Don’t forget to eat lunch.
Sighing, I rolled my eyes a little, hoping he wasn’t obsessively watching my glucose levels on the monitoring app.
I’m ordering food to the room right now,I said, even though I hadn’t really thought of it yet. But after scrolling through some local places on a food delivery app, I settled on an Indian place and ordered tofu tikka masala, switching the white rice option to brown. Easy peasy. I paid with the credit card my dad let me have because I’d proven that I was responsible and wouldn’t go on crazy shopping sprees with it or anything.
Deciding my eyes needed a break from the screen, I prepped my insulin pen and injected myself before flopping back down on the bed to wait for the delivery. Squeezing Orangey tightly, I thought about how he’d ended up coming along on the trip with us.
I didn’t know how to feel about Kieran bringing him without my permission, other than the fact that he’d been so blasé about it gave me butterflies and made me feel swoony. Maybe I could kind of understand why he was so weird about certain things when it came to me. Maybe he just felt embarrassed, like I did. But he should have known that if he could deal with my dumb little quirks, then I could deal with his.
My mind wandered back to the aquarium billboard we’d passed on the way. I loved aquariums. My mom and dad used to take me all the time before she got too sick. And then it was all visits to the hospital and then hospice. And I hadn’t gone back since. I wasn’t sure if my dad had been avoiding it like I had, or if he just hadn’t thought about it. I’d never brought it up to him, and then once he’d gotten with Crystal, our family activities changed to include her and Kieran.
I wondered if he’d asked if I wanted to go just to be polite. We’d never really had a serious discussion about my mom’s passing, but I knew that he knew a lot about it. Maybe that was part of why he’d never roasted me about Orangey.
I wasn’t sure if going again would bring up painful memories or make me sad, but if there was anyone I was willing to try itwith, it was him. Part of me wanted to take him up on his offer, but I didn’t want him to be bored out of his mind just for my sake.
Pursing my lips as I considered, I picked up my phone and shot him a quick text.
Were you serious about maybe going to the aquarium or were you just being nice?
I knew he wouldn’t answer right away, but at least the question wouldn’t gnaw on me as much.
When I got a notification on my phone that the food delivery guy was at the hotel, I made sure to pocket my key card to the room before hurrying down the hall to retrieve it.
A male alpha with his hair shaved into a fade and a friendly smile, holding a grocery bag with styrofoam takeout boxes in it, waved at me.
“Jordy Nolan?” He asked, glancing down at his phone for confirmation.
“That’s me,” I said, reaching out to take the bag. Once he handed it over, I noticed he was wearing an Oldport University sweatshirt. “Hey, nice shirt! I’m starting at OU in the fall.”
“Seriously?” He asked, eyes widening. “Me too! My girlfriend and I just moved here because we both got in.”
“My best friend and I got approved for in-dorm housing, so we’re going to be staying on campus,” I replied. “I’m a poli sci major.”
“Wait, for real?” He asked. “Me too! I bet we have a bunch of the same classes!”
To our surprise, we did have a lot of the same classes. After a quick vent-fest about how hard some of them looked, he laughed and shook his head while holding out his hand.
“Sorry, I didn’t even think to introduce myself. I’m Xavier.”
“I’m Jordy,” I said, awkwardly balancing my food on my hip so I could hold out my hand to shake his. “Oh wait, you already knew that.”
He laughed. “It’s okay. My girlfriend and I don’t really know anybody here yet, and it’s kind of awkward trying to make friends, so…”
“Oh, yeah, I totally get it,” I said. “I’m sure it’ll be the same way for me and Dani.”
“Well, it’ll be cool to already know someone. We’re staying right down the street from campus. We should all hang out,” he suggested.
“Definitely!” I agreed. “I can add you on Insta,” I said, again awkwardly shifting my bag of food to pat my pockets, only to realize I’d left my phone in the room. “Uh…”
“Just give me yours,” he said, then typed it in as I gave it to him phonetically. “Followed you,” he said, before stuffing his phone back into the pocket of his sweats. “Have a good one, man! We’ll talk soon.”
“Cool, thanks!” I said, turning on my heel to scurry back down the hall back to the room. Once I’d put the food down on the bed, I snatched up my phone from the little nightstand I’d left it on. Kieran had texted me back.
I was serious. If you want to go, let’s go.
It would be more like a date than anything we’d done before, but maybe he was taking it in stride because of the whole experiment thing I’d proposed. Either way, I was pretty sure I wanted to do it.
Tonight?
