Free Claiming Callie: Part two by Paige Rion Page A

the Girl solidifies further. Even if she dislikes Maya more than ever before, her goal is still clear: get Maya and Dean back together. She pulls out her phone as she nears the edge of campus and texts Dean: Hey. I ’ m coming to Buzz. You have Maya ’ s schedule?
    A second later, her phone chimes.
    Dean: Yeah?
    Callie: Get ready to put the moves on me. We ’ re going to remind her how she felt Friday when she saw us together.
    Dean: I ’ m game, girlfriend ;)
    She grunts at the title he just gave her, hating the way it makes her stomach turn inside out. She types: K. Be there in a minute.
    Callie stops at the crosswalk at the edge of campus and checks the traffic before stepping into the street and making her way to Buzz. She shoves her phone into her coat pocket and enters. Dean ’ s at the counter, but when he sees her, he smiles and tells the employee that he ’ ll see him tomorrow. While Callie waits for him to gather his things, she meanders around the store, check ing out the new displays next to the counter featuring Buzz goods. Black-and-yellow striped mugs with little ceramic bees hovering around the handle accompany an assortment of more modern and sleek to-go cups. Off to the side, she notices several kinds of Buzz coffee K-cups sitting next to the bagged grounds.
    “You ready?” Dean says from behind her.
    Callie turns and hooks a thumb toward the display. “Yeah. You guys have your own K-cups now?”
    Dean nods. “Yeah. I thought it would be a smart move. It just makes sense, I guess, with all the single cup brewers out there. I ’ m actually working on getting our own Buzz K-Cup brewing machine, but we ’ ll see…”
    “You arrange this kind of stuff?”
    Dean shrugs and busies himself rooting inside the messenger bag on his shoulde r. “Sure. It ’ s no big deal.”
    “Huh.” Callie glances at the displays again and then back to him. “Yeah. I think that ’ s great. I just didn ’ t know,” she says and wonders what else she doesn’t know about him.
    He ’ s ready to go and he ’ s staring at her, probably wondering why she ’ s just standing there, but she needs to tell him something first. “Dean, I did a lot of thinking this weekend and I ’ m so sorry about the game Friday night. About how I screwed up the kiss.”
    He shakes his head. “Callie—”
    “No, I ’ m serious. I know you said not to worry about it, but you planned all that out perfectly. And it was amazingly sweet, the perfect plan to show another girl what she ’ s missing, and then you swooped in at the end with the kiss, and I blew it. I think… I just …”
    Got scare d.
    She bites her lip. “ I don’ t know. I guess I should ’ ve known that this would entail a kiss at some point, but I hadn ’ t thought it through and…”
    “What?” he asked.
    “I got so carried away with it all…the whole production of it, and with the crowd going craz y, and then I think the reality of it hit me. That it was you . You and me. And Jinny was there next to me, and you were about to kiss me, and suddenly it all seemed so strange.”
    He puts a hand up. “I get it. You don ’ t have to explain.” The muscle in his ja w ticks after he says it.
    Callie nods, hoping he can ’ t see through to her thoughts. That this is a partial truth.
    “But I ’ m back in the game. And I ’ m going to make Maya beg for you back,” she says with as much enthusiasm as she can muster. “In fact, I’m pretty sure she’s already jealous. Operation Get the Girl is in full force. And I won’t blow it twice.”
    Twenty minutes later, with coffee in hand, Dean and Callie sit together in the lobby just outside of Maya ’ s art class. They both have an hour before the ir own classes, and thanks to the schedule Dean was somehow able to get, they hoped she would see them together. If the look on Maya ’ s face Friday night and the fact that she felt the need to question Callie were any indication, the production he made at t he