Chapter 28
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Cam
I f someone told me yesterday that Alonzo would witness me getting worked up over an encounter with a bunch of girls and that I would not only eat with him but also let him stay the night in my crappy rental…well, I would have told them they were certifiable.
Yet here I was, walking out of the minuscule stained shower to the sight of Alonzo reading a thick textbook?—
Wearing glasses.
He glanced up at me, and I almost dropped my towel.
“You wear glasses?” I asked like an idiot.
“Yeah, when I’m studying.” Shifting in the plastic chair, he adjusted his black frames. “Do I look like a nerd?”
No. He looked like Clark freaking Kent, but make him Filipino. Despite the fact that academic guys had never been my type, I was unable to look away from the one sitting in front of me.
Normal Alonzo was hot enough. Him in glasses?
Fuck. Me.
I pressed my lips together, fearing that the words would slip out of my mouth.
He chuckled wryly. “I guess that’s a yes.”
“You don’t look like a nerd,” I mumbled, tightening my chokehold on my towel.
“No?” He raised his eyebrows, and damn if I wasn’t overly aware of the fact that I was naked beneath the terry cloth fabric. His lips spread wide, like he could sense my discomfort.
I rolled my eyes. “Can you turn around while I dress? There’s no space in the bathroom.”
He did as I asked, and I scrambled to get my clothes on. My sando top was worn out from years of use, but I wasn’t about to wear a bra to sleep. Thankfully, Alonzo waited until I was in bed and under the thin sheet to turn back around.
“Let me switch the light off,” he said as he stood up.
“Don’t you need to study?”
“Yeah, but you need to sleep. I have a study guide on my phone anyway. I can use that.”
“And ruin your eyesight even more?” I scoffed. “Just turn the light in the bathroom on and keep the door open. That way, you can turn the ceiling lamp off and still have some light.”
“Good idea. Thanks.”
As he puttered around, I closed my eyes and tried to forget that I was alone in a room with Filipino Clark Kent. Soon, the sounds of pages flipping mingled with the whirring of the fan. It should have been enough to lull me to sleep, especially since I’d barely slept on the ride to the city.
Instead, all I could think about was Alonzo spending hours in a chair that was barely meant for prolonged sitting, let alone sleeping.
I shouldn’t have cared. He was the one who’d insisted on camping out there for the night. But more uncomfortable than the bedspring poking the bottom right side of my rib was knowing just how much he’d done for me today. All without asking for anything in return.
“Get on the bed,” I said before I could think twice about it.
“What changed your mind?” Alonzo asked.
“The mais con yelo.”
He chuckled. “Told you it was good.”
“It’s not breakfast food.”
“Sometimes you have to branch out,” he said. “Look, I appreciate the offer, but that’s a single bed. We won’t fit unless we’re on top of each other, and I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
His words brought me back to when we had been plastered against each other. My body grew even more on edge, my thighs pressing together as I remembered how good he’d felt against me.
I cleared my throat. “Just don’t try anything, and we’ll be fine.”
“I can’t make any promises for what my body does while I’m asleep.” He spoke in a low voice that had my mind conjuring up scenarios involving his body parts mingling with mine.
I opened my eyes wide, as though the exposure to light would clear my head. It had been too long since I last had sex.
“Seriously, I’m good with the chair. I don’t think I’ll be sleeping tonight anyway.”
“Do you have an exam tomorrow?” I asked, welcoming the distraction.
“No, but there’s always a chance we’ll be called for recitation. Our profs love to catch us unprepared.”
Lifting my head off the pillow, I looked at him. “And you willingly signed up for that?”
“Trust me, if there was a way to skip law school and go straight to being a lawyer, I would have done it.”
“So it isn’t what it’s cracked up to be?”
“Oh, it is.” He huffed. ”I’ve never felt more stupid in my life.”
“A genius like you?”
“I’m far from a genius, Maya.”
“You are compared to me.”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “I think there are different kinds of smarts. Grading well in school doesn’t mean you’ll be successful in the real world. And being book smart isn’t any more important than being street smart or people smart.”
“Not arguing with that.” Nikki hadn’t gotten past high school, and she managed a thriving business on her own. That was proof right there.
His gaze turned inward. “Sometimes, I wish I’d chosen a different career path. Something that didn’t require more years of studying.”
“You don’t like school?”
“I used to, but I’ve been studying for too long.
I want to actually do the damn work. Earn my own money.
Don’t get me wrong—I’m thankful that my family supports me.
It’s just…” He stared at the ceiling. “I feel like a leech. And next to my sisters, I haven’t lived much at all.
Both of them are out doing their own thing.
Meanwhile, I’m still stuck here, waiting for my turn. ”
I chewed on his words. I’d never been good at talking things out. If you needed to hear the cold hard truth straight out, I was your girl. But reassuring someone? That was way beyond my skill set. If only I could dial Nikki or Eric to give me tips like they had for my interview.
“Anyway, enough of that,” Alonzo said. “I know it’s a shallow thing to get worked up about.”
“No. I mean, it’s something I can’t relate to, but that doesn’t make your feelings any less valid. Do your parents want you to be a lawyer?”
He snorted. “Hell, yes—especially my dad.”
“That’s good,” I murmured. “I used to wonder what my parents would have wanted me to be.”
His expression softened. “What happened? If you don’t mind me asking.”
“They left me at a church in Bataan when I was a baby. There was an older couple that let me live with them until I finished high school, and then they told me they had done their part. So I went to Manila on my own.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry.”
“That’s life.” I restlessly moved my legs. “The way I think of it, my parents weren’t ready for me or they never wanted me in the first place. Whatever reasons they had, I bet I’d be worse off if they kept me and hated me all the while.” At least, that was what I told myself.
“Their loss. They didn’t get to see how amazing their daughter turned out.”
“Right.” I scoffed. “A college dropout with nothing to her name.”
“A college dropout who managed to build a career and sustain herself on her own. Someone who found friends to call family in the home that she chose.”
My chest tingled, a warmth radiating from it that was wholly different from the one I’d felt earlier. I closed my eyes and warned myself not to cry.
“That’s not nothing, Maya. That’s huge—and you get to say that it’s all on you. You did it by yourself.”
“I had help,” I managed to say around the lump in my throat.
“Great. I’m glad you did, but it doesn’t minimize what you’ve achieved.”
“You’re not gonna make me cry again.”
“I didn’t make you cry earlier.”
“But it happened while I was with you.”
“Maybe that means you’re comfortable with me already.”
I harrumphed. “I need to sleep.”
“See. Comfortable.”
Damn it, he was right. “Good luck studying.”
“Thanks. Sweet dreams, Maya.”
That name again. Why did he keep using it? And why did I keep forgetting to correct him? “It’s Cam,” I grumbled, though my words had no real heat. Somehow, hearing his version of my name didn’t seem to bother me anymore.
“Do you really not like that name?” he asked. “Because I’ll stop calling you that if you don’t.”
I started to say yes but hesitated. “I’ll think about it.” Pulling the blanket up to my chin, I turned over to dismiss him for the night.
If you’d told me I would fall asleep with a guy in a chair opposite my bed, I would have suggested getting a reality check.
But the last thing I remembered before sleep took over was Alonzo’s soft laughter…
And that I had a half-smile on my face.