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With a gasp, she brought her hand to her mouth. “That’s him. He just texted me.”
“See!Read it! Read it!”
“Hold on.” Putting Xochitl on speaker, Vannah hit the screen popping the message open and read it out loud. “Check in. Just wanted to see how the book exchange went for my new associate?”
“Check in?” Of course, Xochitl sounded off-put by that.
If it weren’t for that last part, Vannah would’ve been snickering at her so easily irritable friend. Instead, Byron’s confusing demeanor the night of the party came to mind.You meet all yourfriendsat frat parties?He’d gone from playfully clarifying they were more than friends today, making her heartbeat skip in the process, to using the more technical term he’d first used-associates. Was this his way of making sure she wouldn’t make more of those heart stopping kisses? That he’d be all for being one ofthosekinds of friends to her, but his saying they were more than friends today was just his way of preparing her for his startling kiss.
Since Xochitl was too hung up on the check in thing and hadn’t commented on the second part of his text, neither would Vannah. She wasn’t even sure what to make of it anyway. For all she knew he was just teasing. So, she explained about the other part instead.
“He’d offered to go with me.” Vannah breathed in deeply in spite of the weird feeling in her belly. “Said it was dangerous. I guess this is his way of checking up to make sure I’m okay?”
“He’s worried about you already, Vannah.” Xochitl went from sounding off-put to excited. “And yes, I’ve seen the guy, but I’ve also seen the way he looks at you. Then first chance he gets he kisses you, and now he’s checking up on you? Text back!”
Vannah could practically hear the huge smile in her friend’s voice. “Okay,” she said smiling nervously and began tapping at her phones screen reading as she wrote. “It went fine. I got the book and I’m already home.”
“Add an open-ended question,” Xochitl urged still sounding as excited as Vannah’s pounding heart felt. “Something he can’t just respond with yes or no. Oh, I know! Bring up his bartering comment. Ask him what other dishes he likes for future reference.”
Feeling her insides tighten, Vannah went on with the rest of her text, reading it as she wrote it for Xochitl. “Curious, and for future reference in case my car gives me any trouble, what are some of your favorite dishes?”
“Perfect,” Xochitl said and Vannah hit the send button. “I wish I could stay on the phone with you to see what he responds but my next class already started. I’d skip it but I have a quiz and I can already tell I’m gonna need every point I can get in this class.”
They hung up, and Vannah hurried out of her car. She had a paper she needed to work on and then still needed to get in those lab hours she’d mentioned to Byron. Her phone dinged before she reached her dorm and she slowed to read the text.
Never been picky about my food and judging from your cooking skills, whatever you make I’ll love.
Vannah smiled and before she could even try to come up with another open-ended question, her phone dinged again. She opened her dorm door and walked in putting down her book bag, anxious to read the next text from Byron.
Can’t stop thinking about your lips. I can still taste them.
Instantly her insides went wild, but at the same time her heart pounded in utter dread. He was flirting with her, and she sucked at flirting. For a moment she considered calling Nena and just fessing up. She could use her sister’s skills right about then. But the last thing she wanted was for her sister to unnerve her any further with any ribbing she’d for sure be doing if she knew just how excited Vannah was getting about the prospect of Byron’s lips on hers again.
Touching her lips, Vannah stood in the middle of the room trying for the life of her to think of something to respond to that. She nearly dropped the phone when it rang. Gasping at Byron’s name on the screen, she brought a hand to her chest and took a deep breath before answering. “Hey,” she said already smiling broadly.
“Ever been to a grunion run?”
“Few times actually.”
Feeling her heart go insane, Vannah managed to hold it together and try to be cool. At leastsoundlike she didn’t feel ready to squeal like a schoolgirl because this felt too close to a possible invitation. “But uh, I haven’t in years.”
“I know you said you have to put in some lab hours tonight, but the grunion don’t come up until late anyway. You free tonight?”
With no one around to see her, Vannah allowed her mouth to fall as wide open as it inevitably did, and then did a little crazy excited running in place before composing herself. Not only had he so casually admitted to not being able to stop thinking about her lips, but he was now saying he wanted to see her again—tonight.
She cleared her throat, praying she could play off not being so damn excited. “Uh, yeah. That sounds like fun actually. I think I was in middle school or something, last time I saw them.”
“Cool, how late will you be in lab?”
“Not too late. Seven-thirty, maybe eight.”
“Perfect. Gives me time to close this place up, take a shower and get ready. I’ll pick you up a little after eight?”
Wishing she could come up with something a little wittier, Vannah grinned hugely from ear to ear saying the only thing that came to mind at that moment. “Sounds good.”
Of course, she texted Xochitl the moment she was off the phone with Byron. They went back and forth for a while even as Vannah left and arrived at the school lab. But she eventually had to stop and try and concentrate on her lab time. Between the distraction of Ms. Thang who was at it again flirting outrageously with that same student, and thoughts of Byron’s amazing kisses she realized it was going to be impossible to concentrate.
As she watched the married administrator at the lab carry on with that guy in a way that Vannah too was now certain they were having a full-blown affair, she shook her head, then cringed. She remembered Byron’s reactions today. Both the more subtle when she mentioned cooking for lots of guys and then the all-out blatant one when she said there was another guy she had to meet up with. And this was before he’d kissed her. She didn’t want to get ahead of herself but if things moved forward between them and they became a couple she could not evenimaginebeing brave or even stupid enough to sneak around on him. As little as she knew about him so far, she didn’t even have to wonder if he’d react violently, possibly frightening, to anything that disrespectful from a girl he’d just met or even one he was seeing, but hiswife.
