Page 26 of More Than Chemical
One of them, Penny, sat down next to me at a high table. “You look sort of familiar to me.”
I smiled politely even though my stomach did a nosedive. The media didn’t have many videos or photos of me. The only ones were from a while ago, when I was younger. I was sure I’d never seen her before.
“What’s up with you and Reynolds?” she asked.
I straightened. “You mean Dallas,” I said.
“Right, what’s up with you and Dallas?”
I’d figured someone would ask, and I was prepared. “We live in the same dorm and have chemistry together.”
“So you’re in those nerdy classes too?”
Dallas was playing pool with Charlie and some of his other buddies. With a cue in hand, the butt resting on the ground, he lifted his gaze from the table and looked at me. He smiled, and I smiled back.
“Yeah, I’ll admit it.” I looked back at Penny. “I’m a nerd too.”
She was watching Dallas now as he lined up the tip of his pool stick with the cue ball and the eight ball. “It’s so bizarre. I would have never imagined Dallas hooking up with someone like you, but then again I never imagined he’d be going to school here either, taking engineering classes and going to a campus bar while the hockey team plays on television either.”
I slid down a little in my chair.
Wait a second. I wasn’t with him like that. I mean, we’d come here together, but he’d introduced me as his friend. And at the moment, that was it. “Just to be clear, we’re not hooking up.”
“Not yet.” Penny shrugged.
Which was what I wanted. I wanted Dallas to be a foregone conclusion. But she had a way of making it sound cheap.
“And I’m confused,” I said. “Why are you surprised he’s taking engineering classes and watching a hockey game at a bar?”
Dallas slid up next to me. “You hungry?”
I nodded, and before I could mull over what I wanted, he’d waved over a waitress and ordered us both new beers and appetizers. Normally, I’d be offended by not being asked to make my own choices, but in this situation, it was nice of him to relieve me of decisions when it was hard enough for me to navigate his friends.
Penny folded her hands together on the table. “Adriana just asked me a really good question. Dallas, do you know why I’m surprised you’re watching the Minnesota University hockey team play on TV?”
“No.” He pursed his lips.
Penny tipped her head and flashed him a smile. “I think you do.”
Maybe me hanging out with his friends had been a bad idea.
What followed next was an awkward bout of silence. Dallas made no attempt to divulge anything more, and Penny seemed to think she’d proven something.
I was completely lost.
“Do you want to play pool?” Dallas asked me.
I nodded and got up from my chair. Anything to get away from NFP. No-fun Penny.
And then the night got better. Way better. The hockey game started playing on the screens, which distracted most of Dallas’s friends, while Dallas and I stepped into our own little world.
He wasn’t paying attention to the game. Only me. Finally, someone who might not obsessively follow the school hockey team.
Together, we loosened up. It might have been the beer, but who cared?
We played pool against each other, and as the game went on, things got…well, touchy-feely. His hands always seemed to be on me. My arms, my back, my waist. I didn’t mind. There was something appealing in the heat of it. The possessiveness in it.
“Why are you taking engineering classes?” I asked him as he pondered his next move.
