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“It’s not going to be that bad, right? I really need this grade.” And I needed a dousing of Nina’s reassurance.
“You’re going to be fine. Love Match is my favorite. I’ll walk you through it, one candlelit step at a time. No worries.” Everyone loved this show.
I was relieved. At least I could count on Nina’s love for bad TV to pull me through.
“Tell me. What’s Beau like? I’ve never seen him.”
I thought about my new partner. With all of the confusion and theatrics in class, I hadn’t really noticed much about him. Well, not much other than he must be a human heater. T-shirts in icy January kind of stood out. Then there were those perfectly sculpted arms. I could feel my cheeks warming again.
“He’s a guy.”
“That’s it?” Nina carried her backpack to the front door. She sounded disappointed.
“Yeah, I mean he looks like any guy on campus. Brown hair, brown eyes. Not that interested in class—you know—a guy.”
“Huh. That’s too bad. I thought that maybe someone who came up with all of that cool stuff on the list would be hot. You know, for your sake.” She giggled and clutched her bus pass.
I wasn’t sure why I held back on the arm details or the dark eyes—they were definitely worth mentioning, but Beau Anderson was just like every other guy I had met in my other classes. They were in school for things unrelated to expanding their academic horizons. I couldn’t see how he was any different.
“No, not hot. Sorry to ruin your little blogger crush. You better go. You’ll miss the bus.”
“You sure you’re ok by yourself? I can skip lab if I need to stay and help you.”
“I’m good. I think a nap is in order.” I shimmied into the assortment of pillows on the couch. The sun still wasn’t shining and it was freezing outside. With both roommates out of the house, a nap was a perfect end to this Bronte-esque afternoon.
“I’m jealous. Ok, I’ll see you after class.” Nina closed the door behind her.
I nestled into the couch and pulled the quilt nicknamed, “ugly quilt,” around my shoulders. Candace’s grandmother had given it to her when we moved into the house last year. The three of us spent the entire summer before our junior year planning our house décor. We wanted it to look retro chic, which is challenging on a college student budget. Candace did her best to fake a smile when she opened the package from her grandmother that arrived during the first week of classes. We laughed so hard that the three of us were in tears making fun of the orange and brown patches sewn together with pink thread. It was never supposed to be visible in the living room, but after a late night movie fest, I discovered it was comfy and warm. I became the champion defender of Ugly Quilt, and it had a spot on the back of the couch ever since.
My eyes closed, and somewhere in my mind’s replay of the awkward meeting with Beau, I fell asleep.
Through the fog of my afternoon nap, I thought I heard the distant sound of my phone ringing. I shoved Ugly Quilt away and fished for my cell on the floor next to the couch.
I swiped at the screen. “Hello?”
“London? Did I wake you up or something?” I didn’t recognize the male voice on the other end of the call.
“Um. Who is this?”
“Beau. Your Comm partner.”
I blinked hard. It was dark outside and I had no idea how long I had been sleeping. My leg was aching, and the icepack Nina had made was a bag of room temperature water.
“Oh yeah. Hey, Beau. What’s up?” I realized that I didn’t add his number to my contacts after he called me in Manning.
“I was just talking to my roommate, and his girlfriend is over here. Anyway, I told them about Love Match and she’s a huge fan.” I was starting to feel like maybe I was the only girl on campus who didn’t watch the dating show. “She said there’s a marathon on tonight on the Timeless Channel. Maybe I could come over and we could watch it. Get caught up before the new season starts.”
I shook the sleepy fog from my head. “Ok. Sounds good. When does it start?”
“In an hour, I think. Where do you live?”
“I’m off campus, just a few blocks back from Franklin Street off Mallette.”
“Cool. Just text me the address and I’ll see you soon.” He hung up before I could respond.
I saved his number in my contacts, then opened the screen to text him our address. I noticed there were three missed texts from Nina.
Derek needs help with the read throughs. I’ll be at the theater late if you want to meet us.
