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“I know.” She picked up her purse and pulled out a phone. “What’s your number? Bad Boys—” She stopped suddenly and now her face blushed so deeply Byron couldn’t help smile. “Is uh . . . just around the corner from here. You work there right?”
With his heart racing now, Byron swallowed hard staring into those beautiful eyes. He knew he should be making a mad dash out of there only hehadto ask. “Yeah, how’d you know?”
His eyes immediately zoomed into her bottom lip because she dug her teeth into it for a moment. Motioning behind her, she lifted and dropped a dainty shoulder a bit awkwardly. “Sochee’s a communications major. So’s she’s taking some social media courses. But she’s always excelled at researching and such.”
She cleared her throat glancing away, though Byron couldn’t look away now. He was glued to every change in expression, and hanging onto every word she was saying, because he still had no idea what to think of this. More than anything he was taking in every detail of her. The timid, yet at times, very animated eyes. The still rosy tinge of her smooth skin, and that sweet mouth he could already imagine devouring and not being able to get enough of.
Glancing back at him, their eyes met for a silent moment that felt all too familiar. It was just like all the other times he’d been sucked into them before. Only this time, the sheer power of it felt a hundred times heavier since he was standing so much closer than all the others.
Mercifully, she ended it when she glanced away and went on. “We thought you looked familiar when we’d seen you at Starbucks. So, when we heard your name, Sochee did a little research. She then remembered we’d also seen you at 5thStreet during the signings.” She paused to laugh nervously, and even that had Byron smiling like an idiot. “Isn’t it crazy how much info you can get from just punching in a few related things into a search engine? She immediately got a hit with your full name and it brought up other things like where you work and stuff.”
Shrugging again, as if what she’d just dropped on him wasn’t as pivotal as it was—that the girl he’d been obsessing about for weeks had just admitted to cyber stalking him—she went on. “Anyway, I figured since you work so close by, I can just text you to ask when’s the best time to drop them off?”
Byron didn’t immediately respond. He was still too hung up on the fact that she hadn’t just remembered his name from the coffee shop—over a week ago. She’d confessed to looking far deeper into him and now here she was asking for his number. He still wasn’t sure how he should feel about this, but he was certain excitedshouldn’tbe it, damn it.
She slipped her phone back in her purse as her face began tinging again. “I guess I could just drop them off at the front desk—”
“Three, two, three . . .” Glancing up at him, she didn’t reach for her phone again, until Byron nodded with a smile. “It’s the area code.”
He watched as she pulled her phone out a bit apprehensively and tapped the rest of his number into her phone. The whole time he couldn’t decide what to make of this entire situation. That his grown ass heart could pound like this, just because he was giving a chick his number was ridiculous. But somehow, he knew this was so much more than just giving some random girl he’d just met his number.
His conflicting insides continued to rattle him as he stood there trying desperately to convince himself this was no big deal. Yet, his instincts knew better. He’d been home free, for fucks sake. Could’ve already been at one of his regulars getting that much needed tension relief. Instead, he was still standing there inside Vannah’s dorm room, fighting the incrediblystupidurge to lean in and kiss her.
The buzz in his pocket broke him out of his thoughts. “That’s me,” Vannah smiled. “This way you’ll know who it is when your clothes are ready, and I text you.”
“You really don’t have to get them clean, Vannah.” Byron pulled out his phone and clicked on the envelope.
“So, I’ll just wash them then. I have laundry to do tomorrow anyway. Works out perfect.”
Byron glanced at the smiley face she sent, shaking off the visuals of his shorts bouncing around in the same dryer as her panties. “Alright then.” He slipped the phone back in his pocket before he got any more visuals, or worse, gave into any temptations that might lead to even bigger regrets than the ones he was already having. “I gotta get going.”
After thanking him a few more times, Vannah finally bid him a farewell and he was off. The entire way home as Byron drove with her lingering scent still in his car, he tried desperately to understand what it was about this girl. He tried to understand, why the possibility of getting to know her further unnerved him so much. For the life of him he couldn’t figure it out.
