Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72519 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
“You’re going to need to be more specific. Are you talking about my progress with my classes, my research, finding a better-paying job, or finding a place to live?” Luke ticked off each item on his fingers.
Harper paused in the process of bending to dig through her bag of food and winced. “Actually, I was talking about Matteo.”
Just the mention of his name made Luke’s entire body relax and turn gooey like the inside of a chocolate lava cake. Matteo Zito with the perfect hair, so black it almost had blue highlights. Matteo with the flawless olive complexion and the warmest brown eyes anyone had ever seen. Matteo with the perfect smile and sexy voice that held the slightest accent, which had a special way of frying Luke’s brain every time he was lucky enough to hear the man speak.
His friend’s low chuckle and the crinkle of the paper bag kick-started his brain. He blinked and looked to see her peeling the protective wax paper away from a grilled chicken wrap. Of course, his stomach chose that moment to gurgle in complaint. It hadn’t been that long since he’d last eaten.
“I’ve got two more wraps in the bag, along with some fries, if you’re interested,” Harper said prior to taking a bite.
“Sorry,” Luke mumbled as he reached into the bag to snag a wrap. The poor grad student routine was getting old. Of course, the poor undergraduate student routine had preceded it. Actually, he’d just been poor his entire life, constantly scraping by, never having enough and being saved by friends like Harper, who always had a spare twenty or some extra food to share when his bank account was empty.
“What sorry? There’s nothing to be sorry about. I enjoy eating with you, and I figured I’d find you here after Matteo left his last Wednesday class and crossed to the library.”
“Please, you’re making me sound like a stalker. I simply like this bench. It’s the only time of the day the quad is quiet, and there’s a bobolink that’s been spending a lot of time in that tree over there. Did you know that an old name for its species is ‘rice bird’ because of its diet of rice and seeds? It currently gets its name from the unique song it sings—”
“Luke, eat your wrap before it gets cold,” Harper cut him off.
With a smirk, Luke leaned close to her and took a big bite of the wrap, making ridiculous hungry noises as he chewed that made Harper laugh. Yeah, she could be annoying, but he knew he was just as annoying with his random bird facts. That was to be expected of an ornithology student who looked forward to spending his entire life studying birds.
He tried to tame his need to spout useless facts with Harper. She’d been his friend since their sophomore year in college and had picked the same graduate school—Ravenwood University—even though they had different majors.
Luke was studying ornithology and environmental sciences and engineering (as a fallback so he could find a job one day), while Harper was getting her master’s degree in finance. To him, that didn’t seem like a fit at all, but apparently it was a family tradition, and he was pretty sure Harper was only going because her parents were paying for it. She’d mentioned something about moving to California or Mexico when she got her degree and opening a surf shop near a beach, which sounded more like her.
“Do you think it’s weird that I have a crush on an undergraduate?”
“Hell, no!” she shouted, drawing the eyes of a couple of people as they passed by. “He’s fucking adorable. Plus, he’s not a freshman, right? He’s at least a sophomore.”
“Junior, I think. I overheard some young women whispering about him. One of them was pretty confident that he’s a transfer and that this is technically his junior year.”
“There.” Harper waved the remains of her wrap at Luke as if it were a wand and she were his fairy godmother granting him a wish. “That means he’s like twenty or twenty-one. And you’re…”
“Twenty-two. I’ll be twenty-three next March.”
“See. Not weird.”
Luke stifled a sigh with another bite of the chicken wrap, his eyes straying to the liberal arts building directly in his line of sight. No sign of Matteo yet. It wasn’t an age thing, so that mostly left him with the sexual orientation thing. Was there any chance Matteo could be gay? Or at least bi? He’d heard whispers, but not so much that he was willing to hang all his hopes on it.
Not that he had much hope. Luke was well aware of his shortcomings, beginning with his perennially empty wallet. He was of average height and build, though he trended toward the skinny side. His arms were muscular from doing so much manual labor, but his stomach wasn’t as flat as it could be. It was hard to eat healthily and cheaply. Usually it was one or the other. Other than that, his hair was a boring shade of brown, and he was pasty white from too little sun. Add in black-rimmed glasses, and he felt that he was a pretty unnoticeable package. Definitely not worthy of someone as sexy as Matteo Zito.