State of Grace | ONGOING

Chapter 11

I looked out the window of Holy Ground, none too happy to see that the weather was reflecting my mood. It had been cloudy all day, finally cooling down a bit now that it was nearing the end of September, but the sky had finally released the rain it had been holding and it was pouring down outside. An apt metaphor for my day. The ice at the bottom of my coffee-cup mocked me, condensation rolling down the side of it. Summer was fleeing too quickly.

I rummaged in my backpack, looking for my umbrella to make sure I'd packed it. From October to May it lived at the bottom of my backpack, just in case, but I'd forgotten it today. Of course.

"Merde," I muttered under my breath. I'd been hoping to go home soon and call it on studying, but I'd get soaked on the walk if I left now. Plus my laptop and textbooks would be ruined. I didn't mind a bit of rain, I was used to it growing up here, but my belongings weren't waterproof.

"Blondie?" A familiar voice chimed from behind me, towards the cash register of the coffee shop.

I stiffened immediately. My friends had really hoped for a breakthrough after last week's admission, that I'd miraculously forget to be anxious and magically be nice to Theo. But sitting next to her in Business Strategy had me on edge. Especially when she was continuing to try to be nice to me.

In the two weeks since we'd gone to the beach she'd been nothing but lovely, albeit a little liberal with her use of her new nickname for me. I hated it, of course, but only because I really liked it. Every time she called me 'blondie' my heart forgot to beat for a second and my entire thought process was scrambled. And then I responded like I hated it and the cycle repeated itself.

"Theo," I said coolly, turning in my chair, draping my arm over the back of it. I was the picture of calm and collected. I would make it through this interaction without embarrassing myself or making her think I hated her even more. "What are you doing here?" Damn, that sounded accusatory.

"Getting coffee," Theo said, moving over to the pick up counter which was closer to me. She was nice enough not to laugh at me, but I could see the barely suppressed smile on her face. She wore a pair of jeans and a loose blue button up that made me question how my gaydar didn't go off that first day. With her long hair down and around her face in messy waves she looked like the textbook definition of casual, something I'd never been in my life.

"Right," I said, turning back to my laptop, hoping the conversation could end there. But then the chair across from me at my table scraped back and she sat down, a to-go cup in her hand.

"What are you working on?" She asked, peering over my laptop to look at the colorful notes I was working on for my plant biology class. I had to make my notes fun to be able to use them to study and with ADHD, I had to study as early as possible.

"A study guide for a class," I explained, sounding surprisingly neutral about it even though her long hair was falling across my keyboard and therefore grazing against my knuckles.

I had the immediate mental image of my fingers tangled at the base of those locks, pushing her head lower until that smirking mouth of hers was put to better use. Which I swiftly filed away in my mind as something to deal with later and locked it. Then tossed the mental key away.

"What class?" She asked. "You know, blondie, I don't even know your major. You don't strike me as a business student."

I chuckled slightly at that. "What gave it away? The fact that I've never worn a suit to class?"

Theo grinned and my stomach twisted. Goddamn she was beautiful. "That and the fact that Sunny mentioned that you name your plants."

"I'm going to kill her," I muttered, glancing out the window in an attempt to hide the faint flush to my cheeks. "I'm a biology major. Botany."