The guy across from us stood and stretched. The other students were up and moving, too. I should probably walk around, but I had a feeling that if I got up and started walking, I might head out to my car and go back to school.
“I’m Bryan,” he said as he walked around the table and offered me his hand. It gave me my first good look at him, too. He had on slacks and dress shoes with a Hawaiian shirt. I almost wished I could snap a picture of him to send to the guys.
You know, maybe not.
He was a guy, and he was talking to me. Jake might show up, and the day would get a lot more interesting.
Biting back a laugh, I stood so he didn’t loom over me. I’d never been a fan of it before, and I was less of one now. I clasped his hand for a quick handshake. “Frankie.”
“Awesome,” he said and let go of my hand. “Gonna get coffee. You want anything?”
Did I want a guy I’d just met to get me a drink? Let me think about that. How about no? “I’m good,” was all I said though. He gave me a little smile and then headed away, and I sank back into my seat.
There were ten minutes on the clock ticking down on the screen, so I pulled out my phone.
Archie: How’s it going? You missed nothing in class.
Ian: I got the homework. It’s not bad. All good there?
Wow, I’d been here long enough to miss two classes.
Blegh.
Rachel: Your idiots look lonely.
There was a picture attached of the four of them sitting around the table in the cafeteria. They did look a little lonely, and I made a face. It was one day. I could handle one damn day away from them. I had one of them in my bed nearly every night, sometimes two.
Maybe if this were more interesting…
Coop: I’m bored. Sneak into the bathroom and send me some pics.
Eyes rolling, I laughed and just sent him back a middle finger emoji.
His response was instantaneous.
Coop: That was the idea.
The last message was from Jake, and it just made me smile
Jake: Missing you.
Yeah. Me, too.
I sent that to all of them, too. I missed them. But…I needed to make the most of it. Orientation was just this all-day thing, and then we had one other day where we would have to have orientation at our ‘assignment.’ Hopefully, we found out what that was today, too.
Mollie wandered back in with a yawn and a Styrofoam cup of coffee. Bryan followed a minute later, and one by one, the others trickled back to their seats.
As soon as the clock ticked down to zero, we were back to dull as dirt land.
Only, at least we got to participate in this next segment.
Yay.
By the time lunch rolled around, I had decided that if nothing else, this morning had shown me what I didn’t want to do in life.
This right here was what I didn’t want to do in life.
Lunch had been catered in so we didn’t have to go anywhere. Boxed sandwiches, chips, and sodas. Not bad. Mollie and Bryan turned out to be decent conversationalists, and I only texted with the guys to let them know I was surviving. Still hadn’t sent them smoke signals to come and rescue me. And we only had another four hours to go.
Bryan went to Spencer. That was a more affluent school district, I knew that for a fact. They were also the rivals for Robertson’s football team. Well former rivals, so that little fact would stay out of the notes for Jake and Ian.
They were serious about their dislike for football rivals, and I wasn’t getting in the middle of that.
Still, Bryan was funny and had a dry sense of humor. We debated some of the leadership examples we’d been given, and I had to admit, if we needed to make it a choice, could we at least make it a funny one?
While the morning had dragged by in slow motion, the afternoon passed at a steady clip. It proved to be more interactive and a hell of a lot more fun. Each table was given an example of leadership to tackle as a group project. Not my favorite thing to do, and yes, I did shoot Rachel the mental finger on that one, even if she’d have just laughed at me.
So for an hour, Mollie, Bryan, and I debated the merits of the leadership style we’d been given. None of us liked it. So we worked out our presentation based on all the reasons you should never use this.
We were cracking ourselves up.
The following hour, all the groups cycled through their different styles, and I got more out of those presentations than I had the whole morning. Even doing our own, we managed to elicit more than a few laughs, and most of the kids who’d come in suits had taken off their jackets and rolled up their sleeves.
To say we were more relaxed was an understatement.
During the last hour, our presenter went over some key things we needed to know for our internships. They were still being sorted. We would receive an email by Friday with our assignments and all the key contact details. We were expected to show up every day of the internship, but because things did happen, there was a procedure to follow if we were gonna be out sick.
Fair enough.
Then he did the best thing all day, he sent us home early.
Mollie and I traded numbers. I got Bryan’s, too. The chances were we wouldn’t see each other again, but social media data had also been exchanged along with email addresses.
“We’ll just have our own little bitch group,” Mollie told me after we said goodbye to Bryan and headed out to the parking lot. “Because after today, I’m not sure whether we should be looking forward to this or not.”
“Well, on the upside,” I told her as I opened my car door. “At least we should have a good grasp on what we don’t want to do.”
“True that.” She lifted her hand in a wave as she disappeared into her own car.
All the way back to the apartment, I jammed out to Torched, singing at the top of my lungs. I was still tickled that I’d gotten to go to their concert. And while my energy reserves had been at zero after the morning, I was bouncing back. That, and I was going to get back nearly an hour before the guys. I’d sent the guys a text to the group chat that I was finished early and on my way home.
I’d just pulled off my shoes when the backdoor opened and then closed. I’d gone to the bedroom to change, and I pivoted and crashed right into Archie, who had his arms around me and his mouth on mine before the words could even form.
Ferocious was the only word I could use to describe the way his lips massaged mine and how his tongue demanded access. I groaned at the lightning sizzle of heat that every lick and nip sent rioting through me. He walked me back to the bed, still kissing, and then we tumbled down. He caught himself with one arm to keep from landing atop me, but then he settled his weight and I was torn between a sigh and a groan.
There was just something about the way they covered me that truly turned me on and utterly relaxed me in the same breath. I had missed them all day today, and Archie was here and kissing me, and I couldn’t breathe as I dug my fingers into his back and then down to tug at his shirt.
He broke from the kiss long enough to sit up and yank his shirt off, and then it was gone before he swooped back down to claim my mouth again. There was no mistake about that. It was definitely a claiming. It scorched right through my system, and I ground my hips up against his.
“You’re home early,” I managed to pant out as he nuzzled kisses down to my throat. He nipped and sucked hard just over my pulse point, and I arched my back and tried to wrap my legs around him.