7:03. I sighed and looked up from my watch to meet Erica's green eyes. I sighed; she shrugged. Now, I normally wouldn't mind spending time with a pretty girl, especially when I've been single for longer than I care to think about. And Erica was definitely very pretty. Slim, fine-boned, red hair curling around her face, and small, firm breasts that I was trying not to look at as they rose and fell with her breathing. Because she was my best friend and roommate's girlfriend, and she was my friend, and I didn't want to offend her, provoke Derek's jealousy, or do all those other things you don't do to your buddies.

But the two of us were sitting in the apartment Derek and I shared. Cozy, surprisingly tidy for the home of two young guys, conveniently close to the edge of campus. Also where Derek was supposed to meet us so we could get dinner but he was nowhere to be found. Over half an hour late now. And while I did get along with Erica and was happy to chat, she was looking a little too good, and my eyes kept drifting down from her bright green eyes to the hint of cleavage at the bottom of her scoop neck top. And then jerking back up, hoping she hadn't noticed. Where the hell was Derek?

"Well, class isn't that bad, but professor—" and finally her phone buzzed. She looked at it and gave me another exasperated roll of the eyes. "Oh. Apparently the lab section is running late. He won't be back for hours." She shrugged again. Yeah, Derek was a hard-core biochemistry major, and sometimes that sort of thing happened. "So you wanna go just the two of us?"

"I don't think I want to go on a date with someone else's girlfriend," I countered, chuckling. "I'll take a rain check. Brian couldn't come, Sarah wouldn't come without him, and now Derek's out too. We can celebrate my promotion another time."

"Aw," Erica said, leaning forward in her chair. Once again my gaze trailed down to the freckled tops of her breasts before I looked away quickly. "Left hanging. Well, we still need to eat. And we could do something else with the evening."