Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 74803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74803 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 374(@200wpm)___ 299(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Yeah, within twenty-four hours someone was going to ask what he was doing with eggs but he didn’t seem overly concerned about it…however, that might’ve been because it was ridiculous.
“It was freshmen with dirty imaginations. They’re a dime a dozen around here.” He couldn’t argue with my logic, so he shrugged it off.
“It’ll be fine.” Standing straighter didn’t make that any more believable. “We’ll get a few snickers and maybe some confused questions but most people won’t even notice.”
He was severely underestimating how nosy everyone was.
“We’re going to be late.” Trying to straighten his shoulders even more, he channeled his frustrated professor side that was absolutely adorable, and incredibly frustrating. “Unless you want to safeword?”
Oh, the challenge in that tone.
He knew I didn’t want to safeword because I wanted to take him to the party.
“I think you need to remember that you can always safeword, even if it’s your own brain that’s pushing you harder than you need to go.” I was not the one who should be safewording.
“You two have lost your minds doing this insane conversation in the stairwell of the weirdest university in the entire fucking world.”
Malcolm.
Ruslan couldn’t seem to decide how to handle the unexpected intruder because I could see him frantically debating if he wanted to pretend nothing had happened or if he was going to hide from it somehow. “I’ve done whole videos from this stairwell because the acoustics are good and no one ever uses these stairs, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
A slightly accusatory nothing is happening here…I approved and took the lead from him. “Why are you stalking this building? You work on the other side of campus.”
Shifting to slightly confused, I looked at Ruslan. “Did you have dinner plans with him? You can’t see that sandwich guy too many times in one week or he’s never going to get over you.”
“Told you he likes you.” Malcolm ignored our denials and shifted gears effortlessly. “I was coming to make sure you remembered that we’re supposed to work on that PowerPoint in the morning so you have to function and not get distracted with Dante tomorrow.”
Ruslan puffed up, glaring at Malcolm. “I’ll have you know I was not late to work this morning.”
I was pretty sure that was true, so I wasn’t sure why Malcolm rolled his eyes.
“You were caught running into class at the last minute by two freshmen who made it very clear that you looked like you’d had a good night.”
Oops.
I hadn’t been the one to make him late, so we needed to have a talk about when he got to play in the shower and when he didn’t.
But I wasn’t going to explain that to Malcolm, so I just did my best not to laugh as I grasped for something to say. “Should you be encouraging students to gossip?”
Shaking my head like he was being ridiculous, I turned back to Ruslan. “He’s going to make us late.”
I’d already dropped off a crockpot and brownies in the room the club always used for parties, so I was ready to go. “Do you need to grab anything else?”
Ruslan had already made it clear he had everything he needed, so I wasn’t surprised when he shook his head. “You’re right. We need to head out but I’ve got everything I need.”
We both aimed for slightly aloof as we shook our heads and headed down the stairs as Malcolm’s frustrated huff followed us. We were amazing and managed to make it outside the building before we fought off laughter.
“He does gossip entirely too much.” Ruslan grinned as he nudged his shoulder against mine. “But that’s not our problem, so we’re not going to worry about it.”
“No, you’re going to worry about our conversation later because I didn’t make you late this morning.” His cheeks went fiery red and a student walking past us even giggled even though there was no way they could’ve heard our conversation.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ruslan played dumb as we headed across the path. “Oh, was there anything else I needed to grab for the party? I keep getting told everything is under control but that’s a nerve-racking answer.”
He needed to work on his distraction techniques because that hadn’t been subtle at all, but I let him get away with it and shifted our conversation toward practical things related to the party as we headed inside.
Ruslan might’ve been wanting to make some kind of statement but us talking about the party as we walked in didn’t set that tone. The handful of people who’d already arrived gave us curious looks and clearly couldn’t decide what they were supposed to be thinking.
I wasn’t sure if that would send odd guesses flying around campus or if it would tone down the gossip, but either way, I was looking forward to seeing what he thought of his last presents from his Secret Santa.