Tanner is better at following the conversation than I am. Yet somehow he still makes me feel special. A brush of his fingertips against mine, a whispered comment where only I can hear, the constant contact of his body against mine. There’s nothing overtly sexual about any of his touches, but I am so keyed up that I barely notice the hours fly by.

Much sooner than I’d like, the girls are fading. Chloe yawns and it sets off a domino effect.

“We should probably go. Sydney and I have an eight o’clock class in the morning,” Chloe says.

“Me too,” Em agrees and stretches.

I groan. I know they’re right, it’s time to go, but I’m afraid that after tonight, things will go back to how they were before where Tanner doesn’t notice me.

We all stand and start walking toward the house.

“Hey, wait,” Tanner says before I’m through the door.

I fall back and let the rest of my teammates go ahead.

“Can I get your number?”

Hesitating, I wonder what the right move is. Am I being too eager if I give him my number? The last guy I jumped into things too quickly with stopped calling after I slept with him on our second date.

But do I really want to blow my chance with Tanner?

“How about you give me your number?” I suggest.

He smirks but takes my phone as I hold it out to him. He punches in his number and hands it back, holding on when I try to pull it away. “You’re going to call, right?”

“Sydney!” Emily shouts ahead of me.

“I have to go.” He lets go of my phone and I take a step. “I’ll see you in class.”

“Are you almost ready?” Emily asks, sticking her head into my room. Her brows furrow. “Did you change?”

“The other shirt was wrinkled.” Not untrue but normally I couldn’t care less about what I look like for classes. Is it a coincidence that the first time Tanner noticed me was when I was in a dress and not my everyday clothes of shorts and a T-shirt? I’m guessing not.

It’s been two days since he gave me his number and so far I’ve just stared at it a lot trying to decide what to do with it. Having the power, as it turns out, is a lot of responsibility.

“Well, let’s go. We have five minutes to get across campus.”

I grab my backpack and swipe a tube of lip gloss off my desk. Good enough. My first class of the day is speech. We’re doing three-minute introduction speeches this week, but Emily and I have already gone, so I take my seat and zone out thinking about Tanner while others take their turn.