Sparks - Wendy Higgins Page 0,16
me, one of the soldiers jumped up from his seat at the table and waved us over. The others looked over and followed suit, Jerome being one of them.
“No, no,” I said as Silas waved a hand to stop them.
Jerome gave me a hug and I held his arm. “At least sit with us.”
He glanced over to the meek buffet. “I feel bad, but they just ran out of food. At least the hot stuff.”
“We’ll be okay,” I assured him. I tried to glance nonchalantly around the room, but my eyes immediately found Shawn sitting two tables away. He raised his coffee cup to me and my heart jumped inside my ribs. I gave a tight smile and turned to see Silas watching our exchange. We walked together to the buffet and I took a mini box of cereal with a carton of milk. Silas took an ugly banana, a yogurt, and the end slice of a loaf of bread which he popped in the toaster. Thankfully there was a little coffee left, but it was a bit weak for my taste.
We went back to the table and I nibbled at my cereal, trying really hard not to slump. Geez, I swore I could feel Shawn glancing at me. The blood buzzed under my skin.
“How are you guys up so early?” I asked Jerome.
“Same as you, probably,” he said. “We’re used to getting up at the ass-crack of dawn.”
“Sounds right,” Silas said with a chuckle.
“Mornin’ Harlow Robinson.”
Gah! My entire insides swooped at the sound of that voice, and my heart raced as I looked up into Shawn’s handsome face.
“Good morning,” I said with a shy smile.
“Feeling okay?” he asked.
“Eh.” I groaned a little and he laughed.
“Same here. Whew.”
“Did you sleep well?” I asked.
He shook his head, staring out over the room. “I never do.”
That seemed like a deeper admission to me, and I wondered about the thoughts that kept him up at night.
“What will y’all do today until it’s time to leave?” I asked.
“Nap. Play cards. Maybe try to find a way to get some pizza.”
“That sounds amazing,” I said. We smiled at each other and I felt the steady trot of my heart. Being near him was dangerous. “I’m going to head back up.”
“All right,” he said quietly. “See you in a bit.”
I nodded and stood, with Silas right behind me. As we walked, Silas muttered to me.
“Someone is smitten.”
Annoyance pinched me. “I’m not going after him.”
His eyebrow lifted, and he hit the elevator button. “I wasn’t talking about you.”
Silas’s words tickled my insides, but I shook my head.
“He’s just being nice—” Silas cut me off with a laugh, and I glared at him. “Don’t. Please.”
“All right.” He sighed and shrugged, wearing a smirk as we got off the elevator and went our separate ways.
In my room, I flung myself onto my bed and closed my eyes. Time to get my mind off Mr. Unavailable. I felt a zap of nervous thrill when I thought about that ridiculous Sparks app. I chewed the inside of my lip as I curled up and opened it. First things first, I deleted the picture of me in a bikini. If I saw a bikini pic on some other girl’s profile I wouldn’t even blink an eye, but I just wasn’t ready to feel exposed to the general male public yet.
My nerves were making me sweat a little. Holly and the others would laugh their asses off to see my hand shaking like this. I clicked the icon to browse the men who’d “liked” me. I didn’t trust any of them who only had one picture and no bio at all. Any pictures or bios that reeked of ego went left, and that was a lot of them. Got abs? Don’t care. But I will stare at them a hot minute before I swipe left. The whole process was a bit shallow. I realized if I was meeting these guys in real life the physical attraction would still be the first thing that caught your attention, but after you start talking to someone you often find yourself more attracted to the personality or turned off by it, regardless of the attraction. But alas. We were not at a bar.
Left. Left. Left.
I wanted someone with a genuine smile. Someone whose bio sounded normal or made me laugh. Blue eyes would be nice. And a uniform.
And then I realized…I was basically looking for Shawn.
Ugh.
I shoved thoughts of him aside and focused hard on the men.