Page 34

MAYA

The road to Utah was long and boring, but occasionally beautiful. When I said that out loud to Iris on hour four of our drive, she turned to look at me through her sunglasses.

“That’s kind of poetic,” she said and then turned back to look out over the road that had looked the same for most of the drive.

The shortest route took us through Wyoming—something that didn’t make sense to me, but I wasn’t in charge of the roads—which was quiet but surprisingly flat and uninspiring.

“I thought Wyoming had mountains,” I said, my hands on the wheel and eyes on the road despite there not being a single obstacle in front of us. We hadn’t seen a genuine highway in hours; it’d been us and a handful of other cars for long stretches since we’d left the city.

Iris had gotten bored with our collective Spotify playlist, so we were toying around with FM radio and seeing what played on the local stations. We’d mostly found static. For ambiance , as Iris said.

“Further north. I think the Tetons are, like, three hours from here. Maybe four,” she said. “I’d look it up, but my service is garbage. I googled it up before we left because I was hoping we might see something more than…grass.”

“I think we’re the only people in the world who overestimated Wyoming.”

Iris stretched in her seat, rotating her torso left and then right. “As fun as this is, I think I miss using my legs.”

“Two hours to go,” I said. The timing of Theo’s game had worked out well—it was on a Saturday evening, so we could leave Friday, stay the night, watch the game, and then drive back Sunday morning.

When I told Iris that I wanted to go, she nearly dropped to her knees and started crying.

She was one more basketball game invite away from forming a religion around Theo McCall.

I didn’t know what kind of attitude I should have going into the game.

I didn’t know if this was romantic or not, if I was going with the expectation we’d kiss again, or if we were going to pretend it didn’t happen.

I was choosing actively—and fighting hard, especially late at night when I was alone—to not feel embarrassed by my decision to kiss her.

She’d definitely kissed me back, there was no denying that. But she could’ve kissed me back for any number of reasons without thinking about it. Maybe she’d realized later it was a mistake, or it wasn’t a good kiss.

I shook my head. There was no way it wasn’t a good kiss. No kiss in the history of the world could be that good and only be one-sided .

“Should we go to a soda shop while we’re there? I’ve heard Swig is actually pretty good,” Iris asked, and then turned to me. “Maybe Theo can take you to a Swig.”

“You already know Theo won’t have the time for something like that. She might not have the time to see me at all while we’re out there,” I said. “And I don’t think she’s ever had a sip of soda in her life.”

Iris was quiet for a moment and then nodded. “That’s fair, actually. No wonder her abs are so…like that.”

“Yeah,” I said and then wandered off into thinking about Theo shirtless.

It was an incredibly welcome visual, one that had made the drive feel much faster than it actually was.

My daydream about Theo and I fooling around in a bathroom at a party had gotten particularly detailed while Iris napped earlier.

Theo and I had gotten back into the swing of things effortlessly once she’d broken the ice.

We were back to texting as if we were physically unable to stop.

I wasn’t addicted to my phone exactly, but it was enough that Iris practically had to peel it away from my face while we were watching the newest season of Love is Blind.

Iris and I had booked a hotel based on Theo’s recommendation via text, and I didn’t know if that implied it was the hotel she was staying in or if she was one she knew from the area.

It hadn’t escaped me that we might end up in the same hotel, which for some reason felt way hotter than our arrangement on campus.

If anything, it was more inconvenient considering we’d both have actual roommates here; it was like living in the freshman dorms all over again.

But there was something about the proximity with both of us in the same building, but unable to be together, that was really hot to me.

Not that I actually knew anything was going to happen with her. I wasn’t going to text and ask something like, Hey, were we planning on fucking on this trip? I was bold, but I wasn’t that bold.

I was, however, just bold enough to invite myself to one of Theo’s away games.

I was playing it off as part of my craving for adventure and new experiences—that wasn’t unique to Theo.

But I knew that I mostly just wanted answers from her, which I had to see her in person for.

I wanted to know what was going on, what to think and feel.

