“Kind of did the Fight Club thing,” he said, scratching his jaw. “Except without the guys or the punching.” At my confused stare, he clarified, “Basically, I had takeout with Chloe and Sara at my place. Hey, you sore today?”

I immediately remembered the delicious ache his fingers had left me with after Denny’s party, and the way my pelvic bone felt almost bruised from grinding against him on the floor of his apartment.

“Sore?” I repeated, blinking quickly back to him.

He smiled knowingly. “Sore from yesterday’s run. Jesus, Hanna. Get your mind out of the gutter. You were home by nine—what else could I possibly have been talking about?”

I took another pull from my water bottle, and winced at the cold on my teeth. “I’m good.”

“Another rule, Plum. You can only use the word good so many times in a conversation before it becomes disingenuous. Find better adjectives to describe your state of mind post-dates.”

I wasn’t exactly sure how to handle Will this morning. He seemed a little edgy. I’d thought I had him figured, but my thoughts, too, seemed to be all over the place, a growing problem when we were together. Or judging by last night, when we were apart, too. Did he care at all that I’d been out with Dylan?

Did I want him to care?

Ugh. This dating thing was way too complicated, and I wasn’t even sure whether Will and I were technically dating. It seemed to be one of the only questions I couldn’t ask him.

“Well,” he said, sliding his gaze to me with a teasing little smile. “Just so you’re clear on the meaning of the word ‘dating’, maybe you should go out with someone else. Just to see how it all works. What about another one of the guys at the party? Aaron? Or Hau?”

“Hau has a girlfriend. Aaron . . .”

He nodded encouragingly. “He seemed pretty fit.”

“He’s fit,” I agreed, hedging. “But, he’s sort of . . . SN2?”

Will’s brows pulled together in confusion. “?‘SN2’?”

“You know,” I said, waving my hands awkwardly. “Like when the C-X bond is broken, and the nucleophile attacks the carbon at one hundred-eighty degrees to the leaving group?” The words came out in a breathless rush.

“Oh, my God. Did you just use an O-chem reference to tell me Aaron looks better from the back than the front?”

I groaned and looked away. “I think I just broke some sort of nerd record.”

“No, that was amazing,” he said, sounding genuinely awed. “I wish I thought of that about ten years ago.” His mouth turned down at the corners when he considered this. “But honestly, it’s awesome when you say it. If I said it, I would just sound like a giant dick.”

I swallowed, most definitely not glancing down at his shorts.

Despite the dropping temperatures and early hour, more people than usual had decided to brave the cold. A cute pair of college guys kicked a soccer ball back and forth, dark beanies pulled down over each of their heads and Styrofoam cups of rapidly cooling coffee in the grass nearby. A woman with a giant stroller power-walked by us, and a handful of others ran along the various trails. I looked over just in time to see Will bend in front of me, reaching to tie his shoe.

“I’ve got to hand it to you. I’m really impressed with how hard you’re working,” he said to me over his shoulder.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, moving to stretch my hamstrings the way he’d taught me, and most definitely not look at his ass. “Hard.”

“What was that?”

“Hard work,” I repeated. “Really hard.”

He straightened and I followed the movement, forcing myself to blink away before he turned.

“Not going to lie to you,” he said, stretching his back. “I was surprised you didn’t punk out that first week.”

I should have glared and been annoyed that he’d assumed I’d give up so quickly, but instead I nodded, attempting to look pretty much everywhere other than that strip of stomach that showed when he stretched his arms over his head or the line of muscle that cut down both sides of his abdomen.

“Might even place in the top fifty at the race if you keep it up.”

My eyes darted across that small sliver of skin, and the landscape of muscle beneath it. I swallowed, immediately recalling what it felt like under my fingertips. “Definitely keeping it up,” I mumbled, giving up and staring outright at his exposed skin.

Clearing my throat, I turned away from him and began walking back down the trail because honestly, that body was just obscene.