Upload by Collin Tobin

Author:Collin Tobin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Published: 2012-12-14T00:00:00+00:00

Jay awoke facing the curtained window, which with the morning sun had been silently pantomiming the equivalent of a barely suppressed scream—with light, not sound. He looked at his watch: 8:59 a.m. Only two hours of sleep, but it felt good. Light spilled from the outer edges of the dark curtain, and for the first time, he truly dreaded letting in a new day and all it had to offer. He spied his sneakers on the floor beneath the desk chair. He wiggled his bare toes beneath the sheets. He didn’t even remember taking off his shoes.

He turned over and immediately felt the warmth of Chloe’s body. She must have awakened at some point and tucked him in. From the appearance of it, she had also neatened the room.

He slipped out of bed, showered, and redressed into his same jeans and T-shirt. He found Chloe’s phone on the desk and punched in his own contact information. He then gathered his laptop into his backpack and placed a glass of cold water on the nightstand next to her.

“Hope you didn’t mind that I tucked you in.” She kept her eyes shut, just moving her lips puffed out in a smooth “O” by the pressure of the pillow.

He squatted and stared at her sleep-pink face.

“Don’t worry. I put your pants back on when I was done.” A quick smile revealed itself for an instant, and she opened her eyes.

“I feel violated.” He smiled back and locked eyes. He had the irresistible urge to crawl into those warm sheets and join her. Not because he was in crisis, and not because it was convenient, but because it was her.

She caught his hesitation and lifted her head. “What?”

“I’ll… I’ll be downstairs grabbing some coffee and something to eat, whenever you’re ready to go.”

“Right.” She flipped back the comforter and sheet in one smooth stroke. Jay was treated to the full expanse of her long brown legs and her perfectly formed bellybutton below her pulled-up T-shirt, like a slight depression made by a master baker’s probing thumb.

Downstairs, Jay tried to identify the unexpected lightness in his chest. When he upended the sugar dispenser over his mug, it hit him. Chloe.

Yes. He felt so much potential there. She seemed like someone he could make a very deep connection with, a different kind of connection than, say, his friendship with Bennie. But doubt nibbled at the edges of that notion. Perhaps their few shared moments and her show of emotion toward him were just the result of some traumatic bonding. But it felt like more than that. Much more.

Fifteen minutes later, she came downstairs in full dormitory garb—a pink T-shirt, a windbreaker, and navy blue sweatpants with a collegial seal stamped on the behind as if she were literally a product that had been inspected and approved by the university. She wore glasses he didn’t know she had, looking like the prototypical nerdy beauty queen who would be transformed three-quarters of the way through a movie by merely removing her glasses and letting out her ponytail.

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