by Lexy Timms
She did want to be. She’d already congratulated him on his own qualification for the championships. Just like her, he’d finished his race in NCAA qualifying time, leaving the competition thoroughly in the dust.
Aileen’s roommate hooked a hand around her arm and dragged her out of the way of one of the shot- putters, who wasn’t paying any attention to where he was going with a very full cup of something violently orange.
“Besides,” Jani added, “this is our party. We made it! Indoor championships here we come!”
“Okay,” Aileen laughed as her best friend whooped. “You’re right.”
There were other places she would rather have been with Tyler. Like back in her own bed, where she could congratulate him properly. And thoroughly. But Jani was right. She couldn’t exactly miss a party being thrown for the track athletes. Especially not when she was one of the small group who’d just qualified for the NCAA’s Indoors.
“I’ll grab us drinks,” Jani said as they emerged from the tangle of people into the relatively more open space of the living room.
Aileen waved her off and watched her go, then turned to scan the room for Tyler. There was no sign of him, and she wondered if he was there already, hidden behind someone or in another room, or if he was later than they were. She did spot Chrissy, and waved to the blond heptathlete, who didn’t seem to notice.
She did catch the eye of Mindy, the sprint hurdler Chrissy had practically kicked out of the party Aileen and Jani had thrown at their house at the beginning of the school year for ignoring Aileen. The other girl sneered at her and turned away, and Aileen sighed. Apparently they still weren’t going to be friends. Which was fine with her. She didn’t see any need to attempt conversation with someone who treated her own teammates like competition.
Hands slid over her eyes from behind, and Aileen startled, nearly tripping over the person at her back.
“What the heck?” she demanded. “Sean. Stop that.”
The big hands immediately withdrew with an almost guilty air.
“How’d you know it was me?” Sean asked, stepping back enough that he could look down at her with big blue puppy dog eyes.
“Because it’s not all that hard to pick you out of a line-up when you’re a giraffe trapped in a human body,” Jani said, reappearing at Aileen’s side.
Sean clapped a hand to his heart like he'd just been mortally wounded. “I resent that statement. Maybe I’m a giraffe willingly contained in a human body and making the most of my short time with opposable thumbs.”
“You can—” Jani paused as Sean went on. “Willingly contained. Really?”
“Like you’re one to talk, gazelle legs,” Aileen teased, taking the drink that Jani was holding out to her, and scanning the room again for Tyler. Where was he?
“Now that’s just uncalled for.”
“What goes around comes around,” Sean said, still looking aggrieved. “You brought it on yourself.”
Jani protested, shaking her head. “That wasn’t an insult; giraffes are awesome.”
“And gazelles aren’t? You’re being anti-gazelle,” Sean said. “Gazelle-ist. That’s rude.”
Aileen’s roommate opened her mouth to answer, and dissolved into giggles, obviously unable to match Sean’s ridiculousness. “Okay,” she laughed. “Fine. You win. Gazelles are awesome, too.”
“Thank you.” He sounded smug. “And for the record, I never said that giraffes aren’t awesome.”
Shaking her head at her friends, Aileen turned again, and her restless gaze finally caught on Tyler, making his way through the crowd. A smile broke out on her face, and she lifted a hand to catch his attention. Behind her, Sean was listing the potential reasons why a giraffe might fancy being human for a while, and Jani was listening raptly.
“Looking for me?” Tyler asked as he finally managed to break out of the crowd, his name being cried out each time he passed another person. He joined them in their corner. The smile on his handsome face was bright against the brown of his skin.
She couldn’t help smiling back at him. “I was, actually,” she answered, shifting a little closer to the warmth of his body, the scent of his cologne coiling around her.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and drew her in against his side, and Aileen sighed blissfully. It was nice to be acknowledged. Nice to be enough of a couple that they could be open in front of their friends.
“What?” Tyler asked. “Didn’t get enough of me at the track?”
“As I recall,” she returned, “you were kind of left in my dust there.”
Tyler laughed. “You’re so cute when you try to trash-talk.”
Aileen turned to look at him, her eyebrows lifted dangerously.
“Oh man,” Sean laughed. “I think you really stepped in it now, dude.”
“Do you still want me to kill him for you?” Tyler asked, and Sean fell silent with an audible gulp, his eyes wide.
“Don't kill Sean,” Aileen said. She reached up to pat the tall cross-country runner on the shoulder. “Don't worry, sweetie. There are no actual plans to murder you.”
“Well that's a relief, because—”
“Although,” Tyler cut in, his voice just teasing enough to not be mean, but his eyes and his attention focused on Aileen in a way that made her legs abruptly threaten to give out. “You might want to relocate. Somewhere else.”
Aileen felt Sean look at her, and turned to give him a smile. “Go on, then. Find some cute girl to take home.”
“I'll go with you, Sean,” Jani said. “Help you pick someone. Heaven knows you're helpless on your own.” She hooked her arm through Sean's and the two left together, already whispering as their eyes moved over the room.
“So,” Tyler said when they were more or less alone, secluded in an empty corner of the room. “What do you want to do now?”
