Tutoring the Player (Campus Wallflowers #1)(21)

“That is some of my best work.” Violet leans back, satisfied with his answer.

“How was the rest of your weekend?” he asks me.

“Fine. Yours?”

“Good. We got in last night and went out for a bit. Any more drinking and dressing up?” He smiles at me. Jordan Thatcher is freaking smiling at me.

I shake my head. I’m a mess, heart racing, palms sweaty, stomach still doing flips. And then there’s Jordan. He always looks so comfortable, so relaxed. Then again, he wasn’t the one that got drunk and sent sexy pictures.

To be fair, I wasn’t trying to be sexy. Or maybe I was. The dresses are sexy, and I felt good wearing them. Some part of me wanted his approval. I can’t quite wrap my brain around that. Sober, I can see how it came off, but drunk, I just wanted to be noticed. I wanted Jordan to notice me.

He sits forward. Violet’s gone back to her homework, or at least she’s pretending not to be listening as Jordan says, “I’m glad I ran into you.”

“You are?”

“I didn’t know how to say this over email, still don’t.” He rubs his jaw and looks more unsure than I’ve ever seen him. I didn’t know he was even capable of that look.

“O-kay.”

“Just say it,” Violet pipes in, still not looking up. “Because right now, she’s going through every worst-case scenario in her head.”

She’s absolutely right about that.

A small chuckle leaves his mouth. “Liam’s a good guy.”

Of all the places I thought this conversation was going, this wasn’t anywhere on the list. I wait for him to continue.

“He’s a little slow to pick up the vibe when someone’s into him.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

He gets to his feet and shoots a grin right at me. “I’m saying, if you like him, ask him out.”

Ask him out? Just like that. Is he crazy?

“But I don’t—” My voice breaks off. Denying seems stupid. And even if I could get up the courage, I’d never be able to face Liam again if he said no. Lab would be unbearable, and I joke, but I can’t drop it. I need that class.

Jordan takes a step away, and his smile gets softer. “He won’t say no. See you Tuesday.”





I spend the next two days thinking about the weird interaction with Jordan, and playing scenarios in my head where I do what he suggested. Even in my daydreams, I can’t say the words without blushing a hideous shade of red.

I hate that my crush on Liam was so easy for him to see. Okay, fine, he’d have to be an idiot not to notice. And Jordan isn’t an idiot. I haven’t totally figured him out, but an idiot he is not.

Tuesday afternoon during our lunch break, Violet corners me in the kitchen as I’m packing up for my final classes of the day.

“Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

“I’m not asking him out.” I’ve told her as much the other ten times she’s asked.

“You heard Jordan; he won’t say no!”

My heart is galloping in my chest. “Oh, well, Jordan said it, so it must be true.”

“I don’t think he would steer you wrong. Which is odd because I never thought Jordan Thatcher would be the type of guy to come over and tell you to ask out a guy.” She shrugs. “There was something about the way he said it. He likes you.”

“Liam?”

“No, Jordan.”

“Oh yeah, that’s why he told me to ask out someone else. Why are you pushing me to go out with Liam anyway? You hate jocks.”

Violet fidgets. She doesn’t really hate Liam or Jordan or anyone that I know of, except maybe our neighbor Gavin (they have history), but she’d never approve of me dating a popular jock. When it was theoretical, she played along but now…

“It’s what you want, and at least Liam is a decent one.”

I grab my backpack off the chair and start for the door. “I will see you later.”

“He won’t say no,” she yells after me.

I’m usually the first person to physics lab, but today I walk so slowly that at three minutes until class starts, I realize at this rate I’m going to be late and have to book it the rest of the way across campus. Professor Green is beginning his lecture when I open the classroom door. All eyes are on me as I slip inside.

“Sorry,” I tell him as I go to my table.

Liam pulls out the extra stool next to him.

“Thanks,” I whisper.

For the twenty-five minutes that Professor Green covers today’s lab, all I can do is focus on breathing. Frantic energy flows through my veins, and as the seconds tick by, I recognize it as adrenaline. The dangerous kind that makes you do things that shouldn’t be physically possible, like lift a car or ask out your crush.

“You may get started,” Professor Green says.

Liam angles his body toward me and smiles, then starts setting up the lab. I look at Jordan for reassurance. He meets my gaze with an intensity that makes my chest tighten. Oh god. He better be right.





10





JORDAN





I can practically see Daisy’s thoughts over her head like a thought bubble. She and Liam are working through the lab while I lead us through the instructions, per the usual.