“Okay,” Drew winked at her. “Forget I said that then. I’m off to enjoy the vibrating handheld shower.”

Charlee’s jaw dropped, and then she burst out laughing. “T.M.I!”

“But I’ll do it while thinking of Hector,” Drew added as she walked out the door.

That immediately shut Charlee up.

“You know what I meant!” Drew yelled from the hallway.

Charlee thought about it for a moment then smiled. She had no idea what Drew had in mind exactly for Friday night, but her insides were already beginning to bubble.

~*~

Hey stranger! I’ll be in town for a while. I know we sort of lost touch, but I really would like to get together if anything maybe just to grab a burger or something. Let me know if you’re up for it.

Hector sat in the gym’s office and read the text from Lisa, tempted to ignore it as he had most of the other ones she’d sent him, ever since he’d figured out she was seeing someone else. The only ones he ever did respond to were the ones that had no flirtatious undertones whatsoever. He didn’t want her to think he was all bitter and shit, so he could still be friendly, but he kept his responses short. He stared at his reply for a few seconds before he responded

How long will you be in town?

Typically, he wouldn’t be so uptight about knowing if the girls he hooked up with were doing so with him exclusively. Since he never made any promises himself, he didn’t expect any in return. He actually preferred it that way, but Lisa had been different. Even though he didn’t feel even the tiniest bit of what he once thought he felt for her, she wasn’t the kind of girl you hooked up with and then just dropped. He already knew firsthand what it felt like to do that to a nice girl. Even though Charlee pretended not to mind, actions spoke louder than words. They were hardly speaking anymore, and Hector didn’t think that had much to do with what he’d said about her and that guy. He saw it in her face now. She was hurt, and it was a real shitty feeling.

His phone vibrated on the desk, and he picked it up again.

A few weeks maybe longer. I haven’t decided.

That could only mean one thing. If she was texting him, wanting to get together and she wasn’t sure how long she’d be around and she didn’t sound anxious to get back, she must not be with the guy anymore. Hector wasn’t sure how he felt about that. She had been a consideration before she started seeing someone else.

Before he put too much thought into this, he’d get one thing straight. The conversations they’d had even back when she was seeing the guy but called him “just a friend” had been flirtatious in nature. For all Hector knew she might still be seeing the guy.

After verifying that she was, in fact, broken up with her boyfriend now and that she was out here alone staying with a friend who was not a dude, Hector agreed to meet up with her, but not in an intimate one-on-one setting. He’d even told her to bring her friend. Lisa had been a serious consideration before her boyfriend came into the picture, but that was before Charlee. As frustrating as it was to admit and as nice as it had been to kiss Lisa, it didn’t even come close to what he’d felt when he kissed Charlee.

He’d learned his lesson already. The way he was still feeling about Charlee there was no way he’d be considering anything serious with anyone for a while. At least not with anyone like Lisa anyway—someone he knew that like Charlee would not appreciate the one-night fling thing. And he wasn’t about to add another thing to his already guilt-ridden conscience.

***

So far anything to do with the U.S. chess team had consisted of conversations on Skype with the coaches and downloading tons of apps they wanted Hector to use for training. With an impending trip coming up in a few weeks to D.C. for one of their first meetings before the Jr. World Olympiad, Hector was hoping to make things a little more amicable with Charlee.

They would be spending an entire weekend traveling together, and since Hector, Walter, and Charlee were the only team members coming from Los Angeles, they’d be on the same plane and sharing the same transportation to and from the airports they arrived at. Not to mention they’d be put up in the same hotels. And this would be happening with every event the U.S. team attended. It’d be awkward at best if things between them continued the way they were now. He didn’t want a repeat of the day before when they hadn’t spoken a word to each other in the lab, so Thursday, Hector made it a point to sit next to her in between games.

He’d planned on just making small talk—something simple and safe about chess. But the second he took the seat next to her and she turned to him with those big startled baby blues, the last thing he anticipated saying to her flew out.

“I’m sorry.”

She stared at him, looking almost as stunned as he felt. “About what?”

“About everything,” the vomit of the mouth began, but he now very consciously wanted to finish, only he lowered his voice. Walter was a few tables over, and he wanted to be absolutely sure he didn’t hear him. “About that day I went off on you the way I did for talking to that guy.”

She shook her head. “No, I get why you were mad. And I only said what I said that day because I wanted to avoid any violence. I figured if I seemed agreeable he’d leave faster. But I don’t plan on being his friend or anything.”

Hector gulped, staring into her eyes like he hadn’t been able to in so long. He noticed how she didn’t conceal her freckles the way she had tried to that night of the party, not even a little bit.