nods. “Good idea.” I go back to working out while he types out a reply and then when the stupid girlie music plays again, he says, “She’s on her way. Do me a favor and don’t be charming, okay? I don’t want her falling for you.”
I put a hand to my chest. “I am a taken man, dude. You don’t have to worry about me anymore.”
“Keep telling yourself that,” he says.
I move over to the leg press and send Keanna a quick text before I put my phone on the windowsill to keep it from falling out of my shorts on this weight machine. She’s working the front desk today, otherwise she’d be back here hanging out with me.
Me: I miss you
Keanna: Then come say hi!
Me: I will after this set. D’s bringing a friend to come watch him work out.
Keanna: You mean *bats eyelashes* MAYA!!!?
I laugh and type back: Yep, that’s her.
Keanna: He’s so gaga over her it’s a little insane.
Me: Just like how I’m gaga over you?
She sends me a thumbs up emoji, followed by: Bring her up here. I want to meet her.
When Maya arrives, she’s all smiles and anxious energy, and you’d be an idiot if you didn’t figure out that she likes D’andre just as much as he likes her. I don’t usually care about these things, but I’m happy for him. He’s been single a long time and he wants a relationship more than anything. Maybe this will work out for him.
I let them hang out for a few minutes and then when their awkwardness with each other reaches epic proportions, I step in. “Hey, Maya,” I say, waving at her as I towel off the sweat from around my face and neck. “Glad you could make it out.”
Maya’s expression hardens just a bit as she looks me over. “Hi, Jett.”
There’s a weirdness in the air and then she finally smiles, even though it doesn’t feel very genuine. “I’m not really supposed to be talking to you,” she says, looking back and wrapping her arm around D’andre’s. “But I will for D’andre’s sake.”
I fold my arms across my chest. “Why can’t you talk to me? We’ve always been cool.”
She nods. “ We have yeah but . . . well, if the girls on the cheer squad knew I was being nice to you then they’d kill me. You’re not exactly their favorite person.”
“Ah . . .” Like a sack of bricks hitting me in the chest, it all comes back to me. Last year at school, I might have dated one or two—or five—of the cheerleaders. None of those flings ended well. How did I forget that over the summer break?
I run a hand through my hair. “Well, I guess my next question is out. I was going to ask if you’d help welcome my girlfriend Keanna to school next week but . . . yeah . . .”
She laughs. “D’andre told me about your new girl. Apparently you got lucky and she just moved here so she doesn’t know about your past.”
“She knows,” I say, feeling the weight grow heavier in my chest. “she’s just okay with it. I’m a one-woman man now.”
“That’s good,” she says, giving me a more genuine smile. D’andre has practically frozen in his spot, unable to stop grinning and looking at his arm where Maya has her tiny hand wrapped around it.
She waves the other hand as if waving away the bad vibes from the air. “It’s cool. I’ll be nice to your new girl. It’s not her fault that every girl at LHS hates you,” she says with a laugh.
“They don’t all hate me,” I say. Hell, most of them want to date me—but I’m not about to say that out loud. D’andre and Maya exchange a look so I amend my statement. “Okay, okay. Some of them don’t hate me.”
While they share a laugh at my expense, I bite down on my lip until it draws blood. This whole summer was a dream—a whimsical, falling-in-love, dream. Now that school starts next week, I’ll be forced to face an entirely different life. High school.
Maybe packing up and running away with Keanna isn’t such a bad idea after all.
“So,” Maya says, putting her hands on her hips. “When do I get to
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