Aileen looked out at the groups on the dance floor, and she smiled slowly. Her finger linked with Tyler's, and she tugged him in that direction. He went willingly, although he chuckled when he saw where they were going.
“Trying to beat me at something else?”
“You know it.”
They stepped out onto the floor, and the song shifted to something with a low, heavy bass. Tyler's smile was a little dangerous. He wrapped himself around her from behind, hands resting on her hips, and pulled her in close. Aileen went with it easily, sinking back against the strong support of his warm chest.
“How's this?” he asked in her ear, his breath washing over her skin, and Aileen felt heat coil in her belly.
“This is just fine,” she answered, picking up the rhythm of the music and swaying with it. “This is great.”
He rolled his hips against hers, and then his hands and his body were slipping away, and he turned her to face him, body moving to the beat. Aileen watched with a grin.
“So you do know how to dance?”
Tyler gave her a look that said he knew what she was doing. “I happen to be a great dancer.”
And he was. Aileen had taken pretty much every type of dance class there was, and she was sure Tyler hadn't, but a lot of the boys she'd danced with when she was younger would have killed for his obvious talent. He moved like the rhythm was part of him, and Aileen stepped in closer to join him, throwing in a few moves that she remembered from the lessons.
“You're not so bad yourself,” Tyler said, and his voice was pitched a little low on the words, rough in a way that she knew meant he was thinking about them in bed as much as she was.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, body rolling against his in a way that was just short of indecent, and his hands settled on her hips. Outside of sports she wasn't usually this bold, wouldn't have shown herself off the way that she was if Tyler hadn't been there to show off for. But she wanted to impress him, and she got the sense it was working. She smiled against his shoulder.
They split apart again, Aileen dancing away from Tyler and making him follow, which he did more than willingly.
> “Congratulations, by the way,” she said, raising her voice a little to be heard over the music as they came back together. “I know I already told you, but I think you deserved to hear it at least one more time. You ran a great race.”
“Not quite as great as yours,” Tyler answered, grinning at her. “I think you wowed a few people pretty well. Those NYU girls didn’t know what hit them.”
“And both of us will be running at the indoor championships,” Aileen added.
“Congratulations, us.” Tyler pulled her a little closer with his hands on her hips, brushing a kiss against the curve of her jaw just under her ear. “What do you say we go home and celebrate a little later?”
“That’s exactly the kind of celebration I was thinking.”
The next song was slower, and Aileen let her weight sink a little closer against Tyler, both of them swaying to the music. She enjoyed the faster songs, and the dancing that came with them, but this was nice, too. Wrapped in Tyler’s arms. Held secure. She laid her head against his shoulder and let her eyes slide shut.
When the song ended, Aileen slipped out of his embrace, giving him an apologetic smile. “Have to run to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.”
Tyler nodded, and she made her way through the shifting crowds of students to the bathroom, glancing at herself in the mirror over the sink as she closed the door. Her cheeks were a little red, flushed with having been so close to Tyler. She wrapped up quickly, washing her hands in cool water and then pressing them to her cheeks, taking some of the heat out of them.
When she walked back out into the main room, Tyler was still on the dance floor, and she took a moment to just watch him, admiring the way he moved. On the track or off it, he was all fluid muscle, perfectly in control of his body.
A girl stepped out of the group of dancers to his left, practically draping herself over Tyler. Aileen recognized her as one of the sprinters, and she felt a sharp little jab of possessive irritation as the other girl moved in him. Tyler was hers.
Tyler certainly didn't seem to mind the girl that much. He didn’t pull away from her. As he turned, his eyes found Aileen, and he lifted both shoulders in a tiny shrug, looking at Aileen over the girl’s shoulder with a 'what are you going to do?' kind of look. Aileen crossed her arms over her chest and met that with a look that told him just exactly what he was going to do.
Before he could move away, there was another girl on his other side, leaning in to giggle something in his ear. He slipped easily out from under her arm.
“Hey, look,” she heard him start to say, obviously having picked up on the fact that Aileen was less than happy.
Tyler was hers. He didn't belong to the entire track team. Aileen resisted the urge to do something immature like walk over there and pull the girls off by their hair. She wasn't that kind of person.
But she also wasn't the kind of person who was going to stand by and watch her boyfriend be fawned over by other girls. She turned on her heel and walked away.
It sounded like maybe Tyler tried to follow, but when she turned around to look he wasn't there and she shook her head. Maybe he'd decided that he liked the other girls better after all. Either way, she wasn't going to stick around for it. Jani could come meet her at home.
Chapter 4
What was it with professors and all giving out papers and homework due on the same day, Aileen wondered, flipping through the little stack of syllabi she’d collected for her courses. It was like they got together and planned for it. Or maybe like they didn’t get together, and that was the problem. It might do them some good to talk to each other once in a while, and spare their students while they were at it.
The set of math problems due for stats didn’t really count toward that total. The stats professor required a new section of them every week. It was the paper for Biology 2 and the project for Physics that were the problem. Add that to the homework for her composition class and every-day practice for track, and it felt like she hardly had a spare moment.
