Co-Ed(19)

Not because it was too loud.

But because I kept wondering who was causing it. One? Two? All three? Leo and Finn had both tried to talk to me in class and at the coffee shop again. I’d brushed them off but been polite.

And Knox?

Well, let’s just say that Knox had suddenly turned over a leaf that said, “Go out of my way to make Shawn’s life miserable.”

He was suddenly everywhere.

And with a different female every single day.

It drove me insane.

Bat-shit crazy.

And he wasn’t even mine to go senseless over!

The moan happened again.

“That’s it!” I got up from my bed, stomped over to the door, and jerked it open. Then I stormed my way over to their room and almost took down the door with my pounding.

When Leo answered, he grinned down at me. “Come to play?”

I gave him the finger.

His eyes narrowed. “I’m confused. Is that yes or no?”

“Agh!” I threw my hands up in the air. “I have practice tomorrow at five in the morning It’s three. I’ve had one hour of sleep. Can you please keep the moaning to a minimum?”

“You seem stressed.” He tilted his head just as Finn joined him in the doorway. “Doesn’t she?”

“Very.” Finn nodded then reached out and started massaging my right shoulder muscle while Leo grabbed my hand and worked my fingers. It felt so damn good that I forgot I was pissed for about two seconds before I pulled away.

“No.” I jabbed my finger at each of their chests. “Shame on you. Stop using your skills to make me less crazy. I need sleep.”

“I could not agree more.” Leo put his hand over his chest. “If you want, I can come over and—”

“No!” I made a fist with my hands. “I don’t need you to help me sleep. I need you to keep your clients quiet so that I can sleep. Big difference.”

Knox appeared then and held out a pair of Bose noise-canceling headphones. “You can borrow them every Friday as long as you don’t set them on fire when you’re done.”

“Do you think I really want whatever STDs are crawling around the surface?” I hissed.

His eyes turned lethal. “Then I guess you won’t sleep.”

“Dun, dun, dun,” Finn sang in a low voice, just as a small lady who could pass as my grandmother made an appearance and shoved a fifty-dollar bill in Knox’s pants then patted him on his rock-hard six-pack. She had a full-on red wig perched backward on her head and cherry red cheeks with black glasses that she kept shoving up her nose. And her purse looked like something I would have seen on I Love Lucy. It was this giant black clutch that probably held cough drops and prunes.

“Thanks, boys.”

“Love you, Edna!” Finn called while Leo brushed a kiss across her hand.

She finger-waved at Knox and straight-up waddled out of the suite.

I stared after her, my jaw dropping with each step she took until she was out of eyesight.

“What…” I shook my head. “…I mean, seriously, guys, what?”

Finn’s eyes got serious. “She’s lonely.”

“She’s at least eighty!” I yelled, so exhausted I was actually arguing with crazy.

Knox got all up in my business and said through clenched teeth, “Her husband died a year ago. She’s not comfortable with internet dating yet. We’re easing her in because she wants a partner for life, someone she can laugh with, so if we can give her that one laugh, that nice touch once a week, we’re going to fucking do it. Now jump off that pedestal, take the damn Bose, and go to sleep.”

He slammed the headphones in my hand and followed with the door, leaving me staring at a swinging white board with a black marker and a giant heart on it with their names scribbled in fan-girl cursive.

I glared at their names a good two minutes before I turned on my heel and went back to bed.

And I hated myself a little bit more when I lifted the headphones to my face and smelled Knox on them, made the mistake of inhaling again then stupidly sat them on my desk, which just so happened to be next to my pillow, and my head.

I slept soundly for the first time in days.





Chapter Thirteen


Knox

I felt like shit and wanted someone to blame other than the bastard staring back at me in the mirror. Jessica wouldn’t let it rest and threatened to sue. So, all in all? I wasn’t having the best Tuesday of my life.

It had been a little less than a week since the huge fight with Shawn.

She still had my headphones.

And a sick part of me liked that she had something of mine, even if it was to make sure she didn’t have to hear what I did for a living. I groaned and made my way into class.

I was the TA for Professor Duke, and yes, that was his real name. Grumpy old bastard got a nice thrill out of flunking people.

“Knox?” He crooked his finger at me.

“Yeah?”

He didn’t say anything else, just handed me a stack of papers and an answer key then looked back at his computer.

“Right.” I rolled my eyes and made my way over to one of the free desks and started the tedious work of grading papers.

I was about two hours in when I saw her name.



Shawn.