Code Blue

Lexi vs. The Stacks

I didn’t really have a plan, which would probably end up biting me in the ass. All I knew was that I needed to tell Max that I felt the same way about him, which considering he’d left the ball in my court, shouldn’t have been that difficult of a task.

Except that I’d been around Max long enough to know that when it came to him, nothing was ever as simple as it seemed.

My first obstacle involved actually locating Max on campus. That would have been a lot easier if someone had actually answered the door at his house. When ringing the bell over the course of ten minutes turned up no result, I realized I would have to actually make use of the intelligence I’d collected on Max over the past few weeks, starting where he hung out the most.

The first stop on my Where’s Max adventure was the student lounge in the business school. Seeing as he was the president of a bunch of organizations, he was often there for meetings, but apparently not today, seeing as when I got there, the room with the overstuffed couches was completely empty. I went on to check both dining halls and the student union only to realize that there was a very simple solution to my problem: I could just text Max and ask him where he was.

He responded to my ‘you around?’ text with his location and I lifted my eyebrows in surprise when I read the words on the screen, wondering why I hadn’t thought of it sooner.

In the library. Tutoring session. Meet me in the stacks in fifteen?

If he felt any residual awkwardness from the fact that I had yet to react to his kiss, he wasn’t showing it, a fact for which I was thankful because him being naturally flirtatious would make telling him that I was into it so much easier.

I walked slowly towards the library, not wanting to end up barging in on his tutoring session, but still getting there early enough to watch him at work. He sat at a large table with another male student, watching carefully as his pupil worked out the remainder of the calculus problem he had been given by Max.

Holding my breath, I watched in awe as Max encouraged his student to finish the problem and then piled him up with compliments and praise once he had checked that it was correct. I hadn’t been particularly surprised to learn that Max was one of the most sought after math tutors on campus. Besides being pleasant to look at, I had learned through my observations during class that he absorbed information at an extremely rapid pace. Half the time I didn’t think he was paying attention, but he had gotten straight As on every assignment we’d had so far. The fact that he was extremely patient and had a very soothing presence probably helped as well.

I made my presence known once I noticed they were wrapping up their session, stepping out from behind one of the stacks and lifting the corners of my lips into a smile when my and Max’s gazes connected. All efforts I’d put into formulating some sort of plan of action immediately dissipated when he smirked in my direction, holding up a finger to indicate he was almost done.

The student slid an envelope which presumably held Max’s cash p*****t across the table before nodding his thanks and slipping his arms through the straps of his backpack and taking off in the opposite direction.

Assuming it was now safe to approach, I made my way towards the table, my fingers curling nervously around the strap of my purse. “Is there anything you can’t do?”

It was a legitimate question because I was having trouble finding his weakness, a problem which was causing a delay in my plan. Not that I really had a plan. But if I didn’t find a way to get some sort of information out of Max sooner rather than later, I was going to have to deal with a lot more than just Evan’s disappointed lectures.

He glanced up at me as he stuffed the envelope inside a notebook and the notebook inside his backpack, a slow smile stretching his lips. “It’s actually a pretty long list. Then again, most of it does consist of things I haven’t actually tried.”

“I guess the world better watch out then, huh?” I laughed, coming to a stop at his side and watching as he slipped his arms through the straps of his backpack.

“I guess so,” he grinned, his hand finding its way to the small of my back and gently guiding me back towards the stacks. Apparently that text had been a serious offer. “So you wanted to see me.”

Seeing as I had been the one who texted him, I couldn’t really deny that statement. Still, I was a bit bewildered because I had no idea how to go about doing this. We hadn’t talked since he’d impulsively kissed me in his kitchen the day before and because he’d been the one who left me speechless, I had to be the one to bring it up.

“Uh, yeah,” I nodded, touching his arm to indicate I wanted to stop walking and nodding towards a set of shelves that dead ended at a wall. I needed some space to think about how I was going to phrase what I needed to say. This was a critical moment and I couldn’t afford to mess it up. If I blew this opportunity, there was no guarantee that I’d ever get close enough to Max to get the information I needed. “I think we need to talk…about the kiss.”

His eyebrows lifted slightly, as though he hadn’t expected me to bring it up and for a brief moment, something that looked a lot like sadness flashed in his eyes. I wondered if he thought I was going to say it was one of the more horrifying experiences of my life and I never wanted it to happen again, which, truth be told, was probably the route I should have taken.

No matter how necessary it might be to the mission, I didn’t particularly like the idea of playing with Max’s feelings. Still, I wasn’t sure I had much of a choice. Considering he had kissed me, I didn’t think it would be possible for us to go back to being just friends – not that we were ever really just friends to begin with – and I couldn’t afford to not be close to him, which meant my only other option was to go the romantic relationship route.

“Rocked your world, did I?” The cautious glint was gone from his eyes and was now replaced with something steadier, more confident.

“Actually, yeah, kinda,” I admitted with a lift of one shoulder.

He seemed taken aback by my response, probably assuming that I was going to shoot some sarcastic banter in his direction. That technique might have worked to keep him intrigued in the past, but I didn’t want there to be any miscommunication or crossed wires here. The only way to ensure that we were on the same page was to be one hundred percent honest. So to speak.

“Really?” his expression went blank, though there was a spark of hope in his eyes.

“Yes,” I stated more confidently this time, taking a step forward and reaching out to play with the buttons on his black and white flannel shirt. “I know I’ve sent you a lot of mixed signals and I’m sorry about that. I guess I was just confused and I didn’t know what to do and I’m not as good with words as you, so I guess what I’m trying to say is that I like you. I like you a lot, Max, and I wanna spend some more time with you.”

He stared at me for a moment, as though deciding whether or not I was being sincere, and I prayed he couldn’t sense that I had an ulterior motive, letting out a soft sigh of relief when he cupped my cheeks in his palms and kissed me firmly on the lips. Because I wasn’t so caught off guard this time, I managed to respond in kind, clutching his shirt in my curled fist and pressing myself against the length of his body as I returned the pressure on his lips, smiling softly as we pulled apart.

His expression was light with happiness and his smile was wide for a total of three seconds before it shifted to complete devastation as he took a step back and pulled his backwards cap from his head, raking his fingers through his hair in frustration. “s**t. Trevor.”

“Trevor?” I repeated, furrowing my brow in confusion and finding myself missing the feelings of his lips against mine. “What about Trevor?”

“He’s my best friend, Evie,” Max sighed, replacing his hat backwards on his head. “I can’t do this to him.”

“Do what to him?” I asked, as I realized the assumption that Max had made as a result of my one on one tutoring sessions with his housemate. “There’s nothing going on between us.”

“There’s not?” his eyebrows lifted upwards.

Shaking my head, I allowed a slow smile to stretch my lips as I reached out to grab the buttons on his shirt and tug him into my personal space once more. “Nope. He’s just tutoring me. I’m actually pretty sure that we spend that majority of our time talking about you.”

“Oh really?” a slow smirk kinked his lips as his hands came to settle on my waist, the pads of his fingers tapping against my hips. “What do you talk about? How sexy you think I am?”

Nodding, I gulped as he lowered his lips to my neck, my words coming out in soft bursts of whisper. “And how incredibly modest.”

He laughed and it reverberated throughout my entire body, making me feel warm and interestingly enough, amazingly safe. Lifting his head so that he could look me in the eyes, he grinned and pulled me a bit closer. “So what do you say? Should we make this official and go on a date?”

Matching his grin, I leaned in to kiss him softly on the lips, mumbling against his mouth as I did. “I’d like that. I’d like that very much.”