Need Me (Broke and Beautiful #2)(20)

When Honey walked into the event hall located on the second floor, she was disappointed to see the poetry reading hadn’t started yet. She didn’t recognize anyone right away, so she paced around the perimeter of the room, resisting the urge to grab her phone and text Abby something meaningless, just to have something to do with her hands. As she always did when attending these events, she wondered how the attendees formed groups so quickly. Did they arrive together, or did they just walk up and mingle with each other? Maybe someday she’d arrive early enough to find out.

“Hey, you.”

Honey turned to find Winker sauntering toward her from the men’s bathroom. “Oh, hey. Before you say anything else, can you tell me your name?”

When he looked at her curiously, she started to ramble. “If we say too much, it won’t be appropriate for me to ask your name. Really, I should know it already, since we’ve been in class together for a month. But I don’t. And there’s a brief window where it won’t be embarrassing for me to ask. Your name.”

“Todd?”

He’d said it like a question. “Are you asking me if that’s your name?”

“Do you want some lemonade?”

“Sure.”

Honey wanted to knock her head against the wall as Todd headed for the snack table. She’d never thought talking to new people would be this hard. Growing up in a small town as she had, everyone she’d spoken to on a daily basis had known her since she was in diapers. Every new person she met here was a fresh start. A blank slate that would start to fill as soon as she opened her mouth. No one else seemed concerned about that, and she wished that were the case for herself. This is why she’d chosen medicine as an eventual career.

Todd retuned a moment later with two plastic cups of lemonade, three cookies cradled in his arm. He handed her a glass of lemonade. She waited for him to offer her a cookie. He didn’t. “You look hot.”

Mental eye roll. “Thanks. This is my roommate’s dress.”

“Is she hot?”

“Her boyfriend thinks so.” This was going well. “So are you from out of state?”

“Oh man, I can’t believe that * is here.” Todd turned slightly so both of their backs were toward the exit, his shoulder pressing against hers. Honey’s pulse jumped, but not because of Todd’s proximity. No, she had a good idea which “*” her quasi-date was referring to, and yes, their last encounter had been decidedly shitty, but she still didn’t like him being called an *. Unless she was the one doing it. Three cheers for making sense.

“Which * are you talking about?” She sipped her lemonade. Store-bought. Blech. “There’s a lot of them in this city. The overcrowding makes it kind of inevitable.”

“I don’t know what you’re saying half the time, but the accent makes it cute.” He popped a cookie into his mouth. “Professor Dawson. The man in tweed. Do you know he gave me a D on my last paper?”

The back of Honey’s neck started to heat. Was Ben looking at her? The warmth in her neck traced a downward path to her legs, and she suddenly felt overexposed. It didn’t make her want to cover up, though. It made her feel feverish. Sexy. As if they were back in the classroom, Ben’s hands creeping up her thighs, those thumbs massaging devastating circles into her sensitive flesh. God, she hadn’t even set eyes on him yet and already her body was reacting to him. Knowing her nipples had gone hard, she crossed her arms and tried to focus on Todd. What had he said? Oh right, he’d gotten a D. “Did you do the extra credit?”

“Hell no. I can barely manage the regular credit.” Todd brushed a stray piece of hair off her shoulder, and she barely restrained a flinch. “Maybe you can help me study.”

As inconspicuously as possible, Honey put a few inches of distance between her and Todd. There was no more help for it, her gaze immediately bounced around the room, looking for Ben.

She sucked in a breath when they finally locked eyes. Just like in the library yesterday, seeing him outside the classroom gave her belly an extra kick. He’d taken off the tweed jacket and draped it over his arm, black dress shirt rolled up to his elbows. His hair looked a little more haphazard than usual, as if he’d been tugging on it with his fingers all day. She desperately wanted to be the one to mess it up. When Ben raised an eyebrow, she realized her thoughts were showing on her face and quickly reminded herself she was mad as hell at him. With a raised eyebrow of her own, she turned back to Todd and smiled. “Should we find a seat?”

Honey and Todd took a seat toward the back, joining a few of her friends in the premed program, who had just started to arrive. Having gone a full five minutes without looking at Ben, Honey was feeling pretty smug until the professor took a seat two rows ahead of her. With another, older woman who wasted no time resting her hand on his arm and whispering in his ear.

Honey didn’t hear a single damn word of the poetry reading.

BEN LET OUT the breath he’d been holding since the reading started, grateful it was over. He liked Viv, one of his fellow English teachers. In fact, she was the type of woman he usually dated. Midthirties, divorced, and not looking for anything serious. Straightforward. Unlike a certain blonde in a short pink dress whose presence he’d felt for the last hour as if she’d been sitting on his lap, kissing his neck, talking in his ear.