Jordan knew where to lay the blame for his little Halloween chat with Vaughn, but now they were all suspect. Every watching pair of eyes, every whispered conversation, every checked phone…He had a pen on his desk that he clicked again and again. He never stressed, and now, was ill equipped to deal with the energy humming through his veins. He gave up on lecturing halfway through his first class and put on a video, mined through his staff email, going back over everything Vaughn had ever sent him. His two o’clock class arrived with an extra helping of guilt and anxiety. He didn’t look at Ellie because he didn’t trust himself anymore. He’d made her say it: “Yes,” she’d whispered, and she’d slid down his body till she was on her knees in front of him. She’d slept tucked into him, fingers clinging to his arm when he’d slid from beneath the covers before dawn. His run and all the cold, raw air that scraped in and out of his lungs had done nothing to clear his head.
