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Abruptly, she turned her head from the window to the monotone voice at the podium that called her name.
“Would you explain to the class what an inverse operation is?”
Double shit.
She had to know this. She just read the chapter last night. Properties of equations was pretty basic even for someone who hated math. After a shaky breath, she answered, “It’s an operation that undoes another one—like an opposite, right? Addition and subtraction or multiplication and division.”
“Right. Very good.” He droned on. “You can perform the same inverse operation on each side of an equivalent equation without changing the equality.”
She rolled her eyes and whispered to herself, “What the fuck did he just say?”
The boy in the seat next to her chuckled. She glanced over at him. While he had to be around the same age as her, he was no boy. Brown hair hung past his hazel eyes. She thought they were hazel anyway. Considering his muscled arms, she pegged him for a jock. He looked back at her and winked. She felt her cheeks heat and glanced away.
Minutes slowly ticked by, until finally class was over. She gathered her things and tossed them in her backpack. When she stood from her seat, the boy who was no boy, stood waiting for her.
“Hi, I’m Cam—Cameron Mayhew.”
Cameron was tall. He had a nice smile and dimples.
“Katelyn, but everyone calls me Katie.” She smiled back.
“Nice to meet you, Katie.” He walked her out of the classroom. “Where’s your next class?”
“Oh, um, that was my last one for the day.”
They were hazel, his eyes. “Where you off to then? The dorms?”
Was he hitting on her or just making small talk? Katie wasn’t exactly sure, and she wasn’t sure which of the two she wanted it to be. He pushed the door to the stairwell open and held it for her.
“No. Work,” she answered, hiking the backpack up on her shoulder. “You?”
“Football practice.”
Jock. Knew it.
“Where do you work?”
He was behind her on the stairs. They reached the bottom and once again he pushed the door open for her. Fresh air and sunlight spilled into the vestibule as they stepped outside.
She shielded the sun from her eyes with her hand. “At my aunt’s coffee bar. Beanie’s.”
He grinned. “I gotta go. See you, Katie Copeland.”
Huh.
Beanie’s Coffee Roasters was the new neighborhood spot to get your jolt of caffeine—or decaf, but then what was the point? Kelly and her girlfriend, Stacy, held their grand opening right after the Fourth of July. It was a trendy, happening place with a cool vibe, and it was fun—a Starbucks on steroids. Everyone from hipsters to college students to businessmen came in here. The work of local artists covered the exposed brick walls. Chalkboard menus. Sometimes in the evenings and on weekends, musicians played acoustic sets in the back. Katie worked as a barista and she loved it.
She pulled her hair up into a high ponytail and threw on the hideous low-cut knit shirt Stacy insisted they all wear. It was navy-blue with the Beanie’s logo Kelly designed herself emblazoned across the chest. They were tight and showed way too much cleavage, not that she had a lot in that department, but she wasn’t lacking either—a decent C-cup at least. Beanie’s sure wasn’t Hooter’s, but Stacy had no issue with them using their assets, as she called them, to attract male customers. Funny, considering she and Kelly were lesbians and not attracted to men at all.
Tying the matching apron around her waist as she stepped behind the counter, Kelly bumped hips with her like they were at an eighties disco dance. “Hey, Katie-Kate. How was school?”
Her aunt was the only person left on the planet who still called her that like she was five. Katie wasn’t ever going to tell her not to, though. She shrugged her shoulders. “You know. Algebra.”
“Sorry.” Kelly wrinkled her nose. “Make any friends yet? Meet any boys?” She looked hopeful. Then added, “Or girls.”
Katie shook her head with a giggle. “Penises only need apply, Auntie. I keep telling you that.”
“And I keep telling you not to call me Auntie. Makes me feel old.”
