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We were standing there in the hallway together, both wearing sweatpants, both with that tousled end-of-the-day look. Claudia looked sumptuous anyway. I loved the way her hair framed her extraordinarily pretty face. The way her hips flared out in a sexy curve, just beyond the dip of her slender waist.

“Where were you heading?” I asked. “Midnight snack?”

“Err… no,” she said, after a slight hesitation. “Bathroom.”

“Funny,” I said.

She looked suddenly nervous. “Why’s that funny?”

“Because I noticed you just came from Colin’s room.”

Claudia’s face turned even redder if possible. She composed herself quickly though.

“I was just trying to talk some sense into him,” she said. “He’s still pretty hung up on his ex. Holly.”

“You think?” I scoffed.

“Been like this a while?”

“Ever since the breakup,” I said. “Brandon and I have tried to get him over her, but nothing we’ve done has even made a dent. We’ve set him up with beautiful girls, brought him to sorority parties… he ducks out every single time. And in most of those scenarios, those girls were a sure thing.”

It was strange, talking to her so candidly like this. Claudia being a female, and even a professor at the University and all that. Still, it seemed so weirdly natural. So comfortable. Like telling stuff to your sister.

Only she wasn’t my sister. And my feelings for her… well, they weren’t sisterly at all.

“At one point we floated the idea that maybe he was gay,” I went on. “But I really don’t think so.”

“No,” Claudia shook her head definitively. “I’m pretty sure he’s not gay.”

I shrugged. “Not that Brandon or I would care,” I said, folding my arms. “Actually it would explain a lot of things.”

“I think he’s just hung up on her,” said Claudia. “I mean really really hung up on her.”

“Me too. Hell, they’ve been going out since junior high, and he’s twenty-one for Christ’s sake.” I shrugged. “When you look at it that way he’s technically never really dated.”

“Good point.”

A silence settled over the hallway, and I found my gaze wandering back to her body. She looked so hot standing there, filling out her T-shirt. Her soft ringlets of reddish-brown hair, dangling around her shoulders.

You want her.

The realization was frightening but honest. Shit, hadn’t I been stricken with jealousy the second I saw her stepping out of Colin’s bedroom?

Her eyes left mine and she looked past me. In my haste to chase after Deanna, I realized I’d left the door to my room slightly ajar.

Shit.

I reached back and pulled it closed. Claudia frowned.

“Got another girl in there or something?” she quipped.

“No.”

“Then what’s the big secret?”

“No big secret,” I said. “It’s just… well, it’s a big mess in there.”

“I’ll bet,” she smirked. “Deanna seems like the type to—”