“At this point, I’m just hoping that my upcoming time in London will erase all of my bad times in college.”

“London? What the hell is there?”

“One of the most prestigious writing programs in the world.” There was a smile in her voice. “They have a two percent acceptance rate and yours truly made the final round this morning.”

“So, even more years of school for something that you’re already good at? When does all of that learning turn into money?”

“Eventually,” she said. “We can’t all be superstar athletes.”

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t waste any more of my life in a classroom, if I was as good at writing as you.” I admitted. “I’m not just saying that to be saying that either.”

“Thank you, Kyle.”

“You’re welcome.” I paused, honestly not wanting to get off the phone. “I’ll talk to you later.”

I called her back when I made it home.

I couldn’t help it.

“Yes?” she answered on the first ring.

“Can I ask you something?”

“I was about to go to sleep.”

“Liar.” I smiled. “You stay up on Thursdays for some reason. The Facebook ‘online now’ thing never lies.”

Her laughter came over the line. “Thursdays are the romance movie marathon days on The Pitt Movies channel. They always end the night with my favorite one.”

“There’s a Pitt Movies channel?”

“It’s on seventeen.”

I picked up my remote and turned on the television, flipping through the stations. I stopped when I saw Julia Roberts in a bright red dress, looking at Richard Gere.

“What the hell is this?”

“Pretty Woman,” she said. “One of the best romance movies of all time.”

“Wait …” I sat in my chair. “Isn’t this the prostitute falls for her customer storyline?”

“It’s a lot deeper than that, Kyle.”

“Is it?” I waited for her to explain, but she only laughed. “I’ll talk to you later so you can finish.”

“Or you can stay on the phone and watch it with me until I see you tomorrow.” Her voice was faint. “I mean, only if you want to, though.”

I turned up the volume. “Feel free to tell me the deeper part of their love story that I’m missing …”

Courtney: Then

Senior Year

Pittsburgh

* * *

 

I stepped outside of CVS and held a binder over my head. The early throes of fall in Pittsburgh always meant nonstop rain, and I wasn’t sure why I kept forgetting my umbrella at home.

I also wasn’t sure why I still had to force myself to take breaks from my work. I was three weeks ahead with The Pitt News, caught up on my two classes, and thanks to Kyle and his insistence on making me “see” his answers instead of asking them, I was twenty pages into my thesis.

And suffering from the thickest sexual tension I’d ever felt in my life …

Being around Kyle for longer than half an hour—even talking to him on the phone, was an exercise in resistance. Although I knew better than to ever give in to his witty words or sinful gazes, I couldn’t help but wonder how his lips might feel on top of mine or constantly replay the time he tackled me at the bonfire with a far sexier ending.

I forced myself to shake away the thought of him and made my way down University Avenue. Then I slipped inside of Hemingway’s Cafe and took a seat at the bar.

Pulling out my ‘Things I Want to Do During My Senior Year’ list, I placed a tally mark next to ‘Go to a bar that everyone has raved about.’

I started to signal for the bartender, but I heard a familiar deep voice to my right.

Kyle.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “You’ll need to text me that’s what you want first.”

“Come onnnn …” A female voice followed. “It’s just sex, Kyle. With me, and as far as we go back, you know that you don’t have to be like that.”

“Like what?”

“Like you don’t trust me.” She let out a soft laugh. “Like, that’s how you’re acting.”

“I don’t trust you,” he said, his voice terse. “I don’t trust anyone anymore.”

I looked over and saw him stand to his feet. Then he placed a few bills onto the counter.

As he was putting on his jacket, his eyes met mine. He blinked a few times, and a slow smile spread across his face.

I turned away, certain that he would walk past me and leave, but the next thing I knew, he plopped down on my left.

“I didn’t know that you were profiling me today,” he said. “Is it going well?”

“I’m not here for you.” I held up my list. “I’m here for this.”

“We’re supposed to do this together, Court.” He took it from my hands. “That’s part of our deal.”

“I can definitely do some of this stuff alone.”

“Yeah, like the student plays,” he said. “I can’t suffer through any more of those, whether we’re friends or not.”

The girl who he’d talked to earlier suddenly stepped between us, glaring at him. “I hope your draft stock falls by the spring and you don’t get picked until the very last round,” she said. “You’ve never been that good, on or off the field, and you’ll regret turning me down someday.”

She stood there, waiting for a response.

“I wouldn’t count this bar as one of the ones that people rave about, Court,” he said to me, ignoring her. “It’s a good dive option, but it’s not the best one.”

“He’s going to ask you to send him a fucking text or an email before he considers sleeping with you,” the girl said to me, continuing to bait Kyle. “He thinks that everyone is after his money, when he hasn’t gotten a single dime yet. How insane is that?”

Kyle’s eyes met mine, and he stared at me for several moments.

“What bar do you consider to be among the best, then?” I asked, ignoring the girl like he did. “I based my choice off the latest campus brochure.”

“Well, that’s your first problem.” He pushed a few stray hairs away from my face, instantly setting every nerve in my body on fire. “No one in their right mind actually reads those campus brochures, Court.”

“Someone once told me that they’re written exclusively for the helicopter parents.”

“They are.” He smiled. “I guarantee that the couple at the end of the bar is only here to see how much over-pour the bartender does, since their son has mentioned this place a few times.”

“How do you know that for sure?”

“Their son is my teammate,” he said. “If it wasn’t a severe conflict of interest, I’d introduce you to him. The two of you have a lot in common.”

“It’s not too late to do that.”

“It is, and it’s not happening.”

The girl elbowed Kyle before she walked away, finally accepting that he wasn’t giving her any more attention.