NOAH
Chapter Four
I was making a horrible mistake.
I was wasting everyone’s time and this was going to be a disaster.
When I saw Matt on Sunday afternoon, I told him as much.
What I failed to mention was the intensity of the blush that remained on my face long after Sawyer Price had walked out of the library and left me wheezing in the scent of his cologne.
I also didn’t tell Matt how Sawyer’s scent reminded me of spring in the mountains and nature welling with life, bursting with new energy, and the world turning green with hope.
“Um, I thought I was your wingman,” Matt said.
“I hate to fire you, but I haven’t exactly gotten much action,” I said. “Besides, the guy’s got experience with other guys. Maybe that’s the difference.”
Matt, over the top, rolled his eyes. “I’ve got experience with guys, too,” he muttered.
“Practicing kissing me when we were thirteen doesn’t count,” I said.
We’d both walked away disappointed from that one.
I’d hoped to be into him when it had happened, but I most definitely hadn’t been.
And Matt had hoped the same, but soon realized that me being a boy was actually a deal-breaker.
It had felt like kissing an inanimate object that you loved a lot.
He was my best friend, but he was absolutely not someone I wanted to kiss.
He raised his hands in surrender. “Very well. I’ll clear my desk.”
I crumpled up a piece of paper I’d been reading old notes from and tossed it across my room at Matt, who was sprawling on my bed. “I was hoping you’d help me cancel Sawyer,” I said after a moment of silence.
“Hmm.” That was it. Matt narrowed his eyes in thought and tapped his lips with his index finger.
“What?” I asked. “It’s obviously a silly idea. I don’t know what got into me to say yes. He’s really fucking good at convincing people to do shit for him.”
“Language, young man,” Matt said.
Neither of us laughed at that anymore. We’d had that joke going on for ages.
My parents were very stern about the way I spoke and were the examples of politeness.
I’d once said ‘damn’ in front of them and Matt had witnessed the reprimand.
He hadn’t let go of it since. And I never thought twice about the language I used so long as I was out of my mom’s earshot.
“Seriously, he’s good. He wouldn’t let me pass until I said yes.
And then he kept badgering me with doing anything it takes in return.
Fuck. How did I let this happen? I’m supposed to be smart. ”
“Not people smart,” Matt said offhandedly. “But if he’s so good, maybe you really should give that two-way tutoring thing a chance. We could all learn a lesson in getting what we want.”
“He’s gotten to you, too,” I said in despair. When I checked the time, I realized we were a mere hour away from the dreaded meeting. “Any chance you’d go to him and find an excuse for me? I’ll let you bring your next three dates to my room.”
Matt rubbed his chin in a grand display of mock temptation.
He’d asked me once to do that and I had.
My room was approximately three million times more impressive than any in this dormitory.
The date had gone all wrong when the girl turned out to be a big sci-fi nerd like me and asked Matt all about the posters and stacks of novels, to which Matt probably just went cross-eyed because his interests were firmly set on everything but science fiction.
“I don’t think so, buddy,” Matt said. “You’ll just have to face him and tell him that yourself.
And because I know you can’t possibly do that without falling through the ground, I’ll rest assured knowing that you’ll learn the lessons he teaches you.
Then you’ll teach me, too, and we’ll rule the whole wide world.
” His hand moved through the air in his field of vision like he was showing me the wonderful future in which he had all the power of the entire planet.
I shuddered at the thought of mandatory tacos for breakfast every Tuesday and beer pong replacing democratic elections.
I sighed. “Fine. It’s too late to cancel, anyway. He’ll be here in an hour.”
“And you’re supposed to teach him all of physics?” Matt asked with a doubtful tone.
“Sort of.”
He nodded and pondered that. “An aggressive hockey goalie and a temperamental genius who’s actually scared of strangers in the same room. I can’t wait to see how this plays out.” He laughed out loud as I pointed to the door.
“Get out.”
He laughed harder and hopped up from my bed, then blew me a kiss and wished me luck. “Don’t kill each other.”
Matt left me to simmer in anxiety over letting that puck-chaser into my room and promising to teach him the most complicated and universe-explaining scientific field in existence.
The thoughts of Sawyer in my room, at night, droning on about the ways to seduce a guy made me sweat as much as the idea of me lecturing him on the formation of galaxies and the phenomena that black holes were.
