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The elevator ride was quiet downstairs, and I finally got my phone back from Adam to check up on my messages. It was exactly what I was dreading. Everyone wanted to know why I went quiet. I scrolled through and came to a few from my parents.
“There’s actually coffee in your room,” Adam sighed, heading to the lockbox with me. “It’s in your fridge. It’s not fresh. I ordered it a couple of hours ago. It was the only thing that kept me from ripping heads off during the noise complaints.”
I chuckled. “That bad, huh?”
“Yeah.”
“Funny how you actually did the lockouts though,” I mused, scanning over the messages. “Because I remember a time when you said you just wouldn’t bother…”
“See, I should’ve done that. Maybe I was drunk too.”
“Adam?” I stopped him and held up my phone. “Hey…you got it?”
He led me over to the cubbies and pulled out the folders that he’d finished for the night. “Got what?”
I held up my phone again. “You got the care package?”
“Huh?” Adam stood up from digging in the file cabinets underneath and a wide smile crossed his face. Slowly, he nodded. “You asked them to send it.”
I bit my lip. “Um…see…”
“You’re trying to do a Piper-Truth but you can’t Piper-Truth out of this,” he warned. Before I could ask, he raised an eyebrow. “It’s where you give a half-truth and call it good for the day.”
I sighed.
“Got you.” He grinned.
“Okay, maybe I did. I thought it’d be nice. Is that a crime?”
“No.” He bumped my shoulder with his, walking past me. “I’ve never gotten one before. It means a lot to me. Thank you.”
Oh.
Blood rose to my face for absolutely no reason, and I ducked to hide the blush. I took my place next to him, pleased. “So, good night?”
“One of the freshmen fell in the bathroom, a bowling guy,” Adam rolled his eyes. “Tried to tell me he wasn’t drunk with a split lip and a missing tooth. Blood fucking everywhere in the hallway. Scared the shit out of me.”
“Wow.” I giggled. “Bowlers, hard partiers.”
“Hard athletes, you mean. If you don’t bleed, you don’t lead,” Adam quoted his high school coach with another laugh. “Can’t tell you how many times I heard my dad say that.”
“I hate those sayings,” I murmured.
Adam chuckled and leaned a little closer, finishing up stacking the outdoor keys for the morning shift, one of the last things on the schedule.
Some days, the cologne he wore made him smell like crisp pine, but this was a different scent. Huskier. Manlier. Adam, who just rolled out of bed, with his five o’clock shadow and a rumpled shirt. Delicious.
I breathed him in without even realizing it. Could he tell?
His eyes flickered back to mine in the quiet space between us.
But…something was wrong.
I frowned, thinking back to his words.
My head wasn’t working right, the lack of sleep, the alcohol, waking up pressed up to Adam’s body, none of that meant I could think properly. But I dug down into what he just said, trying to piece together why it didn’t sound right.
“What did you say?” I asked, my voice quiet.
