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and under the constant, albeit distant, watchful eye of my parents.
    “I don’t know if you still have your mind made up about me, but look.” He holds up both hands to show me his clean palms, and I understand the purpose of the gesture. “Go out with me tonight.”
    My eyes fall to my lap, and a twinge of guilt interrupts thoughts of the guy who walks around with his favorite book, a guy who knew I wanted him to kiss me before I could voice the thought to myself, and a guy who couldn’t get away from me fast enough after one little text.
    Noah’s kiss made it clear I’ve been missing out. Griffin asks for no more than right now. Tonight. But the idea of where one night could lead scares me because I know who he is. He did turn down a phone number for me, but really, isn’t that because of convenience? Yet Griffin, a guy who admittedly bows out before things get serious, might be just what I need to help take serious out of the equation.
    Stop thinking, Jordan. It’s one night .
    I turn enough to face the seat in front of me but say nothing until I lean my head onto his shoulder.
    “Okay.”
    His tension relaxes as we touch. Slowly, he lowers his face toward my hair and inhales.

Arrival
    “Love felt and returned, love which our bodies exact and our hearts have transfigured, love which is the most real thing that we shall ever meet, reappeared now as the world’s enemy, and she must stifle it.”
    E. M. Forster
    A Room with a View

Chapter Four
    It’s nine p.m. by the time we finally make it from the train station in downtown Aberdeen to our resident housing, known as Hillhead. I barely have time to drop my bag in my tiny room before there’s a knock on the main door of my flat. My flat-mate isn’t here, so I hesitate, but the knocking sounds again. When I answer, I’m relieved to see that it’s Griffin, but also a little disappointed. I was hoping to have time to unpack, get the lay of the land and meet the person I’ll be living with for the next ten months, but I can tell by his set stare, eyebrows raised in expectation, that nothing of the sort is going to happen.
    “Come on,” he coaxes, grabbing my arm. “We’re going to the Blue Lantern. It’s a pub on campus. I met one of my neighbors, and he said it’s one of the more popular student hangouts.” He pauses for a moment and surveys my flat. “Wow. My place sucks compared to this. I’ve got pretty much your standard dorm room.”
    He steps inside the narrow hallway that boasts two closed doors and two open. The closed doorways face the main door. One belongs to me. The other, I assume, my roommate’s. A communal kitchen sits farther down the hall on the left. Opposite that is a shared bathroom. I see all of this from the main doorway, which doesn’t say much for the size of the flat, but the layout works.
    “How’d you score this place?” Griffin asks, peeking into my room and then the kitchen and bathroom. “I’ve got to share a bathroom with a floor full of dudes, and you share yours with…” He recounts the doors for added drama. “…one other chick? Nice!”
    I shrug, not really sure how I scored this place but pretty happy I did.
    “You don’t really use the word chick , do you?”
    He puckers his lips in fake contemplation. “I’ll file that one away if you do the same with man-whore.”
    I bite my lip and look down for a second. “Touché, Mr. Reed. You have a deal.”
    My suitcase sits on the floor, still packed. Travel grime, enough to count as another layer of skin, coats my body, and if I put my head to pillow at this very moment, I’d be out until sunrise. But the earnestness of his smile, watching him bounce with energy, and the simple notion that he came here for me—how do I say no to that? He wants to share his first Aberdeen experience with me .
    “I have to pee first.”
    Griffin shakes his head. “Of course you do.” He smiles, and I like that he knows this little thing about me and seems to think it’s