I’M OFFICIALLY A SOPHOMORE.
It seems impossible that an entire year has gone by since I first stepped foot on the Palm South University campus, and even more impossible that I’m now on the other side of recruitment. If I thought it was hard rushing as a freshman — choosing a sorority to call my home — I clearly had no idea what it was like to stay up late every night for two full weeks practicing and preparing for rush as a sister.
Erin wants the best pledge class Kappa Kappa Beta has ever seen, and she’s stopping at nothing to get the most premier girls. Top GPAs, athletes, dancers, pre-med, pre-law, previous class officers, and yearbook editors — she wants them all. We’ve been studying bios for weeks, and with only two days left before the girls make a decision, Erin is pushing us even harder to lock in the new members.
With all the chaos, it’s a miracle I was even able to sneak out. I’m exhausted, I barely have a voice left, and all I want to do is sip a cup of coffee in a quiet coffee shop and kiss my boyfriend whom I haven’t seen all summer.
But apparently, quiet is out of the question.
Pushing through the crowded coffee shop, I keep checking the time on my phone, knowing I won’t have long before Erin will be blowing it up wondering where I went. I’ve never seen Cup O’ Joe’s so packed before. There are girls in every bit of free space, some sitting at tables while others line the walls. None of it makes sense until Grayson comes into view, and when he croons out a smooth note from the Maroon 5 song he’s currently playing, I have a feeling this is going to be the new normal.
The longest sigh leaves my lips as I take him in, noting how his eyes look brighter with the tan still bronzing his skin from the summer. His hair is pulled back, bun messy, beard clean and trimmed, guitar strapped over one shoulder like it’s an actual limb and not an object he can take off.
“Can I help you?” I hear the barista at the counter ask when it’s finally my turn to step up and order, but I can’t tear my gaze from Grayson.
I wait for his blue eyes to connect with mine, but they keep wandering the crowd as he sings to every single girl like they’re the only ones in the room. I can’t deny there’s a sting in my chest every time he winks or gives them that same sexy smile he hooked me with last semester, but I try to remind myself it’s all now part of the show.
As if he senses my discomfort, Grayson furrows his eyebrows, and he searches the crowd until he finds me.
Then, he smiles.
A radiant, too-hot-for-a-coffee-shop, drop-your-panties-now smile.
“Get that girl a caramel latte,” he says, nodding to the barista behind the counter. “And don’t let her leave before I kiss her breathless.”
He keeps that smile on his face and his eyes on me as he finishes the song, but he’s not the only one watching me now. Every girl in the room is staring, eyes flicking from me to Grayson and back again, likely wondering how in the hell I landed him.
I’m still trying to figure it out, too.
When he plays the last note, the whole shop cheers, whistles ringing out, but I barely register them. All I can see is Grayson jumping down from the stage, his stride confident, eyes on my mouth. All I can hear is the beat of my heart in my ears matching each step he takes. All I can smell is his cologne, and I remember sleeping in it, in his sheets, in his arms. And when he finally reaches me, hands framing my face as I taste him for the first time in months, all I can feel is everything.
Longing, excitement, fear, relief, passion — all wrapped into one kiss in a crowded coffee shop where only the two of us exist.
When he pulls back, forehead still pressed against mine and hands on my cheeks, I smile.
“Well, mission accomplished. Officially breathless.”
He smiles, pecking my nose and pulling me into his chest for a hug. “God, I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too, rock star. Speaking of which,” I add, eyeing the girls around us as they throw knives at me with their eyes. “I think you’re going to start a riot in here if you don’t let me go.”
He laughs, shifting to pull me under one arm and leading me through the crowd to a blessedly empty table in the back corner. It’s marked with a reserved sign, and Grayson slides it aside when we sit down in the two chairs behind it.
“They’ll live. It’s crazy, though, isn’t it? That video, Cassie… it changed everything.”
“You had the magic formula,” I remind him. “You, shirtless, lights turned down low, acoustic guitar, and an original song better than anything on the radio right now. All it took was that one YouTube fangirl to share it on Facebook and all her groupies attacked.”
He chuckles as the barista from behind the counter sets down two matching coffee cups, smiling at both of us before leaving us alone again.
“I guess. But seven-hundred thousand views in less than two months?” He shakes his head, reaching for his coffee to take a sip. “It’s crazy. I maxed out on Facebook friends, Cassie. Like… I can’t add anymore. It’s insanity.”
My heart skips as I watch him, eyes all glowy and smile wider than I’ve ever seen it. He’s like a puppy in a blanket — too damn adorable not to kiss.
So, I lean in, taking his coffee from his hands to set it back on the table as I thread my hands behind his neck. His lips are sweet, sticky with caramel, and I lick them clean before letting him slide his tongue between my teeth.
Grayson moans into my mouth, arms wrapping around me and sliding down to palm my ass. His knee is right between mine, and when he pulls me closer, I catch just the slightest bit of friction that makes me whimper.
“Come over tonight,” he whispers, slowing our kiss enough to say the words.
I groan. “I can’t. Recruitment, remember? I actually snuck out to be here…” I check the time on my phone. One missed text from Erin, soon to be five, I imagine. “I should probably get back.”
