The Hardest Fall

“I didn’t say you were hot.”

“I’m pretty sure you just did.”

“No,” she said slowly. “I just meant they tend to hire good-looking guys so that—” She let out a breath and changed the subject. “I didn’t know you worked on top of everything else you did. Your schedule is crazy. I’m just surprised, that’s all.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I specifically remember telling you I wasn’t rich.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you…I just didn’t think, apparently. You know me and my tendency to stereotype football players. Most people usually think they get everything handed to them, and apparently I’m one of those people, but…I like that you’re working.” She huffed. “You’re a really…” She scrunched up her nose then shook her head. “Never mind.”

I leaned closer and my forearm grazed hers again. We stayed skin to skin. She couldn’t keep her eyes away. I would’ve loved for her to finish her sentence, but there was something else I wanted to know more.

I turned my head a fraction, bringing my lips closer to her cheek area—the cheek her boyfriend’s fingers had brushed only minutes before. “So that’s your boyfriend, huh? I don’t think he likes that you’re over here talking to me.” The bastard was still watching, and it was starting to get on my nerves.

Her head snapped up and her eyebrows drew together. “What? Where?”

I pulled back. “Your boyfriend,” I repeated, motioning to the guy with my chin. At that moment, his arm was casually draped over the booth and he was chatting with the girl sitting across him instead of staring at us. “The one you’ve been dancing with since you walked in.” I turned my eyes on Zoe. “And I thought you were shy, Zoe—seemed like it since you can’t even manage to look into my eyes for more than a few seconds—but that girl dancing up there didn’t look all that shy.”

Slowly she turned back to me. My muscles were tensing up again. Why was I getting so worked up over her dancing with her fucking boyfriend? It wasn’t like I didn’t know she had someone, and I should’ve been happy that it was just a student. I straightened away from Zoe, deciding to actually do the job I was getting paid to do and help Lindy with the customers.

After I served a few, I checked to see if Zoe had left, but she was still sitting there waiting for me, her eyes tracking my movements.

I found myself back in front of her. I was being a dick without meaning to. “Can I get you and…your friends anything?” I asked a little loudly so I wouldn’t have to lean in again.

Her frown got deeper and she scooted forward in her seat. Her lips parted, but nothing came out. Then she nodded. “Yeah, I’ll have a pint of whatever you have on tap and a Corona, please.”

I returned her nod with a curt one and served my roommate. Plunking the pint in front of her, I reached down for a bottle of Corona. Her left hand closed around the handle of the pint and she reached for the bottle with the other.

“Can you carry them yourself or should I have—”

What she said was not what I was expecting to hear at all. “That’s not my boyfriend, Dylan. He is my friend, Jared, and just so you know, shy doesn’t mean I can’t function or dance with my friends or just be around people. I only get shy and awkward around certain people, and you happen to be one of them, that’s all.”

I have no idea if she chose to tell me all that in pretty much one breath with a lowered voice so I might not hear half of it or if she thought she’d be gone before I could piece it together, but thank fuck I got it the first time.

Since her hands were full, she didn’t manage to escape as quickly as she hoped. Before she could hop off the stool, I put my hand on her wrist and stopped her forward movement.

Stuck sitting sideways, she stilled and looked at me.

My hand was still around her wrist, and this time I didn’t hesitate to lean in closer and pull her to me at the same time. I paused when my lips were almost touching the shell of her ear. “Say that again?” I asked in a low, deep voice.

Oh, I had heard her perfectly fine the first time, but I still felt the need to hear her say it again.

She tilted her head enough so I could hear her. I stayed exactly where I was, breathing in her scent. “I’m shy around—” she started haltingly.

“Not that part. The one before that.”

“Oh, that’s Jared. He’s not my boyfriend, just Jared, my friend,” Zoe repeated. I closed my eyes in relief. When I opened them again, I noticed Zoe’s white-knuckle grip on the bottle of Corona. Because of the position we were in, she had no choice but to speak right into my ear where I could feel her warm breath on my skin. “He is my friend, and he also happens to be gay, not that it should matter.”

That tight feeling that had suddenly appeared in my stomach like I’d been gut-punched when I saw her touching the dick face loosened at her words. I shouldn’t have been happy to hear that; it should’ve made no difference, but it still did. I wasn’t prepared to see her get close to another guy. Knowing about it was evidently different than seeing it with my own eyes. Any other time, maybe it would’ve been all right, but that night, I didn’t like it.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Her berry scent was going to kill me from that close. That first night, when her towel did me a favor and unwound itself, she had smelled like berries, too, and since I was her roommate, I had the privilege—or perhaps the burden—of knowing that it was her body wash and not her shampoo. The smell always lingered after she took a shower, reaching to my room and distracting me to no end.

I’d known from the very beginning that she couldn’t just be my friend, even if I’d let her think she could, and seeing her with another guy had just cemented that.

Zoe cleared her throat and pulled back from our little private bubble. Only then did I notice the touch of color on her cheeks. When she spoke, her voice was thick. She was affected by me, by having me close. I knew she was—the sparkle in her eyes, the color on her cheeks, the way she tried to hold her breath gave her away. If not, if I was wrong, I was screwed.

“You look beautiful,” I said honestly. “You always look beautiful, but tonight you look happier. I like your smile tonight. I always like it when you smile, Flash,” I said sincerely.

At my words, her eyes jumped to mine, surprised, unsure. Her lips twitched then finally tipped up in a shy but beautiful smile. “I like your smile, too…really like it.”

Drawing farther back, I let go of her arm and looked at her face. Of course, she looked anywhere but my eyes.

“Say hi to your friends for me then. Maybe introduce us before you guys leave? It should slow down here soon enough.”

She swallowed and nibbled on her bottom lip. “Are you okay, Dylan? I haven’t seen you around lately. We’re good, right?”

I had no idea how to behave around her anymore, but we were good. “It’s always like this during football season, all the practice hours, training, classes, plus midterms. I was swamped, but things should calm down for a week at least. I’m here at night since it’s bye week, but you’ll see me around.”

“Okay.” She smiled and nodded. Just before she attempted to get down, she looked over shoulder at her friends for a few seconds then faced me again. “Later, we can watch a movie maybe? Netflix and chill like the cool kids are doing?”