Attraction

CHAPTER 7 Molecular Geometry and Bonding Theories

Much of Sam's surly mood dissipated after her fifteen-minute plane tour courtesy of the handsome Eric. I was both pleased and distressed by this turn of events. Since Sam's attention was redirected-or best case scenario, it was split between me andEric-this meant she wasn't quite as focused on her role as my spring break chastity belt.

A very luxurious stretch limo picked us up. Inside the car, I sat next to one of the seven other guys; his name was Ray, and his parents had immigrated from Mumbai, India, when he was two. He was a biochemistry major, and he was five seat.

"Five seat?" I asked, my head titling to the side. "What do you mean five seat?"

Two more of the boys entered the limo,sitting on the bench across from Sam and Eric.

"Five seat in the crew boat. I'm a starboard," Ray explained, flashing me a big smile when he saw I didn't quite understand what he meant. "We're all on the crew team together, in the same boat. I'm five seat, Martin is eight seat. He's the stroke at the stern, the back of the boat."Ray lifted his chin toward one of the other guys. "That's our coxswain, Lee."

I gave Lee a friendly smile. "What's a cocks-twin?"

Lee chuckled and shook his head. "It's pronounced cox-wain, not cocks-twin. Basically, I steer the boat and keep these guys from being lazy assholes."

"Lee also gets to stare into Stroke's dreamy blue eyes all day," Ray added with a grin."You should probably be jealous."

I shrugged my shoulders convulsively, feeling acutely weird and self-conscious."What...I...we...it's...I mean...what are you talking about?" I sputtered as my hands did weird things, jerky movements in the air in front o fme. "I'm not jealous. Why would I be jealous? I don't even know the guy."

Ray, Lee, Eric, and another of the guys whose name was Herc- who had obscenely large leg muscles lifted their eyebrows at me in unison.

"You're his girl, right?"Lee glanced at his teammates as though to confirm his statement.

"That's right," Herc confirmed, his tone sure and steady.

I felt Sam tug at my shirt but I ignored her. At that moment three of the other guys entered the car; I'd recognized two of them as the pair of brown-eyed frat boys who'd been with Eric at the party the night before. The taller of the two, Griffin, had been handsy with me at the frat house. The other one, Will, had hit Griffin on the back of the head as they'd walked away.

The other guy's name was Tambor. He had blond hair, darker than Ben's, longish with pale highlights likely caused by the sun. He had deep brown eyes and an exceedingly stoic face. He and Herc were the shortest and the stockiest of the boys at an approximate and measly six foot one.

"So...where does everyone else sit? In the boat, I mean," I asked weakly, wanting to change the subject.

"As you know, Martin is stroke, which is eight seat." Ray then pointed to Eric. "Eric is a starboard, seven seat. Ben," he paused and looked around the inside of the vehicle. Ben and Martin were the only two not in the car yet. "Well, Ben who isn't here is port, seat six. We've already established that I'm starboard five seat. Griffin is behind me,port four seat. Then Will, starboard three seat. Tambor, port second seat. Last but not least is Herc. He's the bow, first seat,in the front of the boat."

"All the even seats a report seats, and the odds are starboard?"

Ray nodded. "That's right.Port and starboard have to do with the sides of the boat. My oar is rigged on the starboard side; whereas Martin's, Ben's, Griffin's,and Tambor's are rigged on the port side."

I nodded, picturing a crew boat I'd seen on TV during the summer Olympics. Now, considering how Martin had originally introduced everyone on the plane-referring to each of them as a number first before their names-this made a lot more sense. Their nicknames were their seat assignments, with Martin called Stroke and Herc calledBow.