Page 101 of Fostering Chemistry
“I told you, what happened at the party is on both of us.”
“Yeah, but since then.” He looked around my room, as if unsure how he got here. “And I’m still continuing to do it. So let me see if I can reverse that trend.”
“What do you mean?”
“First off, I want to be on Team Mia. If you’ll have me.”
Thatconfused me. What kind of team was he talking about? And, um… what kind of game was this team going to be playing?
“For your video presentation,” he elaborated. “I can translate it into Spanish, so you could have closed captions in another language.”
Oh. That wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was really kind of him. I had been planning to ask him to join the team, but he’d been acting so guilt ridden since I got hurt that I’d decided against it. “Thank you.”
“Least I can do.”
“I was hoping you could do more, actually.”
He raised an eyebrow, waiting.
“You’re in public health. You know how important it is to get the right message to the right community. I was hoping you could look over the script before Aaron records it.” I hesitated for just a moment. “I’d like to get your opinion on it.”
For the first time since he’d entered my room, he didn’t look upset, ashamed, or stressed. “I’d be happy to.”
“Great. Welcome to Team Mia.” It didn’t solve all our problems, but it was a start. And god knew, I could use the help. That was the whole point of the assignment.
He stood up and stretched automatically. The smooth, taut skin over his abs caught my eye as his shirt rode up. I looked away hastily when he put his arms back down.
When it felt safe to look, I said, “Maybe we could use this as a chance to start over?”
“Do you want to?” His eyes were sharp as he looked at me, but I didn’t feel pressure.
“Yes.” It was the truth. I liked him, and I wanted to get to know him better without all this baggage between us, if possible.
“We can’t go back,” I said, voicing what we both knew. “We don’t get a brand-new start. But maybe we can try to repair our friendship. I’d like to do that.”
“I’d like that too,” he said, and I could hear the relief in his voice. “Because, you know, we have to live together for the rest of the year. And I want to be your friend. A good one, not the crappy one I’ve been lately.” If there was a third reason, he didn’t admit to it out loud.
He was quiet for a moment, then looked at me with something that might have been hope. “How about we go to Forzano’s?”
I blinked. “Where?”
“That restaurant from the scavenger hunt. We won that gift certificate, remember?”
Going to a fancy Italian restaurant together felt like it might put a little pressure on the lines we were trying to draw.
“Come on,” he said, seeing my hesitation. “How many chances are we going to get to go to a place like that?”
He definitely had a point there.
“Okay, I’m in.”
29
MIA
On Saturday night,Diego drove. Things felt a little awkward at first, given how I’d yelled at him yesterday, but we soon found neutral ground when I told him about my phone call with Zoe.
“At first, she was skeptical about approaching The Fraser directly,” I said, “but then she did a bunch of research and found out they actually do offer an internship for culinary students. She’s going to use that info when she hits them with her pitch.”
