter inside at the blandness in Sofia's voice.

Leann scoffs and stomps back down the aisle to her seat, complaining loudly about how she doesn’t deserve to be treated this way.

Sofia sighs, but I finally let the soft laughter escape. “Thank you for that.”

“Yeah. Sure. She already presumes I’m a bitch. No skin off my nose.”

“Will you be my personal buffer for the next twelve weeks?”

“Not a fucking chance.”

We both laugh at this, and I finally relax a little, back to staring at her in the mirror. At one point, she opens her eyes and pegs me with a look in the mirror like I’ve been caught.

I’m not trying to hide, so I only grin at her.

She rolls her eyes and settles back again. Slowly, our hands end up beside each other, back to back. How easy it would be to hold her hand like this. Too bad we’re in full view of the rest of the bus thanks to that damn mirror.

And if we’re not, I still can’t take that chance.

When our pinkies brush, electricity shoots up my arm. I toe that line, testing the limits as my pinkie hooks her for a moment and releases it.

The small touches become a slow game as we sporadically chit chat about the city and times we’ve visited before. Apparently, she spent a lot of time here as a child with her mother, getting to sit in with large swathes of creative adults. No wonder she’s so creative and in charge. Sounds like it runs in the family.

My trips were fewer. I’d come for a film festival or two. Auditioned for a few parts when I thought I’d be an actor. I’m really not so good at lying, but I found my knack for set design and planning elements for post-production.

That’s what initially sent me running headlong into an internship I in no way deserved.

Learning that her mom is an internationally famous poet surprises me when I actually know her name—Paloma Pérez—or Paloma Newman when she married Sofia’s father. I can see bits of her mother in her.

The last leg of the trip is both easier and harder than the initial bit. Leann has stopped her assaults on my person and my personal space, the people have calmed down into their own distractions, and I keep playing with the back of Sofia’s fingers.

Tension zaps through us, fizzling only a little when we finally pull up to the front of the hotel.

That’s only because herding everyone inside is an ordeal. And Leann is the most obstinate, grudgingly stomping after Ryan when he grabs her bag and rolls it after him. If things have gotten so bad that the other members can see through Leann’s games, it is more than time for me to put a stop to her behavior.

By the end of this trip, I’ll do so. Because I will not survive like this. Maybe I can tell her I’m married. Wear a fake ring. Explain that it’s not her when it most certainly is.

Why do women think men will fall for this shit?

Sofia is once again in charge and saving me from this mess. She’s got the room keys, is assigning them to pairs of students, and is shooing them into the waiting elevators to go and get settled. They’re free to go roam and do whatever once they’ve dropped off their luggage. But the bus leaves at 7:30 sharp the next morning to go into the studio.

Once everyone has started their journey up, Sofia turns to me, her cheeks pink and her eyes a little wild.

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