Or, as only admitted to myself, I wanted to know if she felt the same way about me. I already knew how I felt; how she was feeling was a mystery to me.

The last hour of the drive seemed to drag on for a lifetime, but we eventually pulled into the hotel just off the university’s campus.

Based on what Theo and Iris had told me, this wasn’t a massive basketball school.

Their program was D1, so they were decent.

But compared to some of the larger powerhouse schools, their record wasn’t very good, and their arena was a lot smaller.

The hotel was cute and generic, and the parking lot was only about half full.

I parked the car and got out, taking the time to stretch and shake out my limbs.

The air was crisp, and we could see the suggestion of mountains from here in the distance, just like back in Colorado.

It was already dark out, the transition into winter kicking our asses, so it was hard to see the details of our surroundings.

Iris and I grabbed our bags from the car and headed inside. The receptionist was an eager woman who looked like she wasn’t much older than Iris and me. She made eye contact with us immediately upon walking in, and her smile was almost unsettlingly large on her face.

“Hi! Welcome!”

“Hi,” I said, my energy seeming almost miserable compared to how chipper she was.

“Checking in?”

“We are,” Iris said and walked toward the desk.

“Name?”

“Maya Healy,” I said and pulled out my ID. Iris did the same.

“Coming for the game?” she asked, nodding to Iris’s Lakeside Green University shirt.

We nodded. “We are,” I said.

“Very exciting stuff. It’s been so busy around here with tourists. Everyone’s here to see the number one team in the conference do their thing.“ She leaned toward us and dropped her voice like she was telling us a secret. “Did you know the team is staying here? You might run into them.”

I didn’t know if she was legally allowed to tell us something like that but I would let it slide this one time. I fought off a smile, wondering if I might run into Theo. I couldn’t help but be charmed that she’d intentionally given me the name of the hotel she and her team were staying in.

“I sure hope we do,” Iris said, playing along. “That Theo McCall sure is something, right?”

“Oh my goodness, yes, absolutely,” the receptionist responded, her eyes practically starry at the mention of her.

I picked up on it immediately, my radar going off.

I desperately wanted to say she’s just as good at kissing as she is at basketball, but resisted.

I was surprised by how hot my jealousy was burning, but I’d also never been faced with someone who was into Theo.

The comments online were nothing compared to seeing someone in person who definitely watched the same Theo fan edits I did and wanted her just as badly.

The receptionist went to work on her computer, oblivious to me clocking her, as she talked, inputting our information from our IDs into her system.

“All of my friends are going out to see her play; we’ve been looking forward to it all season.

And she was so nice during check-in. I wanted to ask her to sign something for me, but she was busy,“ she continued on. I was half-charmed by the positive review of Theo—I’d never been involved with people who’d be considered kind by strangers; most of them were, frankly, assholes—and half feeling suddenly very possessive.

“You’re so lucky that she goes to your school.

” Iris glanced over at me, a small smile on her lips.

“You have no idea,” she said and then turned back to the receptionist.

The receptionist—her name tag read Allie with a hand-drawn smiley face—clicked around on her computer a few more times and then slid our room keys in the reader to activate them.

“Okay, here you go,” she said and handed them over the counter.

When she looked up again, her attention was pulled toward the door instead of us. Her eyes widened. “Oh. Oh, wow.”

Iris and I looked at each other, wondering what could possibly be happening. We glanced over toward the door and saw the entire Lakeside Green basketball team climbing out of a travel bus. Theo hopped off toward the end of the line, chatting with GJ.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm down my heart rate. But there was something about just seeing Theo that had a way of making my senses go completely out of control. It was like I had to resist the urge to touch her, to leap into her arms.

The sliding doors opened automatically for the team, and when they looked over at us, they flashed easy smiles of acknowledgement. I didn’t know if any of them recognized me, but if they did, they were doing a decent job of keeping it quiet.

GJ saw us before Theo. She nudged her and pointed over at us, making Theo look up in our direction. When Theo’s eyes landed on mine, the world seemed to stop for a second. She broke out into a smile and walked over my way.

That definitely caught the attention of her teammates, who turned to look.