Uncovering You: The Complete Series (Mega Box Set) (214 page)

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.

I eye Katy in confusion. “Um, do they know each other?”

“God, I hope not.” She grimaces. “Drama with them involved is more than you need right now.”

“Agreed.”

“Although if I had to guess,” Katy continues, “I’d bet pennies to loonies that their confrontation had something to do with you.”

I look at her in disbelief. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m telling you, Spencer has a thing for you. He’s not one to give up easily.”

“Well, I made it clear to him I want nothing to do with him.”

“You say that now. Did you know he asked me about your date with Andrew today?”

I stop in my tracks. “
What
?”

Katy shrugs. “Yeah. He said he saw you in a car with another guy. Wanted to know who it was.”

“Did you tell him?”

“I can’t exactly say no to him,” she admits shamefaced.

“Oh my God. Katy!”

“What? Come on, it’ll spice your life up a bit. Having two hot guys interested in you at once? That’s like every girl’s fantasy.”

“That is so
not
how it is,” I stress. “Whatever happened between me and Andrew stopped mattering the moment he became our peer leader. And Spencer? Don’t get me started. You’re the one who has eyes for him.”

“Had,” Katy corrects. “Not anymore.”

“Give me a break. Why would you tell him about Andrew otherwise?”

“I thought I was doing you a favor!”

“A favor,” I repeat dryly.

“Okay, look, I’m sorry. Jeez. If you ask, I won’t say another word about you to Spencer.”

“Thank you,” I sigh. Then I look at her sideways. “What’s a loonie?”

Chapter Nine

I don’t want to miss out on any part of the college experience. So, unlike Katy, I decide to do some “shopping” this week. She’d gone through it last year, anyway.

I look through the course catalogue for classes that interest me. A few catch my eye. I mark their locations on a campus map and head out.

The first three I go to are unremarkable. The fourth is where things become interesting.

I sit down in the packed auditorium just as the professor walks to the podium. “Good morning, everyone,” he begins. I pull out my Mac and start taking notes.

Halfway through lecture I feel someone plop down in the seat beside me. I look over for a sec, then jerk my eyes back to the screen. It’s Spencer.

He leans back and kicks his legs up. He doesn’t say anything. I pretend he’s not there.

The professor keeps talking. But Spencer, damn him, is distracting me. Oh, he might be not doing anything directly, but his presence alone is enough to throw me off.

I can’t take the tension anymore. I look over. “What are you doing?” I hiss.

Spencer blinks, and has the nerve to look surprised. “What does it look like I’m doing?” He motions vaguely to the front of the room. “Attending class.”

I hate the dimple in his cheek that shows when he smiles. It gives him a boyish look at odds with his I-don’t-give-a-shit demeanor. It’s irritatingly disarming.

I’m determined not to fall for that casual indifference. “Why are you following me?”

Spencer smirks and chokes down a chuckle. “Someone’s got a high opinion of herself.”

“Why else would you be here?”

“Maybe I’m just checking out classes. Like everyone else?”

I snort. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”

Spencer leans close. His arm brushes mine. I steady myself against the jolt that runs through me from his touch. I will
not
give him the satisfaction of pulling away. “Do you hate all men, or is it just me?”

I smile through clenched teeth. “I’d say it’s a
just-you
thing.”

“Well, we’ll have to work on that, won’t we?” He touches my hand. I twist my shoulder to break the contact before I can think. He chuckles. “Still jumpy as always.”

I grind my teeth in frustration. I look at the empty cursor blinking on my screen. I’d already missed a good five minutes of lecture because of Spencer.

I shake my head to drop my hair over my face, creating a dark curtain between him and me. If he won’t leave me alone, maybe I can ignore him until he gets the hint.