It’s the slowest thirty seconds in history, as Russ desperately tries to lose the boner pressing into me.
“Brown Bears win!” Orla announces, much to Xander’s delight.
I step off the platform and away from Russ. Thankfully the other guys are distracted by getting Maya and Emilia off their shoulders and when Russ looks at me, I can’t help but wink.
His blush reaches his ears this time.
Chapter Ten
RUSS
“Are you going to say something or are you just going to stare at me?”
JJ doesn’t change the smug look on his face and it’s making me want to disconnect the video call. “I’m just honored, although not surprised, that you’re calling me for life advice. What can I do for you, buddy? You need to know how interest works? What a 401k is?”
“Yes, I called you from camp to find out about retirement plans,” I joke, rolling my eyes. “I should have called Nate.”
“Take that back right now.” JJ sits upright from the lying down position on his couch. “You have my full attention. What’s up?”
I’m in the main building during our lunch break because it’s the only place to get Wi-Fi. I check around me to make sure I’m still alone. “Aurora. The girl I hooked up with on Saturday night. She’s here.”
“Sweet. I love a summer romance,” he says cheerfully.
“No. There’s no romance here. She, uh, she left while I was in the bathroom.” I sink further into my seat, embarrassed to be admitting I was walked out on to my friend. “And also staff aren’t allowed to mess around together, but even if we were, she isn’t interested.”
JJ sits in silence and I’m busy waiting for him to react. “Russ, you’re going to have to explain it to me like I’m five because I’m not following what the issue is here.”
“I was hyping myself up to ask her out and when I came out of the bathroom she had already gone. Embarrassing, I know, but now it’s awkward because we’re both here and I’ve been staying away from her, an—”
“Back up, Callaghan. You like this woman and you’re staying away from her why?”
“I don’t want to make her feel uncomfortable. She didn’t want to see me again and now she can’t escape me. We’re in the same group.”
JJ sighs heavily. “Did she tell you she didn’t want to see you again?”
“I haven’t actually talked to her. Like I said, I’ve been staying away. I don’t wa—”
“Want to make her uncomfortable, yes, you said that. Oh, Russ. You are so hopeless, but I love you anyway.”
“Thanks? I think?”
“It’s not true unless she said it. Unless she actually tells you she doesn’t want to see you again, then you’re just making assumptions.”
Fantastic. “So what now?”
“Well right now you look like some guy who got what he wanted and is now ignoring her and you’re not that guy. You’re the good guy that doesn’t realize sometimes people leave after hooking up and that doesn’t have to mean anything dramatic. You’re not going to have a chance with her if you ignore her, genius.”
I really am hopeless. “I’m not looking for a chance with her. I don’t want to get fired.”
“So why are you calling me about the girl you don’t want a chance with?”
“I just want to know how to be around her, since we have to work side by side for weeks.” I scratch my jaw, feeling pretty clueless about women right now. “She was pushed up against me yesterday—stop looking at me like that, it was during a team activity—and she was so close to me I could smell her shampoo and, well . . .”
Quickly turning down the volume on my cellphone, I check once again I’m still alone, while JJ does what can only be described as cackle. He eventually calms down and I feel like my entire face is on fire. “It happens to the best of us, buddy. Does she know?”
“Well it was digging into her stomach.” Sighing, I run my hand down my face as I prepare for the cackling again. “When she moved away, she winked at me.”
I count all the way to thirty-three before JJ finally stops laughing. “The real reason you wanted to talk to me.”
“What do I do?”
“You accept that you completely misjudged the situation and you talk to her instead of avoiding her like a dick. You be around her by doing just that, being around her. It’s easy.”