A He-Falls-First College Romance with Open-Door Spice

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• Chapter 1

  MISHA – God of Party

  I AM THE GOD OF PARTY. I am supposed to have said this during my first year at Crownbridge University, jumping from the roof into the pool at a rager. It was fun and dumb and shallow and exactly how I wanted my American classmates to see me. I leaned into it and it stuck.

• Chapter 2

  MISHA – Petrushka the Troublemaker

  The music of the party faded into a distant beat as we stepped into the backyard, sparsely populated. We were lucky that Halloween night, it was maybe 14º—sorry, high fifties. Cool, but not yet cold. Not even American cold. I barely felt it, even with no shirt under my jacket.
• Chapter 3

  EMMA – Do. Not. Say. It.

  My feet walked. My cheeks burned. My mind spiraled. ‘National treasure?’ Why did you say that? Now he knows he has pretty eyes. Okay, he obviously knows they’re pretty. He probably gets it all the time—they’re very blue. Why does his jacket smell like…tea?
• Chapter 4

  MISHA – She Swims In Lakes

  “🧚🏠” Emma’s text arrived as I walked back down the street. I had forgotten to take my jacket back, and I was fighting the urge to turn back and take it off of her. And everything else, if she’d let me.
• Chapter 4.5 Interlude

  INTERLUDE

  But He’s an Honest Manslut!
• Chapter 5

  MISHA – Call Off the Safety Watch

  To be honest, I could not remember the last time I woke up on a Sunday without a hangover, no cottony mouth or fuzzy brain or hatred of all things light and loud. But that Sunday, I did.
• Chapter 6

  EMMA – Did It Yearn Enough?

  I stepped down to the side door of the old music hall’s basement at 8:58pm and sucked in a deep breath, inwardly reciting the mantra I’d been repeating all day. It’s just music. Listen to him play. Give him his jacket and the record. You don’t owe him anything else.
• Chapter 7

  MISHA – Ah, What a Trap It Was

  I took a deep breath as the final note dissipated into the air, then let it go. I play the piano hard—I play everything hard—but playing so raw and so sweet for an audience? It felt different, like I had poured out something I had been holding back.
• Chapter 8

  MISHA – Sovershennaya, Perfect

  The walk was twelve minutes, I think. Or twelve hours maybe. I did not check, because I was too busy looking at Emma and then trying not to, because every time she bit her lower lip or looked back at me out of the corner of her eye, I wanted to press her against the nearest wall to kiss her, which I had done several times, and if I kept doing it we would never reach her apartment.
• Chapter 9

  EMMA – When You’re Not Trying To Be Perfect

  Anxiety yanked me into consciousness at three-something in the morning. He’s probably gone, came the bitter voice in my head. No. He’s still here, said a happier one. See? It’s warm.
• Chapter 10

  MISHA – Do You Sell Flying Pigs?

  The goodbye kiss Emma leaned in to press to my lips before I left her outside Classic Vinyl was a promise I intended to collect on. Later. She was being a good employee, and if I stayed I would distract her, very intentionally. So I walked away, though not without watching her disappear into the little shop.
• Chapter 11

  EMMA – Nana’s House

  My body was still thrumming from the hungry way Misha had been staring at me when we reached our destination. The restaurant was narrow, nestled tight between a laundromat and a taco joint. It was signaled only by an anemic blue awning with the almost-completely faded name “Nana’s House” on it. I glanced at Misha, but he strolled up to the door and threw it open like he lived there.
• Chapter 12

  EMMA – Not a Settle-Down Kind of Guy

  We spent the next week learning each other’s lives and slotting ourselves into them with little friction. He stayed over any night I didn’t have to wake up early the next morning for class. One night, Chloe and Vi insisted on coming over to “help us make dinner,” which was code for “see what’s going on.”
• Chapter 13

  MISHA – With My Own Stupid Hands

  Something was wrong.
• Chapter 13.5 Interlude

  ADRIAN – If I had Seen Her First

  I met Mikhail Sokolov at a rush party my freshman year, and I think I knew even then that he would be a problem for me.