Kristin’s face lit up. “Great! We will be back in a few hours!” Kristin said as she planted a kiss on Micah’s lips and followed Sam out the door.
*******
The drive back to Micah’s that night was quiet. Sam’s mind was noisily running through every excuse she could think of to get out of the party, as it had been doing since she agreed to go. She wasn’t the most social person ever, and she had always been more of an introvert.
“We can leave anytime you want,” Kristin said and Sam knew she could sense how tense she was. She gave Kristin a quick smile in response.
At least it was quiet when they pulled up, so Micah hadn’t lied. Just the roommates and them, it seemed.
For a moment, she contemplated the reality that this could be a positive thing. She really did need to meet more people and start having an actual social life, but her world was so immersed in school that she tended to let the weekends fly by without a second thought. Jess and Stacy would be so proud of her.
As they walked up the steps to the porch, Kristin gave her a big comforting smile and opened the door without knocking. A complete one-eighty from what she did at her own family home.
Sam didn’t make it three feet inside before she heard him.
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Newbie-Asshole exclaimed in frustration without ever moving from his chair. His gaze was planted firmly on her.
Sam stood frozen.
She didn’t move from the door frame.
It was Micah who broke the tension as he looked between the two.
“Is there a history here we should know about?”
“This is the girl that spilled drinks on me last weekend,” Newbie-Asshole said to no one in particular, keeping a definite glare planted in Sam’s direction. “Let me guess. Sam, right? Kristin’s roommate?”
Sam had never been in a situation in which she felt time stood still until this exact moment. It was obvious he was aggravated at having to see her again. She wasn’t all that excited about seeing him again, either.
She scanned the room. She had already met Drew earlier that morning, and was well acquainted with Micah, so this must be Callum Barker, the tattoo shop owner and Barker boy screw up. Mrs. Hadley had made a few comments about him during their dinners. College dropout. Complete rebel of the family. She had never paid
much attention to their neighborhood gossip, but it all made sense now. Callum fucking Barker was her most hated coworker.
“Yep. That’s me. Sorry, we didn’t get to exchange names during our first encounter. I was too busy trying to do my job and avoid assholes.” Two could play this game. She tried to rein it in. That wasn’t something she would normally say at all, but just seeing him again had evoked a level of anger she couldn’t explain. It was bubbling up so close to the surface, ready to explode with just the smallest spark needed to set it ablaze.
“Um, do you want us to leave?” Kristin asked Sam as she gave her a panicked look. She was normally the hothead and Sam the cool one. This display might have been slightly out of character, but Sam didn’t seem to care. She wasn’t letting this guy run her off again.
“No, I’m fine. Let’s get a drink. Micah, where is the pizza I was promised?” She smiled at the equally shocked Micah as she walked further into the home, fully planning to ignore Newbie-Asshole, now identified as Callum fucking Barker, for the rest of the night.
*******
She absolutely and completely failed at her plan. When he wasn’t yelling at the game or talking with Micah, Kristin, and Drew, Callum sat there at ease without even a single look her way. It was like she didn't even exist. He even responded to some of Kristin’s comments, but nothing when Sam spoke. His purposeful ignoring filled her bones with a mixture of embarrassment and white-hot anger. She wanted to yell at him to look at her or answer her question. Hell, she would even take mockery at this point. She just wanted him to react to her in some way. And she hated that she wanted it so badly.
She had been stealing glances at him for the past two hours, unnoticed as she was sitting slightly behind him. Hence, she had absolutely no idea what was happening in the game whatsoever. It didn’t help that, after looking him over, she was now debating whether or not his level of attractiveness outweighed some of the obvious character flaws.
She’d known he was easy to look at. She could tell that first night they’d met, even in the dimly lit bar. But if she was being honest with herself, now that she was able to fully assess the man before her in better light, she had to admit that he wasn’t just attractive, he was fucking gorgeous, and she hated him for it.
Slightly wavy dark hair that desperately needed to be styled, or at the very least cut a little. Hell, she would settle for a run through with a comb. But then she thought, maybe not. Maybe that would take away some of the beauty. It fell to his shoulders and there was a fleeting moment in which she contemplated what it would feel like if she ran her hands through it. Then there was his shirt. She could tell by the way it fit across his broad shoulders that he was toned. Not built or particularly muscular, but she doubted there was an ounce of fat on his body. Why was it that guys could always look like they just rolled out of bed and yet were still somehow devastatingly handsome?
He also had the bluest eyes she had ever seen. She hadn’t noticed them during either of their previous encounters at Topline, but they were on full display now. The hue reminded her of what she assumed water in the Caribbean would look like. So enticing, but most likely hiding a deadly current underneath just waiting to suck you up, never to let you go.
Since he was wearing shorts, she was able to see that the design of vines trailing up his right arm was continued down his left leg from his calf up under the hem of his shorts. They were kind of mesmerizing in design, but she realized she needed to stop staring when she started to wonder if those vines connected somewhere in the middle. Kristin had caught her a few times, but thankfully no one else had. Everyone was too enthralled by the game to worry about where Sam’s eyes were focused.
She sent up a prayer of thanks when the final buzzer sounded, and promptly decided some air on the back porch was much needed. She had been here a few times over the last year with Kristin while Callum and Drew had been off doing whatever it was they did in Charleston. Similarly to where she and Kristin lived, this neighborhood was technically considered a student townhouse community, even though it was a few miles from campus, and it was far enough away from the city lights that you could actually make out the stars in the sky.
That was one of the things she missed most about living in the country. She had spent most of her upbringing in the city, but a few foster homes had been out in more rural areas. She hadn’t realized how much she loved staring up at the stillness of it all until it had been taken away.
So that’s exactly what she was doing, counting the stars, while also trying to cool down, both emotionally and physically, when she heard the back door swing open and Callum fucking Barker walk out to lean back on the railing.