Never Let Go (7 page)

Spencer starts laughing. I hate how impervious he is to my remarks. It’s
infuriating
. “I’m not here because I’m waiting for you to pay me,” he says, eyes flashing. “
Trust me
.”

I glare at him. I’m just about to open my mouth to tell him to leave again when Katy walks into the room.

“Ugh,” she groans. “My head. It feels like I have a thousand different jackhammers going off in there all at once.” She notices us. “What are you two bickering about so loudly in here?”

“We’re not…”
bickering
, I was going to say. Then I realize that she’s right.

“Here,” Spencer says, pouring her a glass of water. “Drink this.” He bends over to take something out of the shopping bag. “And take these Advil's.”

“You’re not supposed to mix Advil with alcohol!” I protest, remembering something our Planning teacher taught us in high school.

Spencer looks at me as if I’m a child. “That’s
Tylenol
,” he corrects. “Katy was right about you, huh? You’re just totally innocent.”

“I said no such thing,” Katy opposes, offering Spencer a dirty look. He winks at her and smiles at me.

Katy drinks from the glass and downs the pills. Spencer watches her intently. Once he’s satisfied, he turns to me. “See? I’m not so bad.”

“That remains to be seen.” I cross my arms. However, I know he’s partially right. So far, he’s done nothing wrong in taking care of Katy. Maybe I could stand to revise my opinion of him.

Slightly.

Chapter Eight

Monday morning hits. I decide it’s the best time to start looking for a job.

I’m glad Spencer didn’t call me out on my bluff about paying for groceries on the weekend. I have no money.

Still, I’m determined to pay him as soon as I make some. I will
not
be in his debt.

The first classes of the semester also start on Monday. The school has something called “shopping week,” where students are allowed to drift in and out of whatever class they want for the first five school days. It’s a way for us to familiarize ourselves with the professors before finalizing our schedules for the term.

Lucky for me, Katy shared a little secret. Her great insight is that none of the professors takes shopping week seriously. They know half the faces they see this week will be different after students submit their final schedules. They don’t hand out any assignments or give any important lectures.

So, in truth, classes don’t
really
start until next week. That gives me just the time I need to find some employment.

I spent all of yesterday scouring the school’s website for opportunities on campus. Three stand out for me.

The first is a clerical position in the library. It’s not very exciting, but I could probably swing it so I end up getting paid to study. I print off the application.

The second is a bar back at the university-sanctioned pub. The hours aren’t flexible. But, I figure I can double the hourly wage in tips—especially since most of the patrons are bound to be male.

The third job is the one I really want. It’s a spot as a swimming instructor at the campus pool. Like I told Andrew, I’d basically been swimming since before I could walk. The swim lessons my mother signed me up for were probably the only kind thing she’d done for me.

I skim the requirements again. They want someone with experience.
Check
. They want someone who can deal with kids.
Check
. They want someone who is locally certified. Err… that might be a sticking point.

I have my lifeguard certification, but it’s from another state.

Still, I figure it can’t hurt to apply. The job would be
ideal
, without even mentioning the fact that it pays twenty-two bucks an hour. That’s a lot of money for a college kid.

I run out the door, excited to get a start on things. I’m not looking where I’m going as I bound down the stairs and turn onto the street—and collide head on with somebody carrying an enormous cardboard box.

Both of us tumble to the ground. The box falls over and spills open. The head of a ridiculously large stuffed tiger rolls out.

“Oh my God,” I say. “I’m so sorry. I totally didn’t see you there. Are you okay…?”

The words die on my tongue as I see who I’ve run into.

Andrew.

He’s in the process of getting up himself. His eyes meet mine. He freezes.

“Paige,” he says. He offers a smile. “Imagine that. Must be my lucky day.”

I shake my head to dismiss the remark. “I broke your…
animal
,” I stammer.

He laughs. “This old thing?” He nudges the head of the tiger with his toe. “It’s withstood harder falls than that. Don’t worry about it.”

