“Hey,” I said after opening the door. “Come in.”
He smiled and entered with his hands shoved in his pockets.
“So, this is it.” I closed the door and gestured to the one-bedroom, one-bathroom shoebox.
He looked around. “It’s great.”
“I don’t know about great, but it’s home away from home. And it’s close to campus, so I don’t have to worry about parking my car.”
“Nice.”
“Did you get here, okay?”
“Uncle Jim’s old truck barely made it, but other than that the drive wasn’t too bad.”
“So, I thought we could walk around a bit and then grab something to eat.”
“You lead the way.”
I grabbed my keys and slid them into my pocket. Jacob followed me out. It was the first day of September, but the sun was still blasting down eighty-degree heat. I couldn’t wait for fall.
We walked around as I pointed out the buildings where Jacob’s classes were as well as the Student Center.
“And there’s the bookstore,” I said. “Did you want to grab your books while you’re here?”
“Sure.”
The cool air inside the bookstore was a relief. Jacob printed out his schedule from one of the computers and handed it to the girl behind the counter. I lagged behind and wandered through the aisles. I picked up a book out of the fiction section and read the back cover.
“Hey, Maeve.”
I looked up and saw Sarah, my polar opposite with blonde hair and blue eyes. “Hey, how’s it going?”
She shrugged. “Not too bad. Getting ready for a new semester.” She waved what I assumed was her schedule in the air. “How are things with you?”
“Fine. Just doing the same.” I made eye contact with Jacob as he approached us with a stack of books in his arms. He caught Sarah’s attention as he got closer.
“Find everything you need?” I asked Jacob.
“Hope so. I don’t think I can carry any more.”
Sarah smiled at Jacob as my gaze switched between the two of them. Jacob gave her a nervous smile back.
“Sarah, this is my friend, Jacob. Jacob this is Sarah.”
She gave him a short wave, and he nodded in acknowledgement. Sarah and I worked together at the club. But that wasn’t the only thing we had in common.
“Randy’s having a party at her house tomorrow night. You guys should stop by.”
I looked at Jacob. “Maybe, if Jacob’s up for it.”
Jacob shrugged. “Okay.”
“Great,” Sarah said.
Jacob fumbled with the pile of books. “I’m going to pay before my arms fall off.”
Sarah laughed, and I gripped the book in my hand tighter.
“It was nice meeting you, Sarah.”
“It was nice meeting you, too. Hopefully, we’ll see more of each other.”
Or not. Or you could back off. Or you could sink your teeth into someone else. Not my innocent Jacob.
She waited until he was out of earshot.
“Damn, Maeve. Where’ve you been hiding that one?”
“He just moved here from Florida.”
“Are you two…?”
Did I lie? “No, we’ve been friends since we were kids.”
She pursed her lips. “That’s the best kind of sex. All those years of pent-up tension.”
“It isn’t like that with him. He’s not that kind of guy.”
“So what kind of guy he is?”
I thought about for it a second. “Definitely not the love them and leave them kind.”
“Okay.” She let out a deep sigh. “But I still think you should get on top of that…or underneath it.”
I smiled and gave her a gentle push.
She smiled back. “I’ll see you at work tonight.”
“Yeah, see you in paradise.”
Her gaze fell on Jacob one last time as she walked away.
Jacob lugged his books back to my apartment. I didn’t have anything to eat at the house but knew somewhere where we could eat cheap.
The restaurant wasn’t busy since the semester hadn’t officially started yet. It wasn’t until we sat down at the table when I noticed my last one-night stand sitting across the room. He was with another girl, maybe his girlfriend.
“Something wrong?” Jacob asked.
“No,” I said with a fake smile. “Everything’s good.” I dug my face into the menu, hoping I could go unnoticed.
The waitress took our order and returned shortly with our drinks.
I forced myself to keep my eyes on Jacob.
“So, how do you know Sarah?” he asked.
“I met her freshmen year.”
“She seems nice.”
I smirked. “Yes. She is.”
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing,” I said with a shrug. “She’s nice.”
“That’s what I said.”
“And pretty.”
“You said that,” Jacob replied.
“Just pointing out the obvious.” I swirled the straw in my glass. “I could set it up for you, if you wanted to.”
He scoffed. “No.”
“It was just a suggestion.” Thank goodness he said no.
“I don’t need a pimp, Maeve. Thanks.” Jacob changed the subject and started to talk about the baby goat, and how much he’d grown in the last two weeks. “He misses you.”
“And how do you know that?”
He took a sip of his soda. “He told me. Duh.”
I laughed. “Tell him I’ll come visit soon.”
The waitress came back, set the food on the table, and walked away.
“You should take the ride back with me tonight,” Jacob said.
“I can’t. I have to work tonight.”
“Bartending?”
I nodded, my mouth full of food.
“How long have you been doing that?”
I calculated in my head. “About a year.”
“Do you like it?”
“It’s okay.” I was hit with a tinge of guilt about lying. The truth was I started working at the club as a bartender. But when I heard about the money the dancers were making, I convinced Sal to let me start dancing.
“You make pretty good money?”
“It’s decent.” It was the best paying job I’d ever had.
“What’s the name of the place you work at? Maybe I’ll come see you sometime.”
A piece of food went down the wrong tube. I coughed and reached for my water.
“Are you okay?”
I nodded as I took a sip. When I could breathe again, I reached for my phone to check the time. “We better head back. My shift starts soon.” I had plenty of time until I had to be at work, but I didn’t like the direction of this conversation. I could just picture the look on Jacob’s
