Total pages in book: 27
Estimated words: 25820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 25820 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 129(@200wpm)___ 103(@250wpm)___ 86(@300wpm)
When I slide my key into the door to my room, I realized it’s not locked. Renee must be here. I thought she had a class at this time. I push open the door and pause when I see her boyfriend Nathan sitting on her bed. He’s in jeans and a polo shirt. It’s what he always wears.
“Autumn.” The door falls closed behind me. The room isn’t that big, and it’s clear my roommate isn’t here.
“Nathan.” I drop my bag down on my bed. A sense of unease fills me. There’s just something about him that bothers me. “Are you waiting for Renee or something?”
“Or something,” he responds.
“I need to change and get to work,” I tell him. He doesn’t move.
“Have at it.” He winks at me. My mouth falls open. Seriously. I’m not a fan of my roommate, but I would never strip down in front of someone’s boyfriend. I ignore him, going over and grabbing my change of clothes before dumping some of the books out of my bag to shove them inside. “Don’t be a prude!” Nathan laughs like it’s a joke as I leave without another word.
“Crap,” I mutter when I see there is a line for the bathrooms. Not wanting to be late, I rush over to the Sigma Theta house. I know this time of day is when it’s less likely to run into people. I’ll just keep my head down and do my work. The last time I was here was only the second time I’ve cleaned the fraternity house. I might have gotten lucky the first time.
I still have an unsettling feeling from my encounter with Rob last time I was here. I’m not so sure Noble isn’t wrong about me going in and out of the rooms by myself. I leave the doors open when I clean a room, but that hadn’t stopped Rob from coming in out of nowhere.
The door is never locked when I make it over to the frat house. I head toward the bathroom on the main floor.
“In here!” someone shouts when I wiggle the handle.
Noble told me not to come back here until he said I could. I roll my eyes even thinking about that. I head up the stairs. He also said I could use his room if I ever needed to. The hallway is empty as I make my way to his bedroom. I knock, but no one answers. I punch in the code and slip into his room.
I’ll be quick. I’ll change and get to work. Noble will never even know I was here.
CHAPTER 5
NOBLE
“Why are you on your phone so much these days? If it was anyone else, I’d think they were waiting for a girl to text them back, but since you don’t date campus girls, it must be something else.” Fleming watches as I punch in my keycode.
“Can’t a guy check his messages?” The green light flashes to indicate that the lock has been disengaged.
“Sure. Ordinary guys but not—”
I slam the door shut.
“—you,” Fleming finishes. “Problem?”
“Yeah.” I take him by the shoulders and turn him to face the hall. “You have to go.”
“What? I thought we were hanging out before the party starts.”
“Do your pre-gaming downstairs. The bar is fully stocked.” I give him a shove.
“We were going to play some tunes.”
I walk him farther away from my door. “Tomorrow. We’ll jam tomorrow as a cure for our hangovers.”
“But—”
“Bye, Flem.” I leave him in the middle of the hallway and race back to my room. I give a knock of warning before re-entering the keycode and then opening the door. Inside, Autumn is sitting on my couch, fully dressed, her hands pressing her knees together, her cheeks stained pink.
She looks edible. I bite the side of my lip and shut the door behind me.
“Sorry. Didn’t expect you here.”
“I could say the same.” I cross to the fridge and take out two chilled coffee drinks. I pop them open and set one in front of her. “Drink,” I order.
She hesitates and then takes a tentative sip. “Are you keeping coffee in your room because the stuff by the library is bad?”
“So, you did read my messages. I wondered, and no. I always keep coffee around here. I’m an addict. It’s my one vice.” I lean against my desk and watch her over the top of my can.
“I would’ve answered you, but I didn’t know what to say,” she replies.
“Hi works. I would’ve accepted things like ‘you’re funny’ or ‘I’d like to see you again’ too.”
“Hi.” She gives me a small wave.
I snort. “You’re an in-person sort of gal. I can get behind that. I guess we’ll be spending a lot of face-to-face time together since you don’t like texting, and I don’t like not knowing what’s happening to you. Since we’ve squared that away, care to tell me why you were naked in my room?”