“I hate him!” Christina Young slammed her way into the apartment and threw her bag onto the small table by the door, almost knocking it over with the force she used to rid herself of her backpack.

Her roommate, Holly, popped her head around the kitchen wall. “Who?”

“Sinclair Brown,” Chrissy said with a huff.

“Of course. What did he do now?” Holly wiped her hands on her jeans then came around the corner to join Chrissy in the living room.

Chrissy dropped down onto the couch, resting her head on the back of it and closing her eyes. Her anger left, and she was tired…so tired.

“He thinks he’s so smart.” Crissy crossed her arms. Now she was whining, and she hated herself for it. He always did this to her—put her on edge. He was such a showoff. And he was smart, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t. They’d been butting heads since freshman year.

“Ah, so he showed you up on a project, did he?”

“No. Not this time, but the professor is making me work with him, and if he thinks he is going to take point on this project, he has another ‘think’ coming.”

“So…I should stock up on popcorn?”

Chrissy picked a pillow up off the couch to cover her face so she could scream into the silky material. Once finished, she calmly put the pillow back where she’d found it.

“It’s for marketing. We have to create a digital and a print ad. We need to come up with the product before the next class. I will not let him pressure me into doing some slick car ad or anything like that. I want our product to be meaningful—something that can help people.”

“Do you have any idea that he would want to do something slick? You probably haven’t even spoken to him about it.” Holly sat down on the couch next to Chrissy.

“Well…no. But that is not the point.” Chrissy put her arms back across her chest.

“Come on. You’re usually not this irrational. He can’t be that bad. It’s a project and will be over with soon enough. Just worry about the grade. Compromise.”

“I am not going to be the only one to compromise. He’d better know the meaning of ‘group’ and not try to go all solo on me. I’ve worked hard in this class, and I don’t want this project to bring me down.” If she had been standing, Chrissy would have stomped her foot.

She was acting irrational and she knew it. There was just something about Sinclair that rubbed her the wrong way. He was always one step ahead of her, and she didn’t like it. She also didn’t like how childish she was being when it came to him. She was twenty years old, not in high school. Chrissy should be above the pettiness she felt anytime she thought about Sinclair.

“Have you ever sat down and actually had a conversation with the guy?” Holly put her arm around Chrissy’s shoulder.

“Whose side are you on? I thought you were my friend. You should be encouraging me.” Chrissy snuggled into her friend, liking the comfort Holly offered.

“I am always on your side. I have been since high school when you defended me against the mean girls. I have your back. I just think you might have Sinclair wrong. I could be talking out of my ass here because I haven’t met him, but you should hear me out. Maybe you could take this opportunity to get to know him more and work things out. It can only help your assignment.”

Chrissy sighed. She didn’t want to adult, and Holly shouldn’t be trying to make her.

“We are meeting up for dinner. Can I invite him over here? Do we have food I can make?”

“I just put some chicken into the air fryer and mac and cheese in the oven. We should have enough for all of us. I’ll eat in my room so you guys can talk and figure out what you’re going to do your project on.” Holly squeezed Chrissy before getting off the couch.

“You’re a lifesaver. I really didn’t want to go to his place or a restaurant. I figured this would be neutral.”

“How is this place neutral when you live here?” Holly laughed and turned back to the kitchen.

Whatever.

Chrissy needed to get her bag. She’d left her phone in there and hopefully she hadn’t broken it with the rough treatment of throwing it down. Before she’d left class, she’d exchanged numbers with Sinclair so they could coordinate. This week they had to come up with a company to do their advertisement on. They had two weeks to do the print ad, then another week to work on something digital. Four weeks total was all they had, and this assignment was forty percent of their grade.

Her phone was fine, and there were no text messages or missed calls. Good. Chrissy would reach out first and offer the apartment for them to work in.

Sinclair, this is Chrissy. Dinner, my place?

Great. The frat house isn’t the best for good food. Deets?

Chrissy gave him her address. He was going to be at her place in about an hour. She took her bag off the table so she could put it in her room. She wanted to get the supplies she would need and set them up on the table. Chrissy was grateful that she could live off campus with one roommate in a two-bedroom house. Not many kids her age could afford it. Her dad owned some rental properties and gave her and Holly a good deal. The caveat was that her grades had to stay in good standing. She still paid rent and had a part-time job, the same as Holly. She just had it a little bit easier than her fellow classmates.

Having a peaceful environment helped her with her grades. It was nice to have a place she could relax and not worry about a bunch of other people in her business.

After she’d grabbed her notebook, pen and laptop, she went into the kitchen to see if there was anything she could do to help her roommate.

