“Take my number,” Cooper says in a rough voice. “Text me when you get to campus so I know you made it back safe.”
Despite the warning alarms in my head, I punch his number into my phone.
No big deal, I assure that disapproving side of me. It’ll just be one text when I get home, then I’ll delete the number. Because as fun as it was to joke about our impending friendship, I know it’s not a good idea. If I’ve learned one thing from rom coms, it’s that you are not allowed to be friends with someone you’re attracted to. The attraction itself is harmless. We’re human beings and life can last years. We’re bound to feel physical attraction for someone other than our significant other. But anyone who places themselves directly in the path of temptation is only asking for trouble.
So when Bonnie and I stumble out of an Uber and climb up to our dorm, I’m fully prepared to purge Cooper Hartley from my phone. I send a solitary text: Home safe! Then I click on his number and hover my finger over the word DELETE.
Before I can press it, a message from him pops up.
Cooper: That was fun. Let’s do it again sometime?
I bite my lip, staring at the invitation. The memory of his dark eyes gleaming in the firelight, of his broad shoulders and muscular arms, jumpstarts my tired brain and tickles that spot between my legs.
Delete him, a strict voice orders.
I click on the chat thread. Maybe a friendship with this guy is a terrible idea, but I can’t help myself. I cave.
Me: I’ll bring donuts.
CHAPTER SEVEN
MACKENZIE
Only two weeks into the semester and I’m already over it. It wouldn’t be so bad if I could dig into some business and finance courses. Marketing and mass communications law. Even some basic web coding. Instead, I’m stuck in a lecture hall staring at an illustration of some hairy, naked pre-human ape-man that, frankly, varies little from the current iteration sitting three rows over.
Freshman gen-eds are bullshit. Even psychology or sociology could have had some application to my work, but those courses were full. So I got stuck in anthropology, which so far today has been ten minutes of swarthy protohuman slides and forty minutes of arguments over evolution. None of which benefits my bank account. My parents pushed college on me, but I was hoping I could at least be productive while I was here. Optimizing BoyfriendFails and its sister site, targeting keywords, looking at ad impressions. Instead, I’m taking notes because our professor is one of those an A is perfection, so no one is getting an A in this class assholes. And if I’m forced to entertain this exhaustive waste of time, I’m not going to walk around with a C average.
It isn’t until I step outside into the blazing sunshine that I realize I can’t feel my fingertips. The lecture hall was freezing. I head over to the student union for a coffee and sit on a hot concrete bench under a magnolia tree to thaw out. I’m supposed to meet Preston in thirty minutes, so I still have some time to kill.
I sip my coffee and scroll through some business emails, forcing myself not to dwell on the fact that I haven’t heard from Cooper yet today.
And I say yet, because he’s messaged me every day since Saturday night. So I know I’ll hear from him at some point today, it’s only a matter of when. The first time he texted, I’d hesitated to open the message, afraid a picture of his junk might pop up on the screen. Or maybe hopeful it would? I’ve never been one for dick pics, but—
But nothing! a sharp voice shouts in my head.
Right. There’s no but. I don’t want to see Cooper Hartley’s penis. Period, end of sentence. I mean, why would I want to see the penis of the hot, tattooed bad boy I stayed up an entire night talking to? That’s just ludicrous.
Welp, I’m not cold anymore. I’m burning up now.
I need a distraction. ASAP.
When my mom’s number lights up the screen, I think about ignoring the call, because that’s definitely not the distraction I’d hoped for. But past experience has taught me that ignoring her only encourages her to send increasingly demanding texts to answer her. Then calls to the FBI insisting I’ve been kidnapped for ransom.
“Hi, Mom,” I answer, hoping she can’t hear my lack of enthusiasm.
“Mackenzie, sweetheart, hello.”
There’s a long pause, during which I can’t tell if she’s distracted or waiting for me to say something. You called me, Mom.
“What’s up?” I ask to get the ball rolling.
“I wanted to check in. You promised to call after you got settled, but we haven’t heard from you.”