“So, what’s the plan for today? You’re all dressed, so you could drive me back to my dorm after breakfast.” I pause. “Which is delicious, by the way. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” says Elliot, blushing as he cuts up his sausage patties into tiny little squares.
“We were actually thinking,” says Felix, “your school stuff is all here.”
“And we usually spend Saturdays studying,” continues Elliot.
“Would you like to study with us today?” adds Lukas. “We usually do it in our rooms, but we could sit down at the table today.”
I chew at my lower lip. I usually spend most of Saturdays studying, too—or at least as much of the day as Ronnie lets me before deciding that we need to do something “fun.” But my routine is to study in my dorm, and part of me wants to stick to that pattern.
The other part of me says to break the routine and stay here, because they look so hopeful that I will. And it might be nice toswitch things up. I might even get more work done with them than I would with Ronnie bugging me to finish up and go do something with her. I bet they’ll actually let me study in peace.
Oh, what the hell. “I suppose I could stay and study for a little while.”
“We usually study for the entire day since our classes can be a bit intense. So perhaps you should just stay for dinner and another movie night,” suggests Felix, dancing his fingers along the edge of the table. “Then we could take you back to your dorm tomorrow.”
“Or Monday morning, depending on your class schedule,” adds Elliot, glancing away from the table.
I’m certain I misheard him. Felix’s suggestion of staying one more night isn’tnottempting, considering how last night went, but staying until Monday is … a lot.
I won’t promise to stay till Monday, but there shouldn’t be any harm in staying a few more hours, and we can play tonight by ear.
“Okay.” At the very least, I’ll get some homework done. And if we end up doing more than studying, well. The flutter of excitement low in my belly at the memory of what we did last night says that maybe that would be okay, too.
It’s weird showering in their shower, seeing around all of their toiletries instead of mine. Of course, I didn’t realize I’d be staying long enough to need to shower, and I didn’t bring any of my things so I have to use theirs. Now I smell like them. Allmorning as we sit around the big dining table, I keep catching whiffs of myself. It’s weird to smell them on me so strongly.
But they’ve been quiet enough that I’m able to get through a lot more work than I usually do at the library. It helps that the guys would occasionally get up to refill everyone’s mug of coffee. I don’t pay enough attention to notice if there’s a pattern to it, but I’m sure there is. I wonder if they have a calendar for that, too.
Even the gentle clicking of them solving their cubes one-handed as they go through their own homework is kind of soothing.
Before I know it, the guys are closing up their books and standing to stretch.
“Lunchtime,” announces Lukas, straightening his books in front of his seat before pushing in his chair.
“It’s not fancy,” says Sebastian, “but we hope sandwiches will be okay.”
“Sandwiches are perfect.” I close my own book and notebook.
“You’ll have to tell us your food preferences, and we’ll put them on the shopping list,” says Elliot as we head into the kitchen.
“We do have a good selection of sandwich stuff though,” says Felix, “so hopefully we’ll have something you like.”
“I’m sure it will be fine.” I trail behind them and stand back to watch as they pull out chips and pickles and condiments for their sandwiches, randomly tossing scrambled cubes to each other and solving them like they don’t even realize they’re doing it.
I don’t know how they can do that.
“I still don’t think I could ever solve a Rubik’s Cube like that.” I don’t mean to say it out loud—if there’s anything I’ve learned from my mother it’s that if you admit to a weakness, men willexploit it—but they all perk up, like this is an exciting moment for them.
“Here, we’ll show you,” says Sebastian, gently placing his scrambled cube in my hands. “You just have to recognize the patterns and recall the algorithm to achieve the desired outcome.”
“So basically, you’re just analyzing a problem without even having to think about it. Just doing it by rote?”
“Yes, and for us, it’s mostly about doing it faster than anyone else,” says Felix. “But you don’t have to worry about speed at this point.”
“Uh, okay, so where do I start?” I’m not even going to try to solve the cube one-handed like them. I can feel a blush creeping up my cheeks as a flash of memory from last night springs to the forefront of my mind, reminding me just how dexterous their fingers are. Trying to focus on the task at hand, I wrap both hands around it and feel the way the mechanisms swivel a little under the pressure from my fingers.
“The easiest way for beginners is to first make a white cross here on the bottom,” says Lukas, moving to stand behind me and wrapping his arms around me to guide my fingers on the cube. “Once you have that, you can solve the corners, like so. Then you’ll make the yellow cross next.”
