Dakota and I look to her. “What? Come on, he’s hot. No, not only hot, he’s nice and…” She trails off. “I’m just saying, it isn’t totally ridiculous that she has a crush on him.”
Dakota shakes her head. “Well, whatever, but every time he’s around, she gets all flustered and blushes.”
Gross. “That’s so weird, but whatever, the job sounds fun.”
“Great. I’m working tomorrow, so I’ll ask.”
I get up and pull my phone out of my pocket so I can take pictures of my work. “Stand against the wall.” I point to a blank section of white wall in her room and Reagan moves in front of it. “The guy you were crushing on earlier this year, it wasn’t Adam, right?”
“What?” Reagan freezes. “No, of course not. I only meant I could understand it.”
“Is it Heath?” Seems like a long shot since he’s not dating anyone, but I need her to rule him out anyway. It would be too weird if she was into him.
“Definitely no.”
“Why ‘definitely no’? Heath is great.”
“Rhett?” Dakota asks.
“Would you two stop trying to guess. I’m not telling you and it doesn’t matter anyway. Every time I’m around him, I go stupid shy. I need a guy more on my level. Plus, I have a new crush and he is single and he asked for my number.”
My phone pings as I take a few photos of Reagan’s makeup. “That’s Maverick. I’m going over to study with him again.”
“Can you do this for my date?” Reagan makes a circle in front of her face.
“Absolutely, but you don’t need my help to look gorgeous.” I grab my stuff and wave as I head out.
Maverick is already at Adam’s apartment when I get there. He’s on the couch with Charli next to him. Rhett and Heath are playing video games.
“Did I miss Adam?” I sit in the chair next to Heath.
He bumps my shoulder. “Yeah, he left for Taryn’s a few minutes ago.”
“Does she ever come here?”
“Nah, not really.”
I get up and haul my backpack to the table and pull out my laptop and a copy of Shakespeare’s sonnets I borrowed from the library. Maverick follows and takes the chair across from me. Charli lies at his feet.
“Do you want me to take a look at your notes or should we jump into the study questions?”
He heaves a dramatic sigh. “My notes might be shit.”
He hands over a notebook filled with three pages of his small penmanship.
“Did you write down everything the professor said?” I ask, baffled as I scan over them. The amount of detail he’s captured is crazy.
“Uh, yeah. I wasn’t sure what was important and what wasn’t, so I wrote down damn near everything.”
“I’m not sure either. Wow okay. The test is an essay?”
“Yeah. Payne, phone’s going off in your room,” Maverick calls to him.
Heath stands with the controller, backing out of the room. “Ah, ah, fuck. I’m cornered. Pause, one second.” He rushes into his room and out of view, but I hear him answer the phone.
His voice lowers and softens, that tells me immediately he’s talking to a girl. A surge of white-hot jealousy heats my face. He comes back out, phone to his ear, and tosses the controller on the couch.
“Sorry, man, gotta take this,” he says to Rhett and then disappears back into his room, shutting the door behind him.
“So, what do you think?” Maverick asks, bringing me back to the present.
“These notes are great.” We spend the next fifteen minutes picking out things we think he can use. Maverick is detailed and thorough in his studying. It surprises me he’s failing actually. At least until I start asking him questions about it and his attention is about as focused as Charli’s.
“What was the question again?” he asks.
I laugh and he gives me a sheepish grin. “I really fucking hate this class.”
“Why are you taking it?”
“I thought it would be an easy A. I breezed through American Literature.”
“Okay, well, how did you study for that class?”
“I don’t know.” He leans over and pets his dog and a smile pulls at his lips. “Heath and I read the books out loud to each other in funny accents.”
“Heath helped you study? Did you have the class together?”
“Not together, but we were both taking it, different professors. Most of the reading was the same though.”
“Were you roommates?”
“Yeah, we lived in the dorms together last year.”
I’m suddenly less interested in studying than I am hearing about Heath helping Maverick study. What I would give for a peek into the past of those two reading Hemingway.
“Okay, well, we can try that.” I grab the book off the table between us. “The first five sonnets?”
“I’ve already read them.”
“But now that you know the form and themes, I think you’ll be able to pick them out easier. Maybe they’ll make more sense.”
“Yeah, all right.”
I clear my throat and open it to the first page and start reading.
As I’m finishing it and handing the book over to Maverick for a turn, Heath’s door opens and he steps out.
“Payne! Sit your sexy ass down and read me some Shakespeare.”
Heath takes a seat and to my surprise takes the book. “You’re reading it out loud?”
“It helped last year. Worth a try, right?”
Heath crosses one ankle over the other. “What do we have here?”
“Sonnets,” Maverick says.
A deep laugh rolls out of him as he brings the paperback up and starts reading. His voice is crisp, and the gravelly timber is easy to slip right under. His pitch varies and practically sings along the stanzas. I’m falling into it so deeply and I’m not even the one who needs to be paying attention.
Heath looks up as he’s flipping the page and our eyes meet over the top of the book.
“Do it in your British accent,” Maverick begs.
Heath looks like he might object, but then Maverick sticks his bottom lip out like he’s pouting.
Heath looks to me again quickly before he starts again. I giggle at his
