Chapter 11
Chapter Eleven
The room is still dark when I wake up, and this bed is super comfy, nothing like the bed back in my dorm. I should get up, but I feel like I could sleep forever.
I roll over to ask Felix if he’s awake, but the words die on my tongue. The bed next to me is made up as if no one had slept on that side of the bed all night. Well, that answers that. I’m certain I fell asleep in his arms last night, so he’s obviously just already up.
Slipping out of bed, I peek into the hall. I don’t see any of the other guys, so I tiptoe across the hall and brush my teeth. We may have gotten intimate last night, but there’s a limit to intimacy and avoidable morning breath is it.
As I brush, I wonder what their morning routine is. Are they all early risers, or just Felix? Are they still in pajamas? Are they itching to drive me back home so they can return to their routine undisturbed?
There’s only one way to find out.
Quietly, I slip down the stairs. I don’t want to draw attention to myself. As soon as I’m near the foot of the stairs though, the most wonderful smell comes wafting through the hall. Coffee. I follow it to the kitchen and peek through the doorway.
Lukas spots me first. “Good morning,” he says, coming over to plant a quick, hard kiss on my lips before pulling me into the room.
I’m definitely glad I brushed my teeth now.
“I should go back upstairs and change.” They’re all in normal day clothes, sweaters and jeans, and now I feel completely underdressed.
I do have a fresh outfit I’d packed in my overnight bag because I hadn’t wanted anyone to see me come home in the same clothes and think I’m doing the walk of shame.
“Later,” says Sebastian setting out the plates at the kitchen table, where they’ve squeezed a folding chair in to accommodate having an extra person. “Breakfast is ready. The eggs will get cold.”
“Yeah, and you look cute in your pajamas,” agrees Elliot.
“The fabric of her sleep pants is soft too,” says Felix. And when the others raise their eyebrows at him, he adds, “We cuddled last night. It wasn’t on her to-do list, but I felt it should be.”
The rest of the team nod in agreement as they start passing the plates of eggs, bacon, toast, and fruit around the table for everyone to serve themselves.
“Did you sleep well last night?” Elliot asks me. “If Felix’s bed wasn’t comfortable enough for you, you can pick a different bed to sleep in next time.”
“True, we’ll have to start a rotation,” agrees Sebastian.
“I slept fine.” I’m not sure what the point of asking me was for if they’re just going to start a rotation anyway. I haven’t even agreed to a next time yet. Sleeping over regularly feels awfully relationship-y.
“We can put it in our shared calendar so we don’t get it confused with the rotation of who gets to sit by her,” adds Elliot. “Or any other rotations.”
“There’s a calendar for who gets to sit by me?” I do love a good calendar, but this seems extreme.
“Of course,” says Sebastian. “Text us your email address and we’ll add you to it.”
“It’s not just for that, though. It makes it easier to keep track of all of our classes, poker nights, appointments, that sort of thing. It can be hard to maintain it in our heads when there are five of us to keep track of,” explains Lukas.
“Four,” I correct automatically.
“What?” asks Lukas.
“There are four of you.” These guys are literal math geeks. How could they miscount?
“Oh, yeah.” Lukas glances around the table. “Four. Of course.”
Yikes. Time to change the subject.
“So, what’s the plan for today? You’re all dressed, so you could drive me back to my dorm after breakfast.” I pause. “Which is delicious, by the way. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” says Elliot, blushing as he cuts up his sausage patties into tiny little squares.
“We were actually thinking,” says Felix, “your school stuff is all here.”
“And we usually spend Saturdays studying,” continues Elliot.
“Would you like to study with us today?” adds Lukas. “We usually do it in our rooms, but we could sit down at the table today.”
I chew at my lower lip. I usually spend most of Saturdays studying, too—or at least as much of the day as Ronnie lets me before deciding that we need to do something “fun.” But my routine is to study in my dorm, and part of me wants to stick to that pattern.
The other part of me says to break the routine and stay here, because they look so hopeful that I will.
And it might be nice to switch things up.
I might even get more work done with them than I would with Ronnie bugging me to finish up and go do something with her.
I bet they’ll actually let me study in peace.
Oh, what the hell. “I suppose I could stay and study for a little while.”
