You and Everything After

“I think I saw him last night, too…” I say with a questioning face, just feeling him out on this. “My sister was all over him,” I say, and Ty quickly confirms it.

“I remember her. She’s cute,” he says, and I don’t know why it feels like such a massive punch to my ego that he thinks my sister’s attractive, but it does. “Not my brother’s type, though.”

Great. So does this mean she’s yours? I keep that conversation in my head, and do my best to look unaffected, letting my eyes take in the various buildings on either side of us, the trees, the other students—anything to keep me from frowning a big, fat-ass frumpy face.

When we get to the gym, Ty offers to find Nate for Rowe. I turn my focus to my friend and her bright pink face. I’m not sure when she met the man Paige called Mr. Dreamy Muscles half of the night, but it’s clear she’s into him. Her face grows even redder when he walks over, and when they talk she starts to stare at her feet. It sounds like they had plans this morning, and while she originally thought he stood her up, it turns out it was just miscommunication. When Rowe’s not paying attention, I let myself get a good look at Nate’s face—I can tell by the way he’s looking back at her that whatever is sparking between them goes both ways. Paige is going to be pissed. But she’ll get over it, and she’ll find herself a different poster boy to chase down. She always does.

And me…well, I had a nice round of flirting, but it looks like that’s as far as this train goes for Mr. Dreamy’s brother and me, since he’s fully engrossed in something on his phone, barely paying attention to me or his brother anymore.

“Rowe, I’ve got to go. I have an appointment with a personal trainer in ten,” I say, glad to have an excuse to leave Ty without looking desperate or uncomfortable. “I’ll see ya back at the dorm.”

I slip my watch from my wrist and tuck it into my workout bag, willing myself not to look at Ty, not to see if he noticed I was leaving. I give a small wave to Rowe and grant Nate a smile, then spin on my feet and head to the main doors to meet with my trainer. But I’m weak, and I turn at the last second, pushing through the door with my hip and looking up—and damn if he isn’t staring right back at me—smile, dimples and all.

Shit. I like this one. And he is going to play me.

Ty

I’m not sure what I did to deserve this fortunate run of luck, but I’m going to enjoy the ride. Cass just left for her personal-trainer appointment, and my first appointment is in exactly ten minutes. I’m pretty confident that isn’t a coincidence.

I pass through the men’s locker room so I can see if she’s the one waiting for me, and I actually bite my knuckles when I see her sitting there at my appointment table. With a quick “thank you” to the heavens, I push through the locker room doors and almost make it to where she’s sitting before she notices me.

“So, you must be…Cassidy Owens,” I say, flipping through the forms tucked on my clipboard, pulling the cap from my pen with my teeth. I’m doing my best to keep my grin in check. Her entire body flushes the second she sees me—the light shade of pink taking over her skin, even brighter next to the yellow blonde of her hair.

“Tyson Preeter,” she says, her eyes closing just a little while she puts it all together.

“Well, this is going to be easy; you’ve already heard about me,” I wink and hand her the check sheet to go through her goals and objectives for our first session.

“It was in the email. And now I feel…well…pretty stupid that I didn’t put that together. Ty…Tyson,” she says with a slight wince. Her eyes stay on me for a few seconds as she taps the pen to the top of the clipboard. “This…is weird now, isn’t it?”

“It’s only weird if you make it weird…Adrianna,” I tease, wanting her to know that yes, I in fact remember every little detail from our first encounter last night. Hell, I remember every detail from the first time I saw her—even the smell of the gum she popped when she walked by my booth at Sally’s. And, not just remembering all of this shit, but obsessing over it? Yeah, for me, that’s a little weird.

“Right…Adrianna,” she laughs, whipping through a few items on the check sheet, pausing at the goals section, and looking up at me through a few wavy strands of hair that she quickly pushes back behind her ear. “That…uh…that was an experiment. You know, just to try out being someone else. Just for an hour or two.”

We stare at each other for a heartbeat longer than normal, and I can feel this tiny shift in the air between us. “Yeah, I get that,” I say. No joke or jab, just me getting it. And I do. She has no idea how much I get that.