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Maybe I was. It wasn’t the worst thing someone had called me.

“Look, I know he has a history with most of us, really.” I gripped my legs tight to my chest. Talking about this shit was not my idea of a fun time. “And I know he has a lot more groveling to do, but… he gets me. He gives me what I need. And I wouldn’t be putting up with him if he was pulling any of his usual BS.”

That part was easier to parse into words. After all, I had a reputation for being the one who talked too fast and called people out before they even had a chance to say hello. I truly didn’t know how they all dealt with me on a good day.

I guessed it was because I usually went after other people and not them. Sergio had once said that going out with me was like taking his very own guard dog.

I’d pretended to bite him in response, but he’d had a point. I didn’t get in the kind of trouble that would lead to attention from the authorities, but if someone said something to one of my friends? It might be the impulsiveness people complained about, but I was not going to stay quiet.

The world was hard enough to navigate for all of us without adding scumbags into the mix.

“He should come to one of our munches.”

I blinked at Kara. “He does.”

Not all of the time, but he’d been there a few times. I didn’t attend every week, either, but I’d noticed when he was there. It was impossible not to.

“Well, yeah, but he keeps his distance.” Kara furrowed her brow. “I mean, I was glad about it before, because he gave mecreepy vibes from what Mónica and Sergio said about him. But if he’s with you, he should get involved with the rest of us.”

“Not sure he’ll agree with that logic.” That was putting it mildly. “But I’ll run it by him.”

After I had my way with him. That was the priority.

Seriously.

Why wasn’t anyone talking about the slam dunk he gave Gerlach and everyone else at that stupid panel? I knew I was biased, and that played a part, but I wasn’tthatbiased. And sure, they weren’t up-to-date with the world of academia, but didn’t they know how hard it was to have professors who actually stood up for us without softening their words?

Ugh.

I pulled out my phone to shoot him another text.

Jaime

Why do I have to wait until tomorrow?

It’s not fair

The plan was to tuck my phone back into my jeans and pretend I wasn’t counting the seconds until it became socially acceptable to check for a response.

Tony started typing right away, though, the bubble with three dots giving him away.

Tony

Here I thought Sergio and a kitten would keep you busy enough.

Jaime

Why would you want me busy?

Tony

Less likelihood of getting in trouble, for one thing.

Jaime

But I wanna talk about how cool you were at the panel, and they don’t get it

Tony