* * * *

Sinclair looked at the address in his phone to make sure he had the correct house. This is the place. It was nicer than he’d expected. Not many college students could afford a place like this. He couldn’t. Sinclair was lucky he had the fraternity house. It wasn’t always ideal for academics, but he didn’t do too bad. He adjusted his backpack on his shoulder. He was so ready for the night to be over.

The house was one more thing to add to the list of evidence of how stuck-up Christina was. He could only dream of having a place like this, but first he needed to finish college and get a good job. As much as he was dreading working with Christina, he was lucky the instructor had put him with one of the other smartest people in the class. He wouldn’t have to worry about carrying the whole project. Now, if he could only get Christina to stop glaring daggers at him, that would be wonderful. He had no idea why he seemed to piss her off all the time.

It wasn’t like he hated her or anything. He just didn’t understand her competitive nature. He didn’t try to rub it in when he did better than she did. He just wanted the grades. Better grades, better recommendations, better job… That was what he focused on.

Sinclair walked to the front door and knocked. It took a minute for it to open, and when it did, the smells coming from the place were heavenly, nothing at all like the frat house.

“What is that wonderful smell?” he blurted out.

Christina looked around. “Um…hello?” She sniffed at the air. “Oh. That’s dinner. Come in.” She waved her hand, gesturing him inside.

“Sorry. I should have said hello, but it’s been a while since I’ve smelled something so great.” At that moment his stomach growled.

“I guess it’s a good thing it’s almost ready.”

Sinclair walked into the place and waited in the entrance way until Christina closed the front door.

The place looked very grown up and seemed like a home, unlike his place in the frat house. He was used to all the guys not always picking up after themselves. Mostly they fended for themselves when it came to meals. He was lucky that he’d picked a frat that wasn’t into partying all the time. They did party, but ninety percent of them were on scholarships that they had to maintain. The other ten percent were just there to have a good time, and Sinclair couldn’t fault them for that.

“Thanks for offering up your place and cooking dinner.”

“I figured it would be better for us to work out what we need to do for the first part of the assignment in a place that didn’t have any distractions. And my roommate was cooking tonight and had the food almost ready.”

A woman poked her head out of the kitchen.

“Hey, I’m Holly.” She waved before going back inside.

Christina led him over to a table where it looked like an office supply store had thrown up.

“I have us set up here. We can eat and take notes. We just have to turn in our company this week and why we picked them, so it shouldn’t be too hard. Next week we’ll need to set aside more time.”

Sinclair put his backpack beside one of the chairs at the table.

“Is there something I can do to help with dinner?” He put a hand on the chair in front of him but didn’t pull it out yet. He had manners, and his mom had taught him to know his way around.

“You can come make yourself a plate,” Christina replied.

Sinclair followed Christina into the kitchen. It was a nice space—bigger than the one they had at home, probably bigger than the frat kitchen as well. Plenty of counter space, a dishwasher… He was usually the dishwasher when he went home, so that was a luxury to him. The whole place was. Someday he’d be able to get something as nice for his mom and the kids.

It was odd the things a person noticed when they were in someone else’s home. He was comparing his life to hers, and he shouldn’t be doing that. Everyone had their own path. Just because his path seemed to be a struggle didn’t mean he had to be jealous of someone else’s life.

“So, Sinclair, it’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard so much… Oof.” Holly rubbed her side where it looked like Christina had elbowed her.

“Never mind Holly. She is just grabbing some food and heading to her room,” Christina said.

It was nice to see that he wasn’t the only person she seemed to glare daggers at. “Oh. I don’t want to put you out.” Sinclair looked between the two women.

“No. No, it’s fine. I have a show to watch and a paper I need to start.” Holly glared back at Christina before putting her plate together and leaving the kitchen.

“I really didn’t mean to put her out.”

“It’s fine. We talked about it before I invited you over. She doesn’t want to listen to us hashing out the company we want to do a marketing plan for.” Christina handed him a plate.

There was chicken on the stove sitting beside some macaroni and cheese. “This looks great.” It wasn’t often Sinclair had someone cook for him. When he was home, he was the designated cook, and he usually had frozen meals at the frat house, so this was a nice treat for him.

“I can’t take any of the credit. Holly is a wiz in the kitchen, so I’m usually on clean up.” Christina handed him a bottle of water, a paper towel and silverware.

They headed back to the dining area toward the table with all the office supplies spread out over the top.

“Sorry… I should have thought about us eating here, too. Let me…” Christina put her plate down and moved some of the items aside so they had a spot for their plates.

“This is a great place.” Sinclair put his food on the table and sat down.

“Thanks. We got a deal on it since my dad has a bunch of rentals. We got lucky.” Christina shrugged.

Lucky? He’d say so. He was comparing their lives again. He was lucky, too. He’d gotten into the fraternity. He had scholarships. There were all kinds of luck, and he needed to start realizing that. Maybe she wasn’t as stuck up as he thought she was.