“We usually study for the entire day since our classes can be a bit intense. So perhaps you should just stay for dinner and another movie night,” suggests Felix, dancing his fingers along the edge of the table. “Then we could take you back to your dorm tomorrow.”
“Or Monday morning, depending on your class schedule,” adds Elliot, glancing away from the table.
I’m certain I misheard him. Felix’s suggestion of staying one more night isn’t not tempting, considering how last night went, but staying until Monday is … a lot.
I won’t promise to stay till Monday, but there shouldn’t be any harm in staying a few more hours, and we can play tonight by ear.
“Okay.” At the very least, I’ll get some homework done. And if we end up doing more than studying, well. The flutter of excitement low in my belly at the memory of what we did last night says that maybe that would be okay, too.
It’s weird showering in their shower, seeing around all of their toiletries instead of mine.
Of course, I didn’t realize I’d be staying long enough to need to shower, and I didn’t bring any of my things so I have to use theirs.
Now I smell like them. All morning as we sit around the big dining table, I keep catching whiffs of myself.
It’s weird to smell them on me so strongly.
But they’ve been quiet enough that I’m able to get through a lot more work than I usually do at the library.
It helps that the guys would occasionally get up to refill everyone’s mug of coffee.
I don’t pay enough attention to notice if there’s a pattern to it, but I’m sure there is.
I wonder if they have a calendar for that, too.
Even the gentle clicking of them solving their cubes one-handed as they go through their own homework is kind of soothing.
Before I know it, the guys are closing up their books and standing to stretch.
“Lunchtime,” announces Lukas, straightening his books in front of his seat before pushing in his chair.
“It’s not fancy,” says Sebastian, “but we hope sandwiches will be okay.”
“Sandwiches are perfect.” I close my own book and notebook.
“You’ll have to tell us your food preferences, and we’ll put them on the shopping list,” says Elliot as we head into the kitchen.
“We do have a good selection of sandwich stuff though,” says Felix, “so hopefully we’ll have something you like.”
“I’m sure it will be fine.” I trail behind them and stand back to watch as they pull out chips and pickles and condiments for their sandwiches, randomly tossing scrambled cubes to each other and solving them like they don’t even realize they’re doing it.
I don’t know how they can do that.
“I still don’t think I could ever solve a Rubik’s Cube like that.” I don’t mean to say it out loud—if there’s anything I’ve learned from my mother it’s that if you admit to a weakness, men will exploit it—but they all perk up, like this is an exciting moment for them.
“Here, we’ll show you,” says Sebastian, gently placing his scrambled cube in my hands. “You just have to recognize the patterns and recall the algorithm to achieve the desired outcome.”
“So basically, you’re just analyzing a problem without even having to think about it. Just doing it by rote?”
“Yes, and for us, it’s mostly about doing it faster than anyone else,” says Felix. “But you don’t have to worry about speed at this point.”
“Uh, okay, so where do I start?” I’m not even going to try to solve the cube one-handed like them.
I can feel a blush creeping up my cheeks as a flash of memory from last night springs to the forefront of my mind, reminding me just how dexterous their fingers are.
Trying to focus on the task at hand, I wrap both hands around it and feel the way the mechanisms swivel a little under the pressure from my fingers.
“The easiest way for beginners is to first make a white cross here on the bottom,” says Lukas, moving to stand behind me and wrapping his arms around me to guide my fingers on the cube. “Once you have that, you can solve the corners, like so. Then you’ll make the yellow cross next.”
It’s difficult to pay attention to the way Lukas is guiding my fingers because my body is reacting to the way his arms feel around my body.
The flush from a moment ago begins to creep down my neck and chest, and that excited swoopy feeling in my belly returns.
How am I supposed to focus on the cube when he’s so close to me?
This sort of feels like snuggling with Felix last night, having Lukas’s arms around me from behind.
Or maybe like he’s hugging me. It’s a nice feeling.
I can never remember my dad ever hugging my mom, not even when he’s trying to manipulate her.
My phone buzzes on the table. Saved by the vibration.
“I need to get that.” I ease out of Lukas’s hold, glad when he lets me go instead of holding me captive. “You all get started on lunch.”
I grab my phone and go out into the hall, glad for the escape. I need to get my mental state settled, and maybe my physical state too. I can feel my heart pumping harder than usual.