She glanced up at me briefly. “Yeah. I get that. At least for you. It’s like you’re two different people.”
I hit the elevator button, and we waited with a group of students. “Like student Landon and extreme Landon?” I asked, side nudging her.
She kept her eyes on the elevator doors. “Like Landon and Nova,” she said quietly.
“Nova!” another girl called my name from the left.
“Hey, Mandy,” I answered with a wave and polite smile to my physics partner.
“Did you want to work on that project later?” she asked with a smile that said studying wasn’t all she had in mind.
The elevator dinged, and Rachel got on, shooting me a look that said she’d heard Mandy’s implication, too.
“You know, I have plans later, but maybe tomorrow?” I told the redhead as the crowd passed me to pile into the elevator.
She twirled her hair as her gaze darted between me and Rachel. “Right, but it’s due in two days and we’re barely drafted. Not sure about you, but I can’t afford a bad grade on this.”
Neither could I if I wanted to find some sliver of time to get back to Nepal.
I sighed and looked into the elevator where Rachel stood, a single eyebrow arched.
“Rachel…”
“See you later, Nova.”
Alarms blared in my head. Fuck. She called me Nova.
The door closed.
Never thought I’d wish to be back in that Himalayan blizzard, but she’d been warmer at eighteen thousand feet than she was at sea level.
The music thrummed through my body, the base line moving the ginger ale in my glass. Usually I had something a little stronger, but the waves in the Indian Ocean were hellacious tonight, and I wasn’t risking my much-needed faculties for dealing with Rachel. She was still irritated, if her icy demeanor at dinner was any indication.
“Could you at least pretend to have a good time?” Bobby asked after pointing out where the cameras were around the room. “With Wilder going monogamous and shit, you’re all I’ve got on the other aspect of this show.”
“The man-whore aspect?” I asked.
He scoffed. “Since when do you object to being a ladies’ man?”
Since I realized there’s only one woman I want.
“Look, Bobby. We’re going to have to sit down later and talk this out, because I’m not comfortable with this. Not with…” Rachel.
He ripped his hand over his thinning hair. “Seriously? You, too? Your contract says—”
“That I’ll let you film just about every facet of my life for these nine months except when I take a piss. It says nothing about scoring chicks in a bar. I know you want the party part of this trip to play a role in the documentary, and I get it, but I’m drawing the line.”
“Un-fucking-believable. Half the reason you’re gods to your followers is the extreme way you take on every part of your life, and you’re just going to turn it off? Penna’s sitting on the sidelines, and Wilder’s…well, what does that leave me with?”
“Every other Renegade,” I said as Alex made his way across the club to join me. “I’ll do your shots, come to your parties, but don’t expect any action. I’m not leaving with anyone.” Nick, of all people, would understand the line I was drawing. What Bobby was about to miss out on with my social life, I’d make up in stunts.
“Just give me a few good frames, and I don’t care what the fuck you do with your night,” he said by way of farewell.
“What’s up his ass?” Alex asked as he leaned against the bar.
“We fucked up in Nepal, and now he’s feeling short of shots. He’s got the dramatic failure, but no comeback and triumph to follow it up.”
“We didn’t fuck up; Mother Nature took our asses out.”
“Yeah, well, either way, that was supposed to be the money shot for this term. We didn’t get it, and we lost Gabe.”
“What do you expect?” he asked. “We’re on a hellacious schedule. The shit you guys have us doing would need an entire year of planning, and we’re pulling this stuff off at least once a week. Not everything is going to go perfectly. We needed more time up there.”
Time was the one thing we didn’t have on this trip. Already we’d turned our attention to the Jakarta stunt, always looking forward. I was the only one even thinking about going back.
As Alex turned around to order a drink, Sabrina walked up with another girl. Thank God I hadn’t slept with this one yet. With Rachel on board, I was beginning to feel more than a little dirty over what I’d been doing while we were apart.
“Hey, Nova,” Sabrina said, leaning against the bar so that her breasts pushed up out of her low-cut top.
Funny, it didn’t bother me when she called me Nova, when any other girl reminded me of how I got to be called Casanova, really, but Rachel saying it always felt like a kick to the balls.
“Hey, ladies,” I said with a practiced smile. “How are you tonight?”
“Better now that you’re here,” she answered with a sly grin. “I was beginning to think I’d never get you alone again.”
Shit. She wanted a repeat performance.
“It’s been a busy term,” I said, then slammed my hand on Alex’s back as he choked on his drink. “How was your excursion week?”
“Oh, I took the Mumbai trip, and then we headed down to the Taj Mahal.” She batted her eyes up at me. “You know, it’s a huge monument to love.”