Easy by Tammara Webber Page B

could confess my building
interest in Landon. “You know my economics tutor?”
    She nodded,
confused, and suddenly, forming an online-only attraction while attending a
university where there were thousands of single guys seemed like the most ridiculous
thing ever in the history of ridiculous things.
    “Well, sometimes it seems like we’re flirting. And once, he said Kennedy was a moron.”
    She arched one brow. “He knows Kennedy?”
    “No—I mean he
said, ‘Your ex is a moron.’ I don’t think he actually knows him . It was
more of a… complimentary statement, to me.” I took a bite of my
turkey-bacon-guacamole sandwich.
    “Hmm.” Erin leaned
both elbows onto the table between us. “Well, it’s a given that he can’t be as
hot as Lucas. But he’s a tutor, so he must be smart—God knows that’s right up your alley. Is he cute at all?”
    “Er,” I said, still chewing.
    She narrowed her eyes. “Oh my God. You’ve never met him, have you?”
    I closed my eyes and sighed. “Not exactly.”
    “ Not exactly ?”
    “Okay, not at all.
I have no idea what he looks like, all right? But he’s intelligent and funny.
And he’s been really nice, and helped me so much—I’m almost caught up in class,
except for that project—”
    “Jacqueline, you
can’t fall for a guy without ever seeing him! What if his looks are a
deal-breaker? He could look like—” she scanned the food court and zeroed in on
a creepy-looking guy in a ratty t-shirt and sweats loping past our table “— that guy.”
    I crossed my arms,
offended on Landon’s behalf. “ That guy looks like a social outcast. Landon
is too smart to look like that.”
    She covered her
eyes and shook her head. “Okay. We’ll make Landon Plan B.” She eyed me,
wearing her conspiracy-theory expression—eyes narrowed, lips puckered. “What do
you really know about this Landon guy?”
    I laughed. “A lot
more than I know about that Lucas guy.”
    “Except what he
looks and tastes like.” She waggled her brows.
    “Ugh! Erin. You have a one-track mind.”
    She smiled deviously. “I prefer to think of it as target-driven.”
    We skipped the
Starbucks—part of Erin’s plan, though she lamented the sacrifices she was
making on my behalf as we choked down cups of cafeteria coffee. Leaving me with
strict instructions not to text or email either of them, she gave me one swift
hug before being swallowed by a group of her sorority sisters—all of whom acted
as though we were distant acquaintances at best—as they set up an afternoon
bake sale.
    A month ago, I’d
been sanctioned as Kennedy’s GDI girlfriend; now I was only poor Erin’s
non-Greek roommate.
     
    ***
    Laundry rooms were located on each
floor of the dorm, but since everyone on my floor decided to run loads at the
same time, the washers were all full. Heaving the overflowing mesh bag into the
stairwell, I hopped it down the concrete steps one at a time, hoping the
residents a floor down were less moved to cleanliness, at least tonight.
    Ten minutes later,
I headed back upstairs with my empty bag. Stopping just inside the stairwell
when my phone buzzed, I answered a message from Maggie reminding me to email a
link she needed for a Spanish assignment we were doing together. Itching to
text Lucas or email Landon, I shoved my phone down into my front pocket. I’d
promised Erin I’d do neither. She knew how boys’ minds worked, while my years
with Kennedy left me woefully unprepared for these sorts of complex maneuvers.
Frankly, the rules for hooking up didn’t seem that much less tricky to me than
the rules for finding a committed relationship, but what did I know.
    The door beneath
me opened and shut as I rounded the corner, and ascending footsteps sounded
behind me. There were hundreds of residents in my building, and though we all
used the elevator or the main stairs for coming and going from the building, most
of us employed the persistently dank stairwell when moving between floors.