Not that she was officially complaining. But she was a little thankful that she didn’t have to try to juggle a job on top of all that. Or maybe track was the job. It was definitely paying her bills.
Aileen sighed and pulled out the stats homework, setting it in the open space at the center of her desk and staring down at it.
She couldn’t concentrate.
Since the party, she’d only see Tyler at practice. He’d shown up on Monday morning acting like nothing was wrong, and she wondered if he even realized why she’d been upset.
She shook her head, and turned back to her work, absentmindedly chewing at the end of her pencil.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
“Speak of the devil,” she muttered to herself.
It had to be Tyler. He was the only one who tapped at her window like that. Aileen set the pencil down across the book open on her desk, marking her spot. Rolling her black computer chair away from the desk, she slipped off the chair and onto her feet. At her bedroom window, she pulled back the curtains and, as expected, spotted her favorite pair of dreamy eyes staring back at her. Tyler had snuck into her backyard and was tapping on the window, leaning up against it as he made the cutest puppy dog eyes at her when she came into view. Aileen tugged on the window and pulled it open, just enough to poke her head out.
“What’re you doing here?” She was happy to see him—she was always happy to see him. But the party still gnawed at her, sneaking its way into her thoughts at odd times, and she wasn’t quite sure she was ready to forgive him for it.
“Brr, it’s freezing out here. Can I come in?” Tyler faked a shiver as he flashed his infamous smile her way.
Despite herself, Aileen laughed at his attempt to get inside, his charm always finding a way of making her smile. Even when she was annoyed with him. “All right. Go to the back door and I’ll let you in. Can’t have a champion athlete freezing to death on my back porch.”
Tyler quickly disappeared from view. Aileen followed suit, pulling her head back inside the window and sliding it shut, making sure to lock and it and draw the curtains back over it before making her way through her bedroom door.
She hurried to the back door, pulling the small window curtain to the side to double-check Tyler was there before unlocking the door and pulling the handle to slide it open. Tyler wasted no time ducking in through the door, spinning himself around Aileen, and helping her slide the door closed. Aileen turned herself around to face him, her back almost up against the door as she tipped her chin up so that she could look at his face. His hand moved to lean against the door, and his body hovered over her as he moved his face in close, letting his hot breath tickle her face. He lifted his free hand to catch one of hers, cupping it gently and moving it to his lips. Tyler kissed each knuckle while keeping perfect eye contact with Aileen. He wanted her to see that he cared for her, even if he didn’t say it out loud.
“You are cold.” She’d thought it was just a trick to get inside, but his fingers were freezing against hers, and she turned their hands so that hers wrapped his instead, trying to warm him up.
“It’s January in New York State,” Tyler pointed out
“Come and get warm, then,” Aileen said, starting toward her room with their hands still linked.
In her room, she sat him down on the bed and gave him a blanket to wrap himself up in, but she didn’t join him there, despite the way that he looked at her.
“Tell me what happened at the party,” she said, because she’d wanted to ask him at the last two practices, but hadn’t quite dared to in front of everyone. She hadn’t wanted to cause a scene, and airing their personal business in public wasn’t really her style.
Tyler’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. “Nothing happened at the party except that you left early. I went looking for you and you were gone.”
“Nothing?”
He sighed. “Look, Aileen, I know you saw those girls trying to get all over me, but I wasn’t
interested. I told them to go away, which you’d have seen if you’d stayed longer.”
“I stayed long enough to see that you definitely hadn’t told them to go away by the time I left. You even looked up and saw me.”
“I didn’t think you’d take it that personally,” he said, still frowning. “Not to brag or toot my own horn or whatever, but there are a lot of girls interested in me. Anyone on the football team could basically have their pick of the college. But I’m not interested in any of them.” He laid the blanket to the side and stood, crossing the floor to stand in front of her chair and taking her hand. “I’m only interested in you, Aileen.”
It was hard to resist that, those gorgeous eyes looking down at her, pleading for her to understand. But she didn’t know if she could let it go that easily. If he went anywhere with football, there would be women all over him all the time, and if he wasn’t telling them no in front of her, what would he tell them behind her back?
She didn’t want to think that about Tyler, but she couldn’t help the little curl of uncertainty that settled somewhere behind her ribs.
“I promise you,” he said. “I didn’t want anything to do with them.”
He sounded so sincere.
“You promise?” she asked.
“Cross my heart,” he said, meeting her eyes with his own again. “I’m not looking at anyone else.”
He held out his hand and, after a moment’s hesitation, Aileen took it, letting him draw her toward the bed. She still had stats homework—and all kinds of other homework—to do, and the weekend was another meet, but she could spare an hour or two, for Tyler.
***
Aileen took a sip from the glass of water in front of her, and eyed the sandwich that she'd unwrapped but hadn't eaten a bite of yet. Usually food didn’t last more than a few minutes in front of her, but even though she was starving, she couldn’t quite bring herself to eat it. When she looked up, Chrissy was watching her across the table, her expression a little concerned.
