Page 33 of More Than Chemical
“Yep.” He walked around me.
My stomach did somersaults.Thiswas how it was possible for him to have so much sex. He never had to worry about a roommate. Thirty girls might be an exaggeration, but there was no way he hadn’t had a few.
He pointed to a futon folded up into a couch. “Have a seat.”
I paused. How many girls had he screwed right there?
Stop it, Ade. Don’t think about that.
He straddled his desk chair and placed his elbows on the back, looking relaxed. Sexually confident. My stomach turned over.
“You know what?” I started to back up. “It’s late. I’ll come over some other time.”
He rested his chin on his arms and stared up at me. “You can go if you want, but you don’t have to.”
I halted. This was what I wanted. To be alone with him. So, I sat on the futon and put my toiletry bag next to me like it was my guard dog.
I slid my sweaty hands under my thighs. “I thought you were a freshman,” I blurted out.
“I am.”
“Then why do you have a single?”
“I was on the waiting list for housing. This was the room that was available when my number came up.”
My shoulders relaxed. “That must have been hard. Waiting for a place.”
“Sort of.” He reached over and turned on a bedside lamp. “But it all worked out.”
With the additional light, I started looking around his room, trying to get a feel for what he was like. On his desk, he had a laptop and the all-too-familiar textbooks. Chemistry, physics, calculus, biology. On the ledge above the books stood a frame with a photo. It appeared to be him in hockey pads, standing next to his mom and dad. But there were no other pictures. No friends. No siblings.
“Is that your mom and dad?” I pointed to the photo.
“Yeah, it was taken on parents’ night my senior year of high school.”
I spotted the large letterCon his jersey. “You were a captain?”
“Yeah.” He shrugged.
Instead of taking the opportunity to talk about his family or his past, he said nothing more. I could press him, but I didn’t feel like I should.
“Is that a smart coffeemaker?” I motioned to a stainless steel box where a coffee cup was already in position.
He nodded.
“I’ve heard you can control them from an app.”
He nodded again and kept staring at me. It was like he was Superman, using his X-ray vision to see inside me.
My heart thudded. “Do you like coffee that much?”
“I’m addicted.”
“Oh.” No wonder he was at ease at Starbucks.
Silence followed. More looking around, more time for me to grapple for personal information. More time to feel the heat of his gaze on me.
Tucking my hair behind my ear, I swallowed down the lump thickening in my throat. “Didn’t you think there was something off about the ending of our night tonight?”
