Chapter 9

Susan started hanging out at the pool with him, dressed in a skimpy two-piece bathing suit that left little to the imagination. She’d ask him to rub tanning lotion on her back, then offered to do the same to him, but he declined. It never really occurred to him that she was flirting—he wasn’t interested, so he assumed the feeling was mutual. Finally Alex had to point it out to him. “You know Susan likes you, right?” he asked one evening in late December as he stretched out on his bed.

Rick had just come in from a late class. “She can like me all she wants. She’s barking up the wrong tree.”

“Girls don’t think that way,” Alex said. “She probably thinks she can change you.”

“What about Matt?” Rick threw his books onto his desk. “I thought they were together.”

Alex gave him a strange look. “Matt moved out. Where have you been?”

“When did that happen?” Rick didn’t remember anyone telling him Matt had left. “Why didn’t our rent go up?”