Alchemy and Algebra

Chapter 8

Three days after the baseball game, Kennedy still hadn't stopped smiling. The weather had turned cold and a relentless driving rain had come in on harsh gusts of wind. The turn of the weather made many of the students and staff on campus grouchy. Kennedy's mood, however, was as bright and sunny as though she were sitting on a golden tropical beach.

Instead of a coconut-based cocktail, she held a steaming latte in her hand, and she sat in a lightly-padded coffee shop chair rather than a reclining deck lounger. She was taking a study break with some reading. Although studying involved plenty of reading itself, she was indulging in a paperback novel that she'd been dying to read for ages. The quirky thriller was being turned into a movie in the near future and if she didn't read it soon, she was sure to catch a spoiler somewhere as the buzz around the movie was enormous.

Kennedy was about a quarter of the way through her novel and was getting pleasantly sucked into the story when a piece of paper appeared on the table in front of her. She looked up to see a cute guy walking away from her table, looking over his shoulder at her, and nodding when she made eye contact with him. He gestured to the paper with a smile, and stood in line at the coffee shop's counter.

He'd left her a hand-written note on a scrap of lined paper. It read: "You look so peaceful, I didn't want to disturb you. I read that book last week, and if you want someone to talk to when you finish Chapter 7, text me. Todd Yates." After his name was a local number.

Glancing up at Todd over her book, Kennedy waited until he was giving his order, then grabbed her phone from her book bag and hid it behind her book. She googled "Todd Yates Simonstone." The web browser told her that he had an article in the student paper last year about the history of the campus library building, and that he was this month's MVP for the school badminton team.

The badminton article included a photo of Todd, so Kennedy got a chance to get a good look at him without staring at the real thing. The first words that came to mind were 'sweet' and 'genuine'. Before she'd met Charlie, she would have called Todd handsome, but her tolerance for hotness had been raised recently. Satisfied that Todd had some credentials and stability, she put him out of her mind and sunk back into her story.

Two chapters later, she sent him a frantic text message.

"What do you mean Beake never had a son?!? Who was that guy? This changes everything! I don't know what to believe anymore."

Todd sent back an understanding text, and after they'd exchanged a few messages, he asked if she wanted to meet up for coffee the following day, as he was on his way to write a test and couldn't stay just now. In fact, he'd already raised his paper coffee to her on his way out of the coffee shop. Kennedy paused before replying. It went against her sensibilities to go on a date with one guy when she was still basking in the glow of her night with the previous guy. If she was honest with herself, she'd been thinking far too much about Charlie in the last couple of days. It was starting to feel like an obsession, and not the good kind, either.

Maybe Kennedy had finally entered her prime dating years. Maybe her nights with Charlie had been a jump-start for her love live, a huge electrical shock to bring her to life and look up from her books from time to time. She really wanted another dose of that particular voltage.

Perhaps a date with another man would allow Kennedy to convince herself that the change was within her, not because of the guy she happened to be attracted to. Besides, what better way to keep herself from becoming too attached to Charlie than by throwing another guy into the mix?

With regret, she realized that the only way she could ethically manage that was to stop sleeping with Charlie. Going to the ballgame with him had only been fun because of the flirting and the subtext. He read tarot cards for a living, for Pete's sake. She still wasn't entire sure his charm wasn't a practiced skill learned in order to deceive. If she took the physical part of their relationship out of the equation, she didn't have much interest in seeing him again.

Right?

Kennedy texted Todd, agreeing to meet him at noon the following day. She felt good about her decision. She especially liked the fact that she'd met a guy, gotten to know him, communicated with him, and made a date, all without ever speaking a word to the guy. Introvert dating at it's finest.

She read two more pages of her book before she was surprised by the ringing of her phone. Surely Todd wasn't calling her already?

According to her screen, it was Charlie. After shaking off the feeling that she'd been caught doing something unseemly, Kennedy decided that his timing was perfect, actually. She could tell him that she was going to start dating again and that their physical relationship needed to come to an end.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Kennedy! How are you doing today, cherie?"

"Cherie?"

"No, I don't think that's the one, either. Well, I'll just keep trying on pet names until I find one that suits you."

So that's what all the little nicknames were about. "I was just thinking about you, Charlie."

"Only the very best filthy thoughts, I hope. Are you alone?"

"That would be a strong no. I'm in the campus coffee shop."

"Aw. So no phone sex. That's too bad. I spilled cedarwood oil all over myself and had to take a shower. I'm still dripping, in fact, and this towel doesn't cover m--"

"Charlie!" Kennedy cupped her other hand around the phone as though the other patrons would be able to see Charlie's suggestive conversation written out on the back of her device.

"We'll just have to meet in person again, then. Are you free for lunch tomorrow? I've got a trainee covering the shop, so I can't go too far, but there's a great little restaurant just a couple doors down."

"Actually, I'm busy tomorrow at lunchtime."

"Oh, a class?"

"No. I'm meeting someone for coffee."

Despite the noise in the shop, Kennedy could clearly hear the stony silence on the other end of the line.

"You've got a date," Charlie said flatly.

"As a matter of fact, I do. Actually, I was just thinking about calling you. I'm not comfortable keeping our," Kennedy couldn't bring herself to say the word 'relationship,' "encounters physical and seeing other people. And since we don't have much in common outside of the bedroom, maybe it's for the best if we end things."

"Kennedy, let's talk about this. We spend time in the bedroom because it's fun in the bedroom. We've only tried a proper date once and, if I recall correctly, you were the one who suggested we end it early."

Kennedy folded her free arm across her chest, tucking her hand under her other elbow, hugging herself tight. "You didn't put up too much of a fuss."

"Damned right I didn't! We were going to get arrested for public nudity if we'd stayed there much longer."

Kennedy sighed. Just thinking about her desperation to leave the ball field and get Charlie alone made her question her resolve."

Charlie blew out a breath on the other end of the line. "Fine. Okay. Go have coffee with this guy."

"You're not in charge of who I sit with in the cafeteria, Charlie!"

"Let me finish. Just promise me one thing. Until we get the chance to talk about us, properly, you and me don't have sex, and you and Mr. Cafeteria don't have sex."

"I am not--" Kennedy was about to insist that she wasn't the type of girl to have sex with a guy on the first date, but Charlie had proof that she was. "I'm not the type of girl who jumps from one bed to another that fast."

"I know you're not. And I know I'm not your boyfriend. But I'm not not your boyfriend either. Gah." Kennedy could picture Charlie running his hand backwards through his hair, dark and curly from his recent shower. " Can you see why we need to talk?"

"I need some time to think. I'll talk to you another time, Charlie."

She said her goodbyes and ended the call.