Page 10 of The Cuffing Game
Her brain short-circuited. She dropped her gaze, but not before Noah shot her a confused look.
Despite the name, Ground Smoothie turned out to be more of an artsy cafe than a dingy smoothie shack. Her eyes were still adjusting to the dim light, so she couldn’t see much except for the brightly lit center stage, where a girl with lavender-colored hair sang an acoustic guitar cover of a Taylor Swift song.
“Go find us somewhere to sit,” Noah said. “I’ll order our drinks.”
Mia frowned. “What? No, I can buy my own milkshake.”
This isn’t a date!she added in her head.
But Noah shook his head. “It’s more efficient this way. Just tell me what you want. Chocolate? Strawberry?”
“Coffee,” she answered without hesitation. “I want a coffee-flavored milkshake. If they have any.”
Back home in Bluebonnet, when Mia ordered coffee past a certain time of day, she’d without a doubt get a fewbless your hearts and questions about her well-being from her mother, her sisters, and other concerned individuals.
Noah, however, just gave her a conspiratorial wink. Like he understood.
Mia’s heart fluttered. She tried to ignore it but then heat rose up in her cheeks. She rushed away before Noah could notice, turning back around only when she was several feet away.
Thankfully, he wasn’t even looking at her. He was too busy ordering.
She sighed in relief and looked for somewhere to sit.
Aside from the stools that lined the coffee bar, the only other seating was beanbags that littered the floor around the stage. After several minutes of tiptoeing around the already occupied ones, Mia finally found two large yellow beanbags on opposite sides of the room.
She tried lifting one up. It didn’t budge.
“Hey, do you need help with that?” asked a nearby guy.
“Nope!” Mia said, in what she hoped was a cheery voice. “I got it!”
She put more force into it. The bag still didn’t move. With a growl of frustration, Mia put all her strength into lifting but then lost her balance. Before she could even process what was happening, she tumbled onto the beanbag, flopping down belly-first onto the plush fabric.
A few people gasped, while others laughed. The music stopped, and Mia looked up in horror to see that even the girl onstage was staring at her, her mouth a wideOof silent, secondhand embarrassment.
But the worst part of it all was that Noah now stood behind her, their drinks in hand. His expression was unreadable.
She flinched back, expecting him to say something mean.
Noah wordlessly shifted the drink carrier to one hand and held the other out to her. When she grabbed onto him, he helped her up.
Mia couldn’t help but notice how he moved so effortlessly, like she weighed nothing. Before she could betooamazed, though, Noah let go the second she was back on her feet, so suddenly that she almost lost her balance. With a look of great discomfort, Noah flexed his hand, as if merely touching her had repulsed him.
“Here.” He handed her the drink carrier before gripping the beanbag on opposite sides.
Noah was in an awkward position, bent at his knees, so it really shouldn’t have been attractive. But Mia couldn’t stop staring at him as he lifted the big beanbag up from the floor.
People around them whooped and hollered.
“Noah! Noah! Noah!” chanted a nearby boy.
A dashing grin flashed across Noah’s face, immediately covering up the awkward expression he had before. It was so fake that Mia immediately wanted to leave. And she would have, too, if it weren’t for her friends.
When Mia had broached the idea of having Noah on the show, she’d expected mixed reactions. It wasn’t a shocker that Alex, who unabashedly watched all of Noah’s videos, said yes. But Kallie didn’t even like guys, and Damien quite literally once said, “Noah’s content gives me a headache.” And yet everyone had spammed the group chat withYES YES YESwhen she told them she was meeting up with him to discuss the show. They all agreed he was their best bet to saveCampus Crush.
“Where should I put this beanbag?” Noah asked, bringing her back to the present.
Mia waved him over to where the other unoccupied beanbag was, and he set the first bag down in front of it.
