Page 118 of The Locker Room

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nodded avidly. “Although,” he added, looking around as though this

hadn"t just been reported on some special about athlete grooming, “if I

miss my waxing appointment, I look like one.”

The Locker Room 101

It was socially awkward, and maybe, if his face wasn"t up on ten

television monitors around the bar, it wouldn"t have worked, but she

burst into giggles, and he knew he had her.

“I saw that,” she confessed. “It looks painful.”

Xander shrugged, and went to his fallback line on the subject—one

cooked up by Chris, of course. “Well, when your father was half-yeti….”

She giggled again, and then looked at the beer in his hand. “So, um,

does that have a home?” She was looking at him hopefully, and he

smiled, feeling resignation steep down from his spine to his balls.

“It does now.”

Audrey was funny, and a little bit shy, and she had heard his sound

bite and told him that she was majoring in English and thought that his

poetry was beautiful.

Xander had actually blushed. “I was a history major,” he said,

embarrassed, and she"d nodded, like she knew this.

“Iknow!”she told him, excited. “Everyone else majors in business

or computers or technology. Do youknowhow rare it is to have a

basketball player major in the humanities?”

“Probably not as rare as you think,” he said, thinking it was true. A

lot of the players had enjoyed their educations as much as he had. For

some of them, it had been an opportunity they"d never dreamed about.

Audrey shook her head. “I"d need to do stats,” she confessed. “I

just thought it was interesting, you know? The press calls you Cave Man,

but really, you"ve got this sort of erudite specialty. It"s like they don"t

know you at all!”

Oh God. She was actually looking at him like aperson,and Xander

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