The softness of Andrew’s voice puts me at ease. It’s not the flat, emotionless voice he used when speaking to me after the meeting last week. It’s the warm, kind voice I remember from our date.

I can’t stop myself from smiling back. “What
is
it?”

“A ruined surprise,” Andrew says. He looks from side to side. “If I show you, will you promise not to tell?”

I nod. “Yeah.”

“All right, then.” Andrew’s eyes sparkle as he looks at me. “Come here.”

I step closer while he turns the box upright. I peer inside. There, I see the body of the tiger. It looks like one of those mascots they have at NBA games.

“What’s it for?” I ask.

“Each dorm has a mascot,” Andrew explains. “Ours is the tiger. At the end of the week, all the peer leaders are planning on hosting a little festival of sorts. It’s going to be a whole-day event. There’ll be live music and free food and games and all types of stuff. It’s a way for everyone to get to know each other. We do it every year. It’s lots of fun.”

He gestures to the tiger. “One of the contests is to see which building commands the most dorm pride. If you win, you get bragging rights for the whole year.” He winks. “That’s a pretty big thing. This guy has been key to
your
dorm winning four of the last five years.”

“Sounds pretty cool,” I say. “Can I see him?”

“Sure.” Andrew tosses the tiger’s head to me. I catch it. It’s surprisingly light.

“Try it on,” he suggests.

“What?” I try to give it back to him. “No, I can’t.”

“Aww, come on, don’t be scared.” Andrew takes a step toward me. Suddenly, I’m all too aware of how close he is.

Too
close.

My heart starts beating faster. It reminds me of our final round of frolf.

Andrew puts his hands on either side of the tiger’s head. Our fingers brush. I feel a little bit of warmth run through me. The only reaction Andrew gives is a slight curving of his lips.

Does he
have
to look so sexy when he does it?

“Here,” he says, lifting the head from my hands. I don’t move as he settles it over my face.

The way I’m reacting to him is all wrong. There shouldn’t be any feelings swirling around inside me. He’d made that very clear before. This is the most innocent of interactions. Yet, I feel as off balance as if he’d walked in on me naked.

Andrew steps back and grins. I see him through the dark mesh of the tiger’s open mouth.

“Stand still,” he says. “Let me take a pic of you. You look freaking hilarious. You make a great tiger.”

I want to stay. I want to laugh with him and enjoy myself. But by doing so, I would only be setting myself up for disappointment in the future.

I duck out of the costume while Andrew is reaching for his phone. When he looks up and sees me, he looks confused.

“I have to go,” I tell him quickly. I avoid his eyes as I set the tiger’s head on top of the box and rush away.

***

My first two interviews go like crap. I can’t focus after leaving Andrew so awkwardly outside the dorm.

How can he act as if nothing had changed between us?
Everything
changed after that conversation in the classroom.

Maybe I was the one in the wrong. Maybe Andrew was just being friendly this morning. Nothing he did could be taken as openly flirtatious.

Why, then, did I run off like a spooked squirrel? The warmth I felt when our hands touched was definitely my own fault. It was all in my head. He didn’t do anything to encourage it except, well, just be
himself
.

I can’t fault him for that.

I decide to apologize to him when I see him next. Otherwise, he will probably think I’m a complete freak.

I open the doors to the building that houses the Olympic swimming pool. If I nail this interview, the day might not be a complete disaster.

“Here for the job?” a chubby, red-faced older man chuckles from behind the counter when he sees me strolling through the lobby with the application in my hand. “What are your qualifications?”

“Well, I have my—”

He cuts me off with a sharp gesture. “Can you swim?”

I stiffen. “Of course I can swim!”

“What’s the longest you’ve ever treaded water?”

“What?” I frown. “What does that have to do with—”

“What’s. The. Longest?” His voice is flat but his eyes are keen.

“I did two hours once,” I say, thinking back to a competition I did before I turned thirteen.

“Hmm. Can you do it again?”

“Yes, but I don’t see—”

“Good! I don’t need you to see. Just swim.” He chuckles again as if he’s made some great joke. “Breaststroke. Backstroke. Butterfly. What’s your best?”

