Wild (The Ivy Chronicles #3)(23)

With a groan, I dragged myself out of the bed. A run was just what I needed. Endorphins pumping through my system that made me feel better, stronger. That helped get rid of all residual sexual frustration.





Chapter 8

IT WAS CLEAR FROM the start that I would be the grunt.

After Dr. Chase met with us and outlined our duties for the next couple weeks, we left his office and walked to the library. It didn’t take ten minutes for the two grad students to assign me the task of accumulating the necessary statistics for Chase’s project on Strategies of Entrepreneurship. A task that amounted to hours on the computer. Snore.

Gillian would write up my findings and actually get the pleasure of interviewing local businesses and conducting phone interviews with entrepreneurs on a national scale. Connor would be combining our data and using it to research social media commercialization tactics.

“So we’re all set for now?” Gillain looked first at Connor, then at me, pushing her bright blue glasses up the bridge of her nose.

Connor clapped his hands together. “All set.”

I nodded, not really suspecting they were interested in my input. That was the impression I had gotten so far. I was the undergrad here.

“Great.” Gillian started gathering her things and stuffing them into her bag. “I’m meeting Caroline for coffee.” She looked me squarely in the face as she uttered this. “She’s another grad student who applied to work with Dr. Chase this summer. Somehow she didn’t get picked.” She grinned a small, tight smile then.

My return smile felt brittle.

Looking very satisfied, she rose from her chair and marched away.

“Don’t mind her,” Connor said as I stared at her retreating back.

I looked at him with a shrug. “At least I know where she stands.”

He snorted. “If Caroline had been picked, then she would have been bitchy, too, trying to outdo her. You actually made her day. Right now she gets to go meet with Caroline and act all sympathetic while inside she’s just patting herself on the back that she’s better than Caroline.”

“Wow,” I murmured. “It’s going to be great working with her this summer.”

“Hey.” He spread his hands in front of him. “You have me. I’m a nice guy.”

I smiled slightly and started packing my things. “Well, I guess I better start on those stats.”

He started gathering his things, too, stuffing his laptop into his bag. He fell in beside me as we walked out of the library. “So how did you get this job anyway?”

I slid him a look. He was tall and lanky. His chestnut hair fell low across his forehead, brushing his eyebrows. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you’re an undergrad.” He tossed his hair back in a move I’d witnessed him do constantly in the last hour. It only ever fell back on his forehead. “Dr. Chase must be pretty impressed with you.”

“Dr. Chase liked my final paper—”

“That’s it? I mean you didn’t hypnotize him?” He waved a hand in a small circle, wiggling his fingers.

“You get you’re being insulting, right?” I stopped and looked at him, trying to hide a smile.

“Hey, no offense!”

“I didn’t sleep with him if that’s what you’re angling at. God, what a cliché that would be.”

He shuddered. “Oh, I wasn’t even going there. He smells like Taco Bell.”

“Right?” I laughed as we stepped outside and descended the steps.

“Butttt.” He cocked his head in mock contemplation. “You know what they say about clichés.”

I stopped at the base of the steps leading up to the library and propped a hand on my hip. “So is this what it’s going to be like all summer? You and Gillian looking at me like I’m some sort of incompetent who slept with her professor to get a job? Maybe I should go talk to Dr. Chase?”

“Shit.” Connor dragged a hand through his flopping hair, his eyes wide with horror. “I’m kidding. Sorry, I guess I really screwed this up.”

I dropped my hand and winked. “I’m just messing with you.”

He grabbed his chest. “Damn. You nearly gave me a heart attack.” He released his chest as I laughed and looked me over. “You’re all right, Undergrad.”

“Thanks.”

“Good to know I didn’t screw up.”

“Screw what up?”

“This. Small talk. Flirtation.”

“Is that what you were doing?” I teased. “It was hard to tell.”

“Ouch.” He chuckled and readjusted his grip on the strap of his backpack. “Yeah. I was trying.”

I studied him a moment. He was cute. His face was broad with brackets edging his mouth, like he smiled a whole lot. A good sign.

Sucking in a breath, I decided getting out there again might be a good thing. I couldn’t solely fixate on Logan. It wasn’t healthy. “You know you could just ask a girl out for coffee. Or a smoothie. I like those.”

“Do you want to go get a coffee right now?” His face brightened eagerly as I considered him. It was probably a bad idea. We were working together, but . . .

“Sure,” I heard myself saying. We were only working together for the summer, after all, and I needed new friends. A guy like Connor, someone in grad school . . . older, he might just possess the maturity that had been missing in the guys I had been dating recently.