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“Want to go out for a steak dinner to celebrate?”
“Celebrate what?” His lip gets this cute little wrinkle when he can’t follow my train of thought, so I wiggle my fingers to help him out.
“I can finally cut a steak now. Come on, my treat.” I scoot off his lap and go to the bathroom to clean up, tossing him the damp washcloth when I’m done. Then we head to dinner, where I spend the entire meal trying to remind myself this is just a friendly steak between roommates, not a date.
Chapter seventeen
Cruz
The numbers are starting to blur together on the page, and no matter how many times I blink I can’t get them into focus.
“You okay over there?” Dani lets her pencil fall to the table as she stretches her arms out in front of her. “You look a little dazed.”
“My eyes are kind of tired,” I fib, although since we've been locked in this study room at the library for the better part of two hours, doing equations that aren’t for the faint of heart, that’s not an unrealistic excuse. It’s just one I have to give since I can’t tell her the real reason for my distraction.
“Cruz.”
My head snaps up when I hear my name, which, based on Dani’s concerned expression, is something she’s said more than once.
“Are you always this preoccupied when you’re studying or are you actively trying to portray yourself as a dumb jock?” Her smirk says she’s teasing, but my overworked brain doesn’t get the joke.
“Why would I want to give myself that image?”
She chuckles like my response is lame. “We really need to get you a new roommate. His grouchiness is affecting your ability to lighten up.”
Defending Liam probably isn’t the best idea since he’s the reason I’m distracted, but I do it anyway. “Liam isn’t a grouch. He’s…” There’s no good way to explain him without betraying his trust. “When you get to know him, he’s a great guy.”
“You keep saying that, but I tried to get to know him, and he blew me off.”
“Really? When?”
“Last Wednesday. After class.”
Last Wednesday was when we… And then we went for drinks. The anniversary of his sister’s death.
“Oh, that was…” I take a deep breath and lean back as far as my chair will allow. “That was a really bad day for him.”
“Lots of people have bad days,” Dani says wryly.
“His was especially bad. I can’t tell you why, just trust me on that.” I give her an apologetic smile.
“What’s his excuse the rest of the time?” She arches a manicured brow, which looks pretty cool in a Disney villain sort of way even though I don’t think she has a villainous bone in her body. Just a skeptical one it seems.
“Why are you so interested in my roommate?”
“I…” She blinks a half-dozen times without answering. “I’m not interested, just concerned.”
“Okay, why are you concerned?” I sit forward and rest my arms on the table.
“You’re…” Her eyes dart from mine to the hands she’s wringing together on the table. “I mean he’s…”
“Just spit it out.”
“I got this really weird vibe from him at that party. He seemed upset that I was talking to you. Jealous almost. And we were just talking. I think he…likes you.”
My laugh comes out more like a snort. “I hope so considering he’s stuck with me.”
“No, I mean likes you, likes you.” Her eyebrows rise as she tries to emphasize her point, and when I don’t say anything else she does. “I think he has a thing for you.”
