I entered the living room. Williams trailed behind me, muttering something about me being whipped. Larson was on the couch, laughing at a video he was showing Maybelle.
She blatantly grimaced.
“Come on, May. That’s some funny shit right there,” Larson said, and Maybelle gave him a scrutinized side-eye.
“Mayhem.”
She whipped her head to me. A beaming, beautiful smile overtook the scowl she had for Larson. I couldn’t help but puff out my chest a bit more because of it.
I held my hand out to her. She immediately accepted, and I pulled her up, sat myself in her spot on the couch, then planted her on my lap. As she nuzzled up against me, I kissed the back of her neck.
“Alright jackasses, way to make me feel single as hell,” Larson lamented, standing from the sofa. He grabbed Williams’s shoulder as he joined him in the hall, leaning one arm against the other wall.
“Before I go to rot in my room alone, I’ve been meaning to ask. Did you guys hear about the new undercover security that’s been hanging out outside our apartments?” He looked to Maybelle and me while Williams stared at us like he was really deep in thought.
“No,” Maybelle said, responding for us both. “I haven’t seen anyone either.”
Larson pulled his phone from his pocket then and had a picture up on the screen as he handed it to Maybelle. “Fancy, huh? The school must have a new, fat security budget.”
Maybelle took the phone and held it up for me to peer it over her shoulder. It was sort of blurry. Like the picture was taken from far away and zoomed in on. It wasn’t super visible. But the image of a tall blonde man, dressedin a button up and slacks, leaning against a black, window-tinted vehicle with sunglasses on, just outside of Maybelle’s apartment, was undeniable.
“How do we know he’s undercover security?” I asked.
Larson shrugged. “Some sorority girls I know talked to him the other day. He told them he’s a new hire. Real great at his job, though. Pretty sure he got every single one of those girls’ numbers. I’d trust him to save my life.”
Maybelle snickered, but her eyes didn’t leave the screen of Larson’s phone. “Enlighten me on how that qualifies him to save lives.”
“Because a man who has the skill to get about eight girls’ numbers in the same conversation is a hero in my book.”
Again, she huffed a chuckle under her breath, but her eyes narrowed in on the picture. “He looks like someone I know,” she uttered.
I straightened then, pulling her tighter into me so I too could look at the picture more closely.
“Who?” I asked.
She used her pointer finger and thumb to zoom in on the man’s face. “You know Rick, the guy Penny told you about from my work?”
I stiffened further. “The guy with a staring problem?”
She nodded carelessly, then handed the phone back to Larson. “Yeah, that one. It kind of looks like him with the blonde hair and outfit, but it couldn’t be. Rick only knows how to stare. I don’t think he’d be able to have a normal conversation with one girl, let alone successfully flirt with a group of sorority girls.”
Larson lifted from the wall, accepting the phone back. “Yeah, anyway, I thought it was cool. If you need me, I’ll be in my room—wallowing. Good night.” And he left, shutting and locking his bedroom door behind him.
Our attention turned to Williams then, who was smiling something devious as he said, “MandM, andTNT! Damn, I’m good.”
Then he too was gone down the hall with no further explanation, leaving Maybelle and I staring after him.
“You have some weird friends,” she speculated, and I chuckled into her hair.
“We—we have some weird friends,” I corrected. She smirked but didn’t argue.
I took a tuft of her hair, winding it around my finger. “You got work off tomorrow like I asked, right?”
She shimmied her hips, and I flinched at the reaction my body gave her intoxicating movements.
“Easy, woman,” I gritted out, and she giggled.
“Yes, I got work off and made sure all my homework got done for this surprise day you have planned. Are you going to tell me what this is all about yet?” she asked as she snuggled deeper into my embrace.
