MasukThe shower room was empty, the way it only was on a Sunday, the water running hot enough to fog the whole space white.Jamie had stopped being shy about this. Mostly. It had taken weeks, and a lot of Max being deliberately unbothered, wandering around the dorm like nudity was a neutral state, never once looking at Jamie in a way that made him want to cover up. Now Jamie could stand here, wet and bare, and only go a little pink about it.Especially when Max kept looking at him like that.“Stop,” Jamie said.“Can’t.” Max reached out and pressed his thumb, gently, to the dark bloom low on Jamie’s hip. He dragged it slowly up over the mark on Jamie’s ribs, the one on his chest, cataloging them like he was checking his own work. “These came out good.”“You’re proud of them?”“Extremely.” Max walked him back under the water, hands settling warm on his waist, and kissed him, slow and open, steam curling off both of them. Jamie’s arms went up around his neck without asking permission. It g
“Where’s Ava?”“Mm.”“Max. She’s not answering, and you’ve been doing this smug thing with your face since we got in the car.” Jamie followed him down the tunnel, half jogging to keep up. “Why won’t you just tell me what happened?”“I told you.” Max held the door to the rink open with his shoulder. “I’ll tell you everything if you can score a goal against me.”“How is that fair?”“It’s extremely fair. It’s the fairest thing I’ve ever offered anybody.”“You’re a professional goalie, Max. Like, actually, now. As of last night. That’s literally your job—”“And you’re a highly intelligent young man with a can-do attitude,” Max said, steering him by the shoulders toward the bench and pushing him down onto it. He crouched, pulled Jamie’s sneakers off, and started working the first skate on with unnecessary tenderness. “Although with that attitude, honestly? You’re never going to manage it.”“I hate you,” Jamie said.“Yeah, you don’t.” Max tugged the laces tight, thumbed the bone of Jamie’s
Room 314 smelled like carpet cleaner and the inside of a laptop.“So the standard deviation’s just the square root of the variance,” Jamie said, sliding the notebook around. “Which is why the units work. It’s the same scale as your original data.”“Right, right.” Spencer nodded slowly, chin on his hand. He hadn’t looked at the notebook. “You explain things really well, you know that? Like— I’ve been to two of the drop-in sessions and I left more confused than when I went in.”“Thanks. So if we go back to problem four—”“You should charge more.”“It’s a departmental rate.” Jamie tapped the page. “Problem four.”Spencer laughed and finally looked down at it, and they got maybe eight minutes of actual work done, which Jamie mentally logged as a victory.Then, somewhere in the middle of a worked example: “Hey, so, random. Do you still go to that coffee place? The one on Winter?”“Sometimes.”“We should go again.” Spencer smiled. “That’s, like, the shortest date I’ve ever been on. Not blam
The porch boards gave a little under Max’s boots. Somewhere inside, a TV was going.He knocked, and Ava stood behind him hugging her latte like a shield.A guy in a Greyhollow hoodie opened the door, took one look at them, and yelled over his shoulder, “Rissa! Some guy!” before wandering off without another word.A few seconds later Marissa appeared, hair scraped up, sleeves shoved past her elbows, the friendly expression on her face dying the instant she registered who was on her porch.“Nope,” she said, and started to close the door.“Marissa—”“Nope. Absolutely not. If Dane sent you—”“Nobody sent me,” Max said quickly. “Marissa, I swear, Dane doesn’t know I’m within a mile of this house.”“I’ve had it!” The door stopped an inch from shut, and she yanked it back open, which was somehow worse. “Do you know how many times he’s shown up here. He’s really sorry, he’s a mess, he just needs to hear from me—” She jabbed a finger at him. “He is not a mess. He is having the time of his life
Jamie speed-walked across the quad with his laptop bag banging against his hip and the collar of his shirt pulled up as high as it would go.He’d checked in the mirror four separate times before leaving. The hickeys were hidden. Covered. Definitely covered. Max had been pretty careful, keeping every mark low and hidden, but knowing they were there was its own problem. He kept catching the pull of the fabric against a sensitive spot and feeling his face go hot in the middle of a public sidewalk.His mind wasn’t on stats at all.It was in a car somewhere on the north side of town, with Max and Ava, chasing down an email address, while Jamie went to teach a stranger about standard deviation. He hated it. Ninety minutes, he told himself. Ninety minutes and then you can be useful.He checked the booking as he pushed through the doors of the Delaney Learning Commons. Third floor, the little glass-walled study rooms along the back wall, room 314, nine-thirty. No name on the confirmation,
Max fished a pair of boxers off the floor and worked them up Jamie’s legs with the patient efficiency of a man dressing a limp doll. Jamie made a vague noise of protest. Max simply kissed the back of his shoulder and left him exactly where he was — face down in the pillows, boneless, hair a disaster.Then he opened the door.“Finally,” Ava said, sweeping past him. “Do you know how long I’ve been standing in a hallway that smells like microwaved noodles? I could have been born in that time. I could have been born and built a door-opening robot.”“Morning,” Max said.“Don’t morning me.” She spotted the shape of Jamie under the covers, dropped her bag, and made a beeline for the bed with her hands pressed to her chest. “Oh my God. Jamie. Look at the state of you. What did he do to you?”“Shut up,” Jamie said into the pillow. “Shut up, shut up, shut up—”Ava sat down on the edge of the bed and poked his butt cheek. “How’s your butt? Is it sore?”Jamie’s head shot up. “Why would my butt c







