Page 27 of The Girlfriend Goal
"He's Lance's best friend. They've lived together since freshman year. He's actually pretty funny when he's not trying to hook up with everything that moves."
"Everything?"
"I think his goal is to date at least one person from every sports team before graduation."
"Ambitious. I respect that." He flagged down the server for coffee. "What else?"
"He makes Lance look responsible by comparison, which is saying something. Apparently once tried to do laundry in their dishwasher."
"Did it work?"
"According to Lance, it just created very clean but very wet clothes."
"Innovative." Jared was fully charmed. "Is he smart?"
"He's pre-med, actually. Wants to be a sports physician. He just hides it behind the whole dumb jock thing."
"A hot pre-med disaster bi who plays hockey and can't do laundry." Jared clutched his chest. "It's like someone built him in a lab specifically for me."
"You just met him. And you once swore off athletes forever after that lacrosse player—"
"We don't talk about Brendan." He waved it off. "Besides, that was lacrosse. Totally different energy."
The bell above the door chimed, and Jared's entire body went rigid. I didn't need to turn around to know who'd walked in.
"Be cool," I hissed.
"I'm always cool." But his voice had gone up half an octave.
"Well, well." Lance's voice carried that particular brand of confidence that made my stomach do inappropriate things. "Fancy seeing you here."
I turned, aiming for nonchalant. "Fletcher. What a coincidence."
"Right. Total coincidence." He slid into the booth next to me, close enough that I could smell his shampoo. Something pine-scented and annoyingly appealing. "Definitely not because Jared mentioned you have breakfast here on Thursdays."
"Traitor," I muttered to Jared, who was too busy staring at Matt to respond.
Matt stood awkwardly beside our table, looking everywhere except at Jared. "Hey. Hi. Hello. All the greetings."
"Smooth," Jared said. "Did you practice that?"
"I did, actually. Lance made me rehearse in the car." He finally made eye contact. "I also practiced an apology for the coffee thing. Want to hear it?"
"Desperately."
"I'm sorry I spilled coffee and forgot how words work. You're very pretty and it broke my brain temporarily." He paused. "Wait, that came out different than I practiced."
"I like this version better." Jared scooted over. "Sit. You can tell me more about your broken brain."
And just like that, they were in their own world, Matt sliding in next to Jared and immediately launching into what appeared to be a competitive analysis of their coffee preferences.
"That was smooth," I told Lance. "Very subtle."
"Matt hasn't shut up about Jared since he left. It was either this or listen to him write poetry about his hair."
"Matt writes poetry?"
"Badly. It's mostly just words that rhyme with 'pretty.' There are surprisingly few." He stretched his arm along the backof the booth, not quite touching me but close enough that I was hyperaware of its presence.
