for this. What if I committed to it and then it didn’t work out?” I had to stop myself before I sounded like I was a whiny six-year-old.
“So you do something else, then,” This time, when he threw me the ball, the velocity increased, and I missed it. The ball went sailing over the brick half-wall and into the common area below. We both rushed over to see where it had landed.
Noah was holding it and looking up.
“Nice catch,” I said weakly. Mike and I both pushed off and went back to our chairs.
“At least we didn’t break anything,” Mike said, rooting around in his bag.
“What are you looking for?”
“Something else to throw.” He brought out a power bar. “How about this?”
“Mike, seriously. A power bar?” I shook my head.
“What?” He looked at it and then shrugged and ripped it open. “Want a bite?”
Why not? He held the bar out, and I took a small bite. “My God,” I said, spitting the pieces into my hand. “That’s like cardboard chopped up and glued together with raisins!”
He took a bite and said, “Mmm, delicious.”
“I’m going to read now, you fool.” I pushed his chair with my foot and he rolled about five feet away, chewing on his cardboard bar.
Finally determined to focus on my book, I heard someone clearing his throat and looked up to see Noah standing there, a grim look on his face.
Noah
Had I completely misjudged the two of them? I thought that Grace had less-than-zero interest in this guy, but here they were playing games and eating food together.
“Hey Noah,” Grace looked a little flushed. Was she turned on by this guy? Embarrassed I had seen her eating his power bar? I couldn’t read her face.
“Hey,” My greeting came out shorter and curter than I wanted. She looked down at my hands fisted on the counter. I forcibly made myself relax and spread my fingers out. See, I tried to convey, I’m harmless.
“Um, something wrong?”
Yeah, I thought. You’re eating food from some other guy’s hand. Some guy you said you were interested in. But Grace had pushed the friend thing pretty hard yesterday. I didn’t want to crash and burn in front of this guy in case there was anything remotely going on between the two of them. Never appear weak in front of the enemy.
“Do you have a minute?” I wanted to talk to her alone. Separate and isolate the target. She looked over at Mike, who waved her away.
“I can handle this,” Mike said.
Grace grabbed her cell phone and walked down the long counter to the exit. I followed her. “Where to?” I asked.
She walked toward the stairs and up to the first landing. There was a door there, but I had never opened it. I always assumed it would be locked, but Grace opened the door without a key and stepped inside. I followed.
“What is this place?” There were ordinary light bulbs instead of the hard fluorescents that lit the main library, and row upon row of metal shelves, some empty and some full. The place smelled old and looked abandoned.
“It’s the stacks. Old books out of circulation are put in here,” Grace said softly.
She walked down a small pathway until I saw a metal desk set into a nook. There were two lamps and two rolling chairs. The chairs looked like the ones in the study carrels. I raised a questioning brow toward her.
“The library crew sometimes studies in here during finals or midterms. It’s super quiet, and no one else ever comes in here.”
Studying is likely the last thing I would do in a place like this. For college kids, this is an ideal place to have semi-public sex. I wondered how many people had done the deed in here and if Grace was one of them. I corralled my thoughts before I got too worked up. Imagining Grace having sex on these chairs or the desk with someone other than me would be unproductive. I liked to envision her as untouched, although that was highly unlikely. She was too pretty, too smart, too interesting to have not dated or at least had a few hookups. Either that or all the guys at Central were blind and dumb. I’d like the latter to be true, but I wasn’t placing any money on it.
Grace sat down and motioned for me to sit across from her.
“We’re having a party this weekend. I want you to come,” I told her without preamble.
“I can’t. Josh has a