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At the residence hall, Hunter held the door open for me.
“Thanks, Hunter. Have a good night.”
“You have a good night too, Mariska. Scott must want to go on a date with you real bad since he’d apologized to me about bringing the beers to Beth’s party.”
***
“WERE YOU STUDYING ALL night?” Jake asked with his arm draped around my shoulder the following morning. Beth was en route to campus.
He let me go and I took the cup of coffee he’d made for me. “I got off the phone with Pete at two this morning.”
“Why wasn’t his ass asleep?”
I smirked. “My parent’s got him a cell phone and he was calling everyone. He was so excited. Most of his friend have cell phones…I hadn’t really talked to him in a while, so…”
“Because of you, your mom had a hard time getting him out of bed this morning.”
I rolled my eyes. “I won’t hear the end of it from her. Don’t remind me.” I let out a sigh. “When’d you get back on campus last night?”
“Ten something.”
I sipped some of my coffee and tossed him a sardonic look. “Or should I say when’d you get to your room after you were done hooking up in your car?”
“I could be off by a half an hour. I thought we finished our business at the motel, but we had a quickie.”
“Well, Hunter got an eyeful of your quickie.”
“He told you that he saw me?” He sounded surprised.
I gave him a nod.
“It’s about time you two talked.” Jake had felt a lot differently about Hunter being Beth’s friend during the summer. In fact, he hadn’t wanted Beth to date Chase, either. It was funny how one’s view could change in a short period of time.
“I sassed him, and he was nice to me in spite of it.”
Jake eyed me with interest. “Mariska, do you know that you just admitted that you were wrong?” Instead of saying anything, I took another slow swig of my coffee. Jake picked up his backpack from my chair and slung it over his shoulder.
The corners of his expressive deep brown eyes crinkled.
***
AS I CASHIERED UP front at La Caridad all morning, into the middle of the afternoon, I’d thought about some of the thoughts that I hadn’t told Jake. At one moment last night, when Hunter and I’d been together, his arm had brushed against mine. I associated the touch with the rough and slightly smooth texture of aged leather on my skin.
“Here he is,” Blanca said and he greeted her with a genuine smile.
I completed the last transaction and a waiter took my place. I went to the employer’s restroom to wash my hands after handling so much money.
“Blanca told me you haven’t had lunch yet,” Hunter said after I came out of the bathroom and walked up front.
“Yeah,” I said, trying not to make a face. “I am going to have it now.”
He lifted his head to an empty table with two dishes on either side of it.
Hunter
“OUR LUNCH IS COOLING off,” I told Mariska. Confused, she snapped her gaze to Blanca, who gestured us to eat. I led her to the table I’d sat at on Wednesday while I’d waited for the take out to be prepared.
“Hunter…this is—”
