AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I lean forward, but I’m only a couple of seats to the side of her and can’t see her expression. Is she happy to see him? I didn’t think she was impressed at O’Malley’s, but you never know with girls.
Wait, I don’t care. She’s free to enjoy tasteless company all she wants.
I spend the next ten minutes taking out my iPad and random stuff, just to have something to do. More people stream in and sit haphazardly across the room. By the time the lecturer graces us with his presence, I’ve rearranged the junk on my desk like five times.
“Welcome to Intro to Entrepreneurship.” I love how someone who is supposed to instill the excitement of being an entrepreneur sounds like he’s about to nod off.
Hoo, boy. I start recording with my iPad. The plan is to listen to the lectures again while I train, but I also don’t want to fall asleep while bench-pressing weights.
As the class progresses, I feel a strong urge to fling myself out the window just to feel something.
Tinker Bell brushes her hand down her long hair several times. She picks at invisible lint from her T-shirt and rummages through her backpack. Meanwhile, Brett alternates between watching the front and his neighbor. Especially when she plays with her hair. How come the dude hates me, a hockey player, but is mesmerized by her, a hockey player?
I tuck my tongue against my cheek, knowing the answer easily. Tinker Bell is hot. I figured it out on day one, when I caught her filling up bottles during training. She’d been in just a sports bra and padded leggings, and I suffer from really excellent eyesight. It’s how I caught the scar down her back as she walked away.
I also suffer from superb tactile memory, and I can’t forget how the curve of her butt felt in the palm of my hand.
Time to focus on the lecture.
“During this class, you will prepare a business plan you can take to the venture lab from our faculty.”
Great, that’s precisely why I picked this class. I won’t be able to play hockey professionally all my life, and it’ll be good to have a plan for what happens after. I want to open my own business, sort of like my parents did when they arrived in this country some forty years ago. I just don’t know what my business should be about.
“And you will do this with a partner.”
No one dares to voice their complaints yet, but it’s in the rustle of papers, the groaning of seats, and the reluctant glances everyone casts around the room. I’m not looking forward to having to align my schedule with someone else’s either.
“And,” the lecturer says with extra emphasis, “I have already decided on the pairings.”
“What?” someone at the front explodes.
There’s open annoyance now.
Oh Lord. Please don’t let me pair up with Brett Ferguson. That would be too much calamity.
The lecturer starts reading the pairs aloud, and on the second round, he reads off Brett’s name along with someone else’s. I sag against the seat, and it creaks under the weight shift.
Tinker Bell glances back at me for the first time, as if the noise reminded her of my existence. It’s at that moment that the lecturer calls out my name.
“Massimo Cassiano and Luz Rodriguez.”
Well freaking well.
She whips back to the front. “But?—”
The lecturer ignores her and finishes calling names. Meanwhile, Brett turns around to toss such a hostile look at me he reminds me of my relatives. And as if this were Thanksgiving and I were getting a lecture, I give him a shit-eating grin that is sure to increase his blood pressure.
The lecture ends, and as people trickle out, Tinker Bell marches right down to the podium like she’s on a mission. I don’t need super hearing to know what she’s saying. I jog down the stairs, ignoring my roommate and all the stares.
“—work with someone else?”
“Well, I don’t want to change partners,” I say. Their attention shifts to me for a moment, and I shrug.
She’d fry me with her eyes if she glared any longer.
“Great,” the lecturer says despite his voice making everything sound the opposite. “Because I chose these pairs for a reason.”
The last couple of students leave, but not before taking one last look at the drama.
