There wasn’t a syllabus for slinking out of her crush’s bed the night after great sex, but she could scoot out of bed with determination; that seemed like a good start. All she had to do was get out of bed, find enough of her clothes so she didn’t get arrested for indecent exposure, slip out the front door without waking him up, run half a block away, and call a cab. Easy. She could do that, she thought, and then she fell halfway out of bed and banged her knee on the hardwood floor with a loud yelp.

Failure again.

Alejandro grunted awake and sat up, rubbing his eyes. “What’s happening?” he asked to no one in particular.

Deja sighed. He was adorable with his hair mussed from sleep and just curling at the ends. And his voice was a solid A+ first thing in the morning and made her sex quiver, battling her aching knee in intensity.

“I was trying to sneak out,” she admitted, still half-hanging out of bed. She rested her chin on the mattress and frowned.

He grabbed his glasses from the bedside table and shoved them onto his face. Deja looked away; he was too much.

“Were you trying to sneak to the bathroom, or were you leaving?” he asked with a serious frown on his face that he probably used when asking his students why they hadn’t done the assigned reading.

“Leaving,” she mumbled.

“Were you going to leave a note?”

She shook her head.

“That’s cold, Deja.”

She bit her bottom lip. “I think I freaked out a little... A lot. I freaked out a lot.”

“And then you fell out of bed?” he asked. She could hear the laughter in his voice.

“This is very typical pathetic behavior from me,” she said.

He grabbed her hand, and she let him slowly pull her back onto the bed.

“Ow. I hurt my knee,” she whined, rubbing at it once she was sitting on the bed again.

Alejandro lost the battle not to laugh at her, and she smiled. It was funny. And pathetic.

He brushed his fingers over her kneecap. “Just so you know, I sleep like a rock most of the time. You could step on me, and I won’t wake up, but loud sounds…yeah, that wakes me up.”

Deja sighed again. “Good to know.”

He leaned over and kissed her temple. “Next time,” he whispered, and her stomach flipped. She turned to see him smiling at her. “Stay here. I’ll get you some ice.”