Free Linden: Rocking Pleasure: New Adult College Romance (Coral Gables Series Book 3) by Drucie Anne Taylor Page B

need to get some sleep.” I’d rather cut him short than say anything wrong now, because I don’t want to risk spending Friday night on my own after all.
    “ Okay. When can I call you tomorrow?”
    “ I’m in class until two, so I’d say after four? By then I’ll be home and done with everything.”
    “ Great. Sleep well, Thalia.”
    “ You, too, Linden.”
    I hang up and set my alarm for seven a.m. I also set the alarm on my phone to make sure I don’t sleep in again. Then I switch off the light and close my eyes.
    ***
    “ Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice,” I whimper softly to myself, because the very worst has happened. I’m having a blackout. This test is going to be the end of me. Things were fine up until I reached the second to last question. My eyes flit back and forth between the last two questions, but I can’t hold a single thought anymore. There is nothing but mush in my head. Crap!
    I really hoped I might pass this test with sort-of flying colors, but no. Jim is sitting next to me, and he seems to sense what’s going on, because he leans back and gives me a meaningful look. I can clearly see what he has written and hasten to read what he put on the bottom of his page. His grades are always good, so it can’t be all wrong. As I copy them, I quickly reformulate his words to make it less obvious.
    “ Thank you,” I mouth, after writing down something quite similar to what he has on the last two questions. Copying is really low, but I don’t see how else I could pass this test now.
    “ You’re welcome. Pay for my coffee later,” he answers under his breath and winks at me.
    “ Black?”
    “ Yeah.”
    “ I’ll meet you on the front stairs. I’ll get the coffee,” I whisper as I rustle my sheets of paper, straightening them for one last check.
    Professor Salters comes over to the back and gives me a piercing look. “Are you done, Miss Leroux?”
    “ Yes,” I say, and she takes the test papers from me, pointing at the door. “You can go home then.”
    “ Thanks, Professor.” I hasten to put all my stuff in my backpack, trying to be quiet so I don’t disturb my fellow students. Then I shoulder the backpack and sneak out. I hope Jim follows soon so I don’t have to wait outside for too long.
    I walk outside and search for Darren, the guy who mans the cute little coffee shop-on-wheels. His coffee is the best on the entire campus. “Hey, handsome,” I greet him with a smile.
    “ Oh, hi, Thalia.” He grins. “The usual?”
    “ Yes, and another large one, please,” I say, handing him my insulated mug.
    He fills it and then adds a paper cup. “So how did the test go?”
    “ Don’t ask. At first it seemed to be going just fine, but then I suddenly had a blackout,” I confide. “If Jim hadn’t helped me, I couldn’t have answered the final two questions.”
    “ Oh. Well, I hope you answered the rest of it correctly. How do you know Jim’s answers were correct?” Darren asks.
    “ I don’t, but he’s good at this stuff, and I mean, as long as I wrote down something, it shows I tried, right? Even if my answer is only half correct.” I shrug.
    “ True. Always stay positive, right?”
    I shrug again. “What’s done is done. I can’t go back and change anything anyway.”
    Darren hands me the two cups. “I admire that, I really do. I used to just bang my head against my desk, and I ended up being a barista. I didn’t even finish college.”
    “ Yeah, but you own the damn thing,” I remind him with a chuckle.
    “ I could have achieved more,” he insists.
    “ Darren, you sell the best coffee on campus and you own three stores in Miami. I would say you achieved a whole lot.” I shake my head. I admire people who are their own bosses and don’t have their heads in the clouds.
    He sighs. “I know. You’re right.”
    “ Yep. And now I gotta get back, because Jim’s waiting for his coffee.”
    “ Something going on between the two of you?”
    I shake my head.