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“Are you an athlete?” I try not to laugh as he wedges himself in.
“I am,” he answers proudly. “I play baseball.”
“I didn’t know athletics was such a big deal at VCU. I swear I’ve met more athletes since I’ve arrived than regular students.”
“Yeah, like who?”
“I saw a bunch on Decision Day on the yard, then at the crawl.”
“Oh yeah,” he chuckles softly. “The infamous decision day scuffle with those hockey dirtbags.”
Suddenly, a hush fills the auditorium. Several guys with large sports sacks wearing black basketball shorts and VCU Sun t-shirts enter the room in a collective cloud of swagger, and Shane is one of them.
“Speak of the devil,” Lorenzo says under his breath.
There are boys who are hot, guys who are sexy, and then there’s Shane.
He's breathtakingly beautiful, with the facial features of a supermodel and the body of a Greek god. And while I admired his good looks under the soft lighting of The Pike the other night, I can’t believe that he’s even hotter under the harsh lights of the auditorium.
He’s got one of those square jaws that looks like it is made of molten steel, a nose so perfectly crooked that I wonder if he was born with it or if it was shaped from a careful whack of a hockey stick, and those eyes. Don’t get me started on those mismatched eyes the size of saucers, one a Caribbean blue and the other a moss green. I’ve never seen anything like them or like him, and I bet neither has anyone else in this room.
It’s probably good that he didn’t ask for my phone number the other night; I try convincing myself. The way every girl is drooling over him inside this auditorium would drive me insane. I’m not interested in a romance with a high-profile campus athlete. I don’t want jealous girls whispering about me whenever I walk by. I’m not built for it.
I try burying myself in the distraction of an online word game to keep my eyes off Shane, but it doesn’t matter once I hear his familiar voice—dangerously deep like the ocean and close by.
“I told you I’d find you,” he says, with that unmistakable velvet-smooth voice.
I try not to be affected by it, but when I slowly raise my head and find everyone within a few feet of my seat, including Lorenzo, staring directly at the two of us– I feel like an odd fish in an observation tank.
“I don’t think you found me in a required course we’re both registered for.”
“Actually, I think it’s kismet.”
I shake my head, blowing off his over-the-top, flirty banter.
“Why are you sitting all the way back here?” he asks me.
“I’m not a sit-at-the-front-of-the-class type of girl,” I respond with a careful smile.
“Neither am I, but damn, it’s going to take us forever to get out of here when class is over.”
Us.
“You weren’t kidding about knowing a lot of athletes, huh?” Lorenzo suddenly interrupts, nudging me with an elbow. Hell, I forgot for a moment that he was even sitting there.
“I see you’ve met more of my kind since I saw you last.” Shane drops his heavy duffle with a thud and gives Lorenzo a disapproving once-over.
“What’s up, man?” Lorenzo introduces himself. “We met a few weeks ago in the cafeteria. I’m Lorenzo Perez. Suns baseball.”
“Oh, right. I knew you looked familiar. New right fielder from Connecticut?”
“Yeah,” Lorenzo looks impressed. “That’s me. I see you’ve looked me up.”
“I’m interested in all VCU sports, not just the best one,” Shane smirks.
“Funny.”
There’s a lot of low student chatter in the air, but now that the professor and her teaching assistant have entered the room, things will soon simmer down.
