When Joss Met Matt Read Free

low,” I said without thinking. In spite of their many convenient features, the Southeast dorms were high-rises, while the tallest building in Lakeshore was four stories.
    â€œWhat does that mean?”
    â€œOh. I don’t like heights very much.” Or, you know, I have a paralyzing fear of being more than a few stories above the ground. It wasn’t the sort of information I liked to share the first time I met someone. Or ever, if I could help it. People feel obligated to cure others of their phobias, and I didn’t want curing. I was perfectly comfortable with avoidance.
    â€œThat’s funny,” he said, smiling and leaning close again.
    â€œIt’s nicer over here anyway,” I added, knowing it sounded like the lame afterthought it was.
    Matt’s hand lighted on my waist and I struggled to swallow. When his mouth was just a breath away from mine, my brain sent up flares and I remembered Ben. “I have a boyfriend.”
    He paused. “Really?” He was close enough that I felt his words as much as I heard them.
    â€œYeah. Ben,” I said.
    â€œOkay.” He backed away and I caught my breath.
    â€œOh.” I’d sort of expected him to say ‘So what?’ and kiss me anyway. Apparently he really was as nice as he seemed. Or maybe he had memorized the date rape pamphlet. Either way, he was clearly not the romantic “So what?” type. Not that I wanted him to be, I reminded myself. I had a boyfriend.
    â€œYou wanna go back in?” he asked. I nodded and fell in step behind him.
    I was late for my first chem lab. I didn’t even like the subject, I was only taking the stupid class because I’d made the mistake of telling my advisor I wanted to be a vet when I was a kid, and now I was lost. I felt like the biggest dork of a freshman in the history of the world. My eyes were red with unshed tears of frustration as a result of my frenzied search through the basement of the monolithic chemistry building. In short, I wasn’t looking my best when I was confronted with Matt Lehrer for the first time since we’d stood in the shadows of our dorm and almost kissed. Well, we’d thought about kissing, I guess. Or, at least, I had. I was sure he’d thought the same thing, but he grinned at me when I came through the door and tipped his head at the empty seat at the table beside him. Apparently, he wasn’t bothered by my rebuff of his advance.
    I took the last empty seat at the four-person table. One of the legs on my stool was short, and it tipped far enough to make me flail my arms a bit. Matt was across the aisle, but he smirked at my suave move, and held up one finger in the signal for “Wait a second.” After listening to the teaching assistant introduce herself, Matt tapped the guy next to him on the shoulder. He whispered, “Hey, would you mind switching with my friend?”
    I must have looked skeptical about the title, because Matt dropped a wink at me. The guy was willing to switch, and I didn’t want to cause any more of a scene than my late arrival already had, so I took his seat.
    Matt leaned sideways on his lab stool, close enough to stir my curls with his breath when he spoke. “Thanks, that guy hates me.”
    I turned my head to give him a confused look. “Why was he sitting with you?”
    â€œHe doesn’t know he hates me yet.”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œI fully intended to let him do all the work.”
    I laughed loud enough to get everyone looking at me, which made my cheeks burn. Matt laughed softly and whispered, “Sorry.”
    â€œYou should be.”
    â€œI’ll make it up to you.”
    â€œHow?”
    â€œSee the two people on the other side of our table?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œPre-med. Honors types. We’ll pass this class for sure.”
    I twisted in my seat to look at him. “I think you’re my kind of evil.”
    â€œEvil? You?” His