I checked the time and decided I could go out for a walk in the cold and crusty snow that covered the ground.
February was just around the corner and this winter was only reaching its middle, but I was longing for spring.
And not just because Sawyer’s cologne had made me think of it for thirty hours straight.
I walked and walked all over campus until my cheeks were numb and my nose was frozen. When I returned, some fifteen minutes before the appointment with Sawyer, I undressed and hurried to shower off the sweat that had only just cooled on my body.
Just when I stepped out of the shower and tied a towel around my waist in order to moisturize my face, I discovered a new fact about my latest student.
Sawyer Price was not punctual.
Four minutes early, he banged on my door. I cursed under my breath and hurried to let him in before he knocked the door off the hinges. “I hear you. I hear you. Alright.” I pulled the door open and his fist froze in the air while his eyebrows shot up and jaw fell down.
“Oh, wow, okay. Shit. Nice welcome.” His dark brown eyes dropped down the length of my bare torso to where the towel was well secured. “You’re actually cut. I’ll be damned.”
“Come in,” I said and moved to let him pass.
He swaggered inside like he owned the place. “Cool room, man. Are you gonna put something on or did I misunderstand the sort of practice you’re asking for? It’s not a definitive ‘no,’ if that’s the case.”
“Stop talking,” I huffed. How was he even keeping his face straight when he said those things?
And how was he not stammering and tripping over his words when he suggested that?
I was already nearly trembling. “Gimme a sec.” I hurried away, picking up some clean clothes and bumping into the door of the closet which unhooked the towel from the hip.
It fell away with all the grace of a curtain call, but I managed to snatch it and spin around.
“Ass. I saw ass.” Sawyer was dead serious when I spun to face him, clutching the towel over my crotch.
“Turn the fuck away, dammit,” I snapped and walked back into the bathroom.
There, I wanted to flush myself down the toilet and never appear anywhere where there were humans again.
But because I couldn’t, I put my clothes on, splashed my face with cold water, replaced my glasses, and walked out with the reddest face I’d worn since the night Sawyer spilled vodka all over me in front of a hundred college students.
“Can we just pretend that none of this ever happened?” I croaked.
Sawyer, comfortable in my spinning office chair, one leg hanging over the armrest, nodded. “It’s actually good news. You’ve got a nice build.”
His words strangled me. Discussing my build wasn’t how I’d imagined this night unfolding.
“Half your problem is what you’re wearing,” he said.
“Consider this your first lesson. You want to attract attention without seeming like you want attention. Have you noticed how everyone looks like they just want you to leave them alone? And that makes you want them more? That’s the trick.
We need to go through your wardrobe and find what kind of clothes show off your body without seeming like you’re showing off. ” He tilted his head. “Following?”
“Not a bit,” I said, widening my eyes. He looked so comfortable in my chair and in my room.
If our places were swapped, I would be, at best, sitting with my back straight at the edge of the bed.
And even then, I would feel rude and like I was overstepping the boundaries.
“I need to look unapproachable? But also desirable? That makes no sense. You said it yourself. I’m scary. ”
“Eh, there’s scary and then there’s scary. You, my friend, are intimidating because you’re smarter than everyone else in the room. Like, when we spoke yesterday, I couldn’t tell if you were mocking me.” He swirled the chair left and right .
“I was,” I admitted.
“Rude. Anyway, the other kind of scary is the sexy kind. You get me?” He looked so hopeful that this style of teaching would work.
“Nope. You lost me again,” I said.
He exhaled, then straightened in the chair.
Suddenly, all the relaxed, laid back layers of his image were peeling away.
What remained was a sideways look at me, a little pout on his lips, narrowing eyes, flaring nostrils.
Right. He looked sort of scary. Like he was so done with this shit.
Like a cat that had just been offered lettuce for dinner.
But he also became twice as hot if that was possible.
Shut up, my brain reminded me. Sawyer was here for a reason. He wasn’t a canvas for my virgin ass fantasies.
But he looked like he could sweep me off my feet any moment now and I wasn’t sure if I would find the strength to say no. My breaths grew shallower and I discovered that I was holding my lower lip between my teeth.
“See?” Sawyer asked, his voice a little lower and huskier.