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Because... Derek? Had someone said the name Derek to me? Who was Derek? There was only Maverick in the world now.
“Dude.” Trick chuckled and slapped my back. “You need to get your gaydar checke
d. Now, come on, let’s get you that ice cream I promised.”
Ice cream? What was ice cream? I only wanted to lick Maverick.
I was joking, of course. No man could make me forget ice cream. But still...
I flushed and offered Maverick an apologetic cringe when he began to scowl over my intense—possibly even creepy—ogling ways.
“It was nice to meet you,” I told him as Trick dragged me off. I kept looking at him over my shoulder as I added, “Sorry again about tackling you and stuff. Not that I didn’t enjoy it; I totally did, but you probably didn’t, so yeah…sorry.”
Finally, I turned away, and faced forward, sighing lamely over having to leave him.
Trick took me to get food, and it was still stale and tasteless, but at least I’d stopped grieving over the loss of Derek.
Chapter Three
Cress
I honestly didn’t think I’d ever see Maverick again after that first mortifying encounter. But just looking into his amazing, chocolate brown eyes had helped jostle me from my doldrums.
Maybe Trick was more like his dad than I figured because he’d been right. There were more fish in the sea. My life wasn’t over. And I had moved on from Derek.
I was kind of even over the instant crush I’d formed on Maverick after meeting him. And I had stopped thinking about how immediate and necessary it felt to find love. If it came, it came, and that would be great. But if it didn’t, I’d still be totally okay.
Back on track with focusing on school and work and myself, I whizzed through my finals, and started to pack my boxes so I could move back in with my parents for the summer when a knock came on Trick’s apartment door.
Since he wasn’t home, I tossed the packing tape I’d had in my hand onto my bed that I would return to in the fall when the next semester started, and I went to see who was here.
My breath caught in my lungs when I opened the door and looked up into a familiar pair of brown eyes I’d been dreaming about.
“Oh my God, it’s you,” I blurted, feeling everything inside me come alive. Then I realized how utterly obvious I was being, so I cleared my throat and shook my head, pointing at him and attempting to be chill. Like Trick. “I mean, it’s Maverick, right?”
He lifted his hand and showed me a set of AirPods sitting on his palm.
“Trick left these on my coffee table last week. And Connie’s already found another place to live, so I doubt she’d ever get them back to him. They, uh, they look like the expensive kind, so…” He thrust them at me with an uncomfortable grunt. “Here.”
“Oh! Thanks. I think they are the expensive kind.” I reached out to take them. “He’s been looking for them everywhere, anyway.”
As the earbuds were dropped into my open palm, Maverick lifted his gaze to me and immediately retracted his hand.
We stared at each other for an uncomfortably long moment. I smiled at him to hide the nerves roiling through my gut, then offered, “You want to come in?”
Because what was the harm in offering? Worst-case scenario, he’d say no, turn away, and walk out of my life forever.
But best-case scenario...
He paused, then bobbed his head slowly. “Alright.”
My heart skipped a beat. He still looked like he might want to kick my ass any moment, but when I opened the door wide and shifted aside to let him in, he stepped over the threshold.
“Trick’s out right now,” I explained, holding up the earbuds as I backed toward the table that sat in the wide archway between the living room and dining area. “So I’m just going to leave these here, and I’m sure he’ll see them when he gets home.”
Maverick nodded and skimmed his gaze over me. “I wanted to say sorry, too.”
I lifted my brows in surprise. “Sorry? To Trick?”
