“It’s better to analyze it like you would a puzzle,” he continued when I didn’t respond.
Puzzle? What the hell did graduating have to do with puzzles? I swear, he was the freaking puzzle.
“Statistics,” he clarified. “It helps people sometimes if they look at the problems like a puzzle that needs to be figured out instead of a complicated math problem,” he said, pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose.
“Why don’t you get glasses that don’t do that?” I asked, momentarily distracted.
He looked startled by my question, like I was the one talking in riddles. “What?”
“Your glasses. You’re always pushing them up. Why don’t you get ones more appropriate for your face?”
“I like these. They’re retro.”
I snorted. “Just because they’re ten years old doesn’t mean they’re retro. They’re too big for your face. With your bone structure, you should have smaller plastic frames. Like the stylish ones all the guys are wearing. You look like Clark Kent from the old movies my dad likes. Is that what you’re going for?”
“You got me. This is just a disguise for my alter ego. Now that you’re onto my secret, I’ll have to lock you away in a gilded cage.” He pulled a Tootsie Pop from a Spider-Man cookie jar that was perched on the end table.
His words made me laugh. Who knew Nerd Boy would have a sense of humor. It was dry, but it was still there. His eyes sparkled behind the overly big glasses as he responded to my laugh. He pulled the wrapper off the lollipop and stuck the orange sucker into his mouth. His eyes never left mine. My laughter instantly dried up. No guy had ever looked at me like he always managed to. His intensity sobered me.
He held out the jar filled with suckers. “Want one?” I wasn’t a big hard-candy fan, but I reached for one.
“Thanks.” I pulled the wrapper off the Tootsie Pop and cleared my throat. “Okay, so are you going to teach me how this mumbo jumbo in here is a puzzle?” I asked, pulling my book out of my bag.
My words had their desired effect. Trent abruptly switched his focus from me to the textbook in my hands like someone had hit a button. Within minutes, he was explaining problems that for the first time ever started to make sense. We worked for more than an hour until I felt I had a good enough grasp to take the first practice test online when I got home.
During the second hour of tutoring, Trent set up a study schedule for me on my laptop to help me catch up on my other classes. He gave pointers that would help me cut my missing-assignments list in half. The schedule was grueling, and a week ago I would have nixed the idea of cutting into my social life, but things were different now.
I was shoving my books and laptop in my bag when Trent switched the conversation from my dismal academics to food. “It’s past dinnertime. How about a pizza?”
“Dinnertime? What are you, forty? We’re in college. We don’t follow any dinner bell. We eat when we’re hungry, day or night. Haven’t you ever been on a two A.M. taco run?”
“An irregular diet is bad for your body,” he answered before blushing. “Not that there’s anything wrong with your body.” He looked away quickly when I caught his eyes drifting down my midriff.
“You need to get out more often,” I mocked him, standing up with my bag. I kept my voice neutral so he wouldn’t become more embarrassed. “I need to run anyway.”
“You run? Maybe we can go together one time.”
My jaw dropped at his words before a laugh bubbled up through me. The way he took everything so literally was a bit adorable. Quirky, but adorable. We were as different as night and day. It was easier that he was like this. It would help remind my hormones that I should be keeping him at arm’s length.
“I meant I have things to do. The only time I run is when someone is chasing me,” I joked, pawing through my bag for my keys.
“I know. I was teasing you,” he said in a deep, husky voice.
My eyes jerked up and I felt my pulse quicken. You’d think I’d never heard a sexy voice before. In my defense, that smooth, deep voice coming from his mouth was a bit of an oxymoron. The fact that he continued to surprise me was throwing me off guard. I was fine when I could put him in a box and tell myself he wasn’t for me, but keeping him there was proving to be harder than I expected.
I had to get away before I did something stupid that we would probably both regret.
“Just stick to what you’re good at,?
? I said. I threw out the snarky comment, pretending I didn’t notice the way his face fell as I walked past him. “See you tomorrow.”
“Sure,” he answered as I closed the door.
I berated myself during the short drive home. Why was I letting him get to me? If I was going to get through this mess, I needed to pull my head out of my ass.
9.
For the next few days, I was able to stick to my guns and focus on the actual tutoring. It was only occasionally that I noticed small things like how his forearms were more muscular than I’d realized, or the way he liked to hum game show theme songs while he waited for me to answer a question. Holding our tutoring sessions at the library provided a more formal setting, which seemed to help. Although Trent’s humming garnered continuous looks from anyone sitting around us. Between that and his Tootsie Pop obsession, he was driving the library staff nuts. He’d been warned more than once that there was no eating or drinking in the library. Each time he was reprimanded, he would inform them that, technically, he was sucking on his lollipop, not eating or drinking it. Different staff workers would approach him each time, but their reaction was always the same. They would stand for a moment, trying to figure out if he was serious or just screwing with them. Eventually, they would walk away. I would laugh, but I empathized with them. Half the time I didn’t know if his dryness was real, or if he just liked effing with people’s heads.