“I like all three.”

“Ha!” he laughs. “You don’t mind dealing with obnoxious little brats and their overbearing parents?”

I lift my chin high in the air. “I love kids.”

He eyes me warily. “We’ll see if you still think that by the end of the term.” He looks me up and down… then sticks his hand out. “Congratulations. You’re hired.”

I blink. “Just like that?”

The man shrugs “You’ve got a sweet face. The parents will love you. Getting their approval is half the battle. Of course, we’ll have to ensure you’re as good a swimmer as you claim, but I don’t think you’d be dumb enough to come looking for this job if you weren’t.”

***

The man who “interviewed” me turned out to be the university’s long standing aquatics director. Even he admitted that I lucked out catching him behind the desk. If I’d run into anybody else, they would have dismissed me out of hand because I didn’t have the right certifications.

However, he claimed to be able to tell how good a swimmer somebody is just by looking at her body. I didn’t argue, even though it did make me feel somewhat like a racehorse.

After receiving his help fudging my papers a little, I officially became his first hire of the year.

I return to the dorm beaming. The day didn’t turn out so bad after all.

“Hey.” Katy looks up from painting her nails. “Any luck?”

I wave the contract in front of me. “Got it!”

Katy squeals and jumps up to embrace me in a hug. I laugh as she tries to get her arms around me without any of the lacquer rubbing off.

“Oh, guess what I just found out,” Katy says as she settles back down.

“What?”

“We’ve got another meeting with our peer group this evening!”

“Great,” I groan.

“Are you going?”

“It’s mandatory, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, but I can cover for you and sign your name. If you want to avoid anything awkward with Andrew.”

“I’m all right,” I tell her. “Actually, I bumped into him today.”

“Oh?” Katy’s eyebrows shoot up.

“Yeah. It was kind of strange. I mean, he didn’t do anything wrong. But I froze up when he came close and then I bailed.”

“Froze up how?” Katy asks.

“Like, I just psyched myself out. He was acting normal.
I
was acting strange. I knocked him over and ran off.”

“You knocked him over?” Katy asks.

“Yeah.” I explain how it happened, and she laughs.

“That doesn’t sound so bad!”

“Maybe not,” I agree. “But, I bet I made things a hundred times more awkward between us.”

“Then let me cover for you,” she offers again. “You don’t have to go.”

“No.” I shake my head. “I need to face this myself. I don’t want to go on having to avoid him the whole year.”

Katy glances at the clock. “Well, you’ve got another few hours to figure it out. Let’s grab some dinner and see if you don’t change your mind then.”

***

I end up going to the meeting with Katy, just like I said I would. I have a plan to apologize to Andrew before it begins.

When we get there, however, he’s nowhere to be seen.

He rushes in ten minutes late and immediately starts going over all the things he’s supposed to tell us about: university rules, disciplinary procedures, where to go to if you need counseling, who to talk to if you want academic help, that type of stuff. It’s extremely dry.

What makes it worse is that he doesn’t even acknowledge I’m there. In fact, he pretends that my whole corner of the room doesn’t exist the entire meeting.

Andrew wraps things up by saying our RAs have invited everyone over for a meet-and-greet socializer. I stare at him, willing him to look at me. He does not. When the meeting’s done, he runs out the room so fast that I’m
sure
it’s because he wants to avoid me.

“That was weird,” Katy says as we follow the rest of the students out. “Are you sure nothing happened between you two you’re not telling me about?”

“You know everything I do,” I sigh.

“Maybe he had someplace to be. You could tell he was distracted.”

“Maybe.” Somehow, I doubt it.

We walk down the stairs and step outside. The crowd has thinned out. We start toward our dorm when Katy stops me.

She nudges my shoulder and tilts her head to one direction. I follow her gaze. There, at the intersection of two streets, I see Andrew having a conversation with…
Spencer
?

Yes, it’s definitely them. Both men look livid.

They notice us. Spencer spares one glance in my direction, scoffs, and stalks off. Andrew goes the other way.