Grayson pouts, but he doesn’t get to throw much of a fit before they’re announcing him back up on the stage.
“What about Sunday, then? I’m playing at this swanky new restaurant downtown and I want you there as my date.”
I bite my lip, debating my options. Bid Day is Saturday, but there are usually Sunday Funday celebrations at all the houses the day after, too.
“Please?” Grayson adds, pulling me closer. “I need you there.”
Smiling, I run my fingers through the hair at the back of his neck with a nod. I’m sure Erin will have something to say about me not being present, but she’ll get over it. I’ve been in her captivity for over two weeks now.
“I wouldn’t miss it.”
He smiles, leaning in to kiss me once more before pulling me up to stand with him. “Have fun pillow fighting or making necklaces or whatever it is they have you doing over there.”
I smack his arm and he sneaks in another peck on my nose, adjusting his hair in the messy tie he has it in as he jogs toward the stage. Allowing myself one last minute of gawking at him as he straps on his guitar, I debate staying a little longer. That is, until a string of three texts come in from Erin all at once.
Sighing, I give Grayson one last longing look before taking my coffee to go for the walk back to the house.
“There you are,” Erin says as soon as I walk through the door, her voice tight with annoyance.
Sisters are running all over the place, some of them balancing protein bars in one hand and bios in the other. Just because the potential new members are done for the day doesn’t mean we’re even close, and that fact is cemented when Erin thrusts a thick packet into my chest.
“I need you to run this down to the Alpha Sig house and get it to Adam. Then come right back because we’re doing dress check for tomorrow and I’ll need you to help me fix the sisters who apparently don’t understand what cerulean blue means.”
She rolls her eyes, tucking a misplaced blonde strand of hair behind her ear before checking two items off the list on her clipboard.
All I can do is stand there and gape at her.
“Why are you still standing here?” she snaps, then she closes her eyes and forces a breath. “God, sorry. I didn’t mean that to sound as bitchy as it did. I’m just stressed. You okay?”
I nod, forcing the swallow I couldn’t seem to get a grip on before. “Yeah, I just… is there anyone else who could maybe run this down to Alpha Sig? I was actually hoping to take a shower before—”
I don’t even get the rest of my pathetic excuse out before Erin cuts me off.
“I need you to do this, G-Little. Please. I’ve already got Jess, Lei, and your Big off doing other pertinent things and honestly I’m too exhausted to even try to find someone else I trust enough to deliver that packet without somehow getting lost at one of the campus bars.” She sighs, pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes again. “Please?”
I clear my throat, holding the packet up with a forced smile. “Of course, it’s no problem. Be right back.”
“Thank you,” she says, squeezing my arm before jetting off toward the kitchen, yelling out demands at every sister she passes along the way.
The walk to the Alpha Sigma house is short, but I feel every step like an agonizing hour at the gym. I haven’t seen Adam since the dance last semester, the dance where I walked out on him, where I chose Grayson. Just thinking about that night, about the look on his face right before he walked out that door — it sucker-punches me right square in the gut.
“Just because the timing isn’t right for us now doesn’t mean it never will be.”
I shake the memory from my head as I turn, walking up the drive to the large, wooden door with his letters proudly displayed on the front. Taking one last shaky breath, I walk through the door.
Had this been last year, I likely would have knocked. But I’m not a freshman anymore, and I know well enough now that you don’t knock when you go to a fraternity house. I don’t even stop to say hi to the guys playing foosball in the living room, just walk straight toward the back hall. Adam will be in the president’s suite now, and I’m going to drop this stupid packet on his bed and leave. That’s it. The end.
Except as soon as I round the corner leading to the hall, my plan goes up in flames.
Adam is walking toward me, head down as he uses a small towel to dry his hair, wearing only a slightly larger towel tied low around his hips. I freeze, breath catching as I watch the water droplets fall from his shoulders to his chest to his abdomen, all the way down to the hem of the towel. When he’s less than ten feet in front of me he looks up, eyes widening at the sight of me.
And then he freezes, too.
“Cassie?” he asks, tossing the small towel over his shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
My eyes are still glued to his chest, to the new muscles stretching over his ribs and abdomen. He’s filled out over the summer. His hair is a little longer, his arms a little bulkier, and his skin just as dark as the day we came back from spring break.
I have no clue how long I stare, but it’s long enough for him to follow my gaze down to his chest, which immediately makes me flush and squeeze my eyes closed tight. I thrust the packet out toward his chest that I can’t stop looking at and turn, practically sprinting for the door.
“Hey, wait,” Adam calls out behind me, but I just throw an awkward wave over my shoulder and plow through the front door and out into the humid August air.
I inhale a deep breath, shaking my head and burying my face in my hands.
God, what was that?
I’ve seen Adam shirtless before — plenty of times, actually. So then why did I just act like a sixteen-year-old virgin seeing her first boy sans clothing? All summer I’d been hoping Adam and I could be friends again this semester, get rid of all the tension between us and go back to how we were before. Zero awkwardness, that’s what I was aiming for.
My arrow didn’t even hit the target, let alone the bullseye.