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Rylan picks up her backpack from my floor, still avoiding eye contact. I can’t tell if she’s embarrassed or annoyed or upset, and I can’t ask in front of Hunter.
“I should go.”
“Okay,” I say.
“Nice to see you again, Rylan,” Hunter says as she passes him and heads down the hallway toward the stairs.
He remains in place once she’s out of sight, pinning me with a serious look, complete with his judgmental eyebrows. “What the fuck are you doing, Phillips?”
I lean back against my pillows, rubbing a hand across my face. “Would it be better or worse if I said I have no clue?”
“Hart would have been right behind me if he wasn’t dropping Harlow off. Just saying, making out with your tutor with the door wide open was one of your dumber moves.”
His eyebrows lift again before he leaves.
“Can you bring the wings upstairs?” I call out.
No response.
Guess not.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
RYLAN
Ihave a problem, and his name is Aidan Phillips.
That’s all I can think about as Theo talks about the grad program at MIT he’s hoping to get accepted into. He asked me if I wanted to grab coffee after our shared algebra class, and I didn’t see any reason to say no at the time.
Now, I’ve realized a reason. Aidan was right. Theodoeslike me, is viewing this as a pseudo date, and I can’t stop thinking about a six-three hockey player.
When I first found out Hot Tub Guy was a hockey player on my dad’s team who I’d have to see on a weekly basis, I was mortified.
Somehow, Aidan erased that embarrassment.
I’ve never met someone so comfortable in his own skin, and maybe some of that confidence has rubbed off on me.
He didn’t tell me to keep what happened between us a secret. He didn’t freak out about the fact my father is his coach. He didn’t ask for a different tutor.
And the immediate attraction I experienced when I first saw him, sitting in that steaming tub staring up at the stars and sippingwhiskey, hasn’t gone anywhere.
No matter how many times I try to convince myself it’s a terrible idea, it remains. It’s expanded and grown, turning into a force I have no control over.
I think of him at stupid, inconvenient times like right now, when I’m sitting and talking to a guy Ishouldlike. I’ve never experienced flutters of nerves around Theo, let alone the burning need I fled Aidan’s bedroom with, but maybe I could.
I’mtryingto, unsuccessfully.
“What did you think of Boston?” Theo asks me.
I resist the urge to make a face.
My distaste has nothing to do with the city. Or the university. It has everything to do with who I was there, how I accepted the bare minimum.
After living with Chloe, Malia, and Dakota, I’m aware of how checked out my other roommates were. After having classmates like Theo, who’s made an obvious effort to familiarize me with Holt’s mathematics department, I’m aware of how cutthroat my old classmates were. And since meeting Aidan, I’m aware of how lackluster my relationship with Walker was.
“It was nice,” I tell him. “I didn’t explore as much as I wish I had. It’s easy to take it for granted while you’re there. But the science museum is amazing. And I used to study on the Common in the warmer weather. Great restaurants.”
“Do you miss it at all?”
