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Where the fuck had my brain gone?
I looked up for one last look as she left and happened to catch her sticking her tongue out at me.Ha!I must have pissed her off. I grinned. I’d just have to make it up to her tomorrow when she came in for her trial run.
I sobered as Mike brought the next girl in, Neve something. I barely paid any attention to her interview, my mind firmly on Jude Tiernay. I had a feeling I was going to lose my shit if anyone put a hand on her, and that wasn’t a good thing. Guys were touchy-feely at Sugar Babes; it was just par for the course.
Maybe I’d bring Baron and Gale, Gale in particular. If I could turn Gale’s protective instinct on, he’d make sure no one even looked at her sideways.
I whistled soundlessly to myself and with a tip of my chin to Mike, let myself out of the office. Now there was an idea—putting her in front of Baron and Gale. They’d be as fascinated by her as I was. She was as much their type as she was mine.
Why didn’t that piss me off?
I needed to analyze this. Maybe plot it out on my whiteboard back at the dorm. Turn it into a mathematical equation, because it was firing all sorts of intriguing synapses in my brain.
A—The thought of some other, random dude feeling her up made me want to punch something.
B—I didn’t even know this girl, but I was convinced already that I was going to know her. In a very biblical sense.
C—I kind of liked the idea of my friends knowing her, as well.
Hmm. Wasn’t that…fascinating.
Yeah. We were definitely going to Sugar Babes tomorrow.
Nine
Baron
Astickyneonblueball clung to the ceiling above me, a remnant of a night spent partying and a decision to “toss it up there. See how long it would stay.”
That was seven months ago, Before Skylar, and it was still there, testament to the lasting power of rubber and whatever gravity-defying bond existed between it and latex paint.
The balls were Ezra’s, some stress reliever things he’d found online. He was forever squishing the little things between his big fingers or tossing them up and down while he pondered some math problem.
Me? I napped, or tried to, as I was trying unsuccessfully to do now. I also read psychology texts when my brain wouldn’t shut off.
I’d been doing a lot of that lately.
Psychology had been an unexpected surprise upon my arrival at Chandler U. Always an athlete, I had thrown myself into sports and prepared to slog my way through the necessary coursework to stay part of the teams I enjoyed competing on. I had discovered, though, that I actually liked learning about the human brain and psyche…about why people do the things they do and how we have the power to rewire trauma-bound consciousness if we desire to do so.
I kept that sort of thing mostly to myself, though. Somehow, I didn’t think the guys would appreciate knowing I was busy psychoanalyzing them and their attachment styles all the time. Ezra was the most well-adjusted out of all of us—he had clearly been raised by a set of loving parents who paid attention to his needs.
Or at least, one loving parent. His mother had died at birth, but his dad was pretty cool.
Gale was a classic dismissive avoidant, though, pulling the women in and then pushing them away whenever any of them showed signs of wanting to get closer. I couldn’t blame him, not after a childhood spent mostly in foster care.
I was avoidant, myself, the product of benignly neglectful parents. After recognizing the signs in myself, though, I had been doing the work to move toward a more secure attachment style.
No one wanted to be alone forever, after all. I had no desire to be tied down at the moment, but I could see myself with a woman, one day. Kids running around all over the place, crashing into furniture and creating chaos. And Uncle Gale and Uncle Ezra, of course. Those dudes would always be part of my family, regardless of what it looked like.
My eyes drifted closed, blotting out the ball stuck to the ceiling. I still couldn’t believe Skylar had dumped me. It wasn’t that I cared, exactly. Sky was a bitch. It was more that it just…didn’t happen. Not to me.
Without being arrogant about it, I was a catch. Wealthy, intelligent, an athlete, energy for multiple rounds…I was the complete fucking package.
Skylar being the one to exit first was a puzzle, and I didn’t like puzzles.
I suspected it had something to do with her finally catching on to the fact that I couldn’t care less about the money my parents funneled into my account each month. If she was looking at me as a meal ticket, she was destined for disappointment.
The door to the quad opened and closed, Ezra breezing in with a tuneless whistle accompanied by hallway noise. He looked like he’d been working out, his longish dirty blond hair a bit damp at the roots and the sweatshirt he was wearing rimmed with sweat. Probably that yoga shit. Ezra was pure granola, and for some reason, the females ate it up.
