Adulthood University-On hiatus

Chapter 5

The following night was my first book club meeting. I hadn't heard from Freddie since our date, and I was looking forward to seeing him at the meeting. I arrived in the Humanities building where we were meeting a few minutes before the scheduled time. I found a seat near the back and settled in as people arrived.

The clock struck 8:00 and the club leader began the meeting. I looked around, expecting to see Freddie, but was disappointed to find him missing. I shrugged, knowing there was nothing to be done, and tuned into what the guy up front was saying.

A few minutes passed, and I heard someone slide into the seat next to me. I continued listening as I felt a hand rest on my thigh. Then, I felt the soft exhalation of breath on my ear.

"Sorry, I'm late," he whispered.

I tried to ignore him and pay attention, but I felt his hand moving on my thigh. I placed my hand over his and moved it down to my knee. He laughed under his breath but didn't try to remove my hand.

"So basically, we will vote on several different genres, and each month, we will read a book based on one of those genres. Each week you will be expected to have read a certain amount of the book and be prepared to discuss it at the meeting," the young man up front explained.

I smiled in anticipation, but I heard a sigh come from Freddie.

"What?" I asked.

"I love reading. I don't enjoy being told I have to read a certain book and have so many pages read each week. Makes it feel like homework."

"Have you ever been in a book club before? This is typically how they work."

"I'll have you know, I started a book club in high school where we all read whatever we wanted and came together to discuss each book and find similarities and differences."

I laughed. "Nerd."

He looked affronted. "Me? This coming from the girl who read the same book multiple times in a week? I'm hurt."

The gleam in his eye told me he was messing with me.

"I never said I didn't like that you were a nerd," I replied.

The gleam in his eye changed to something I could only describe as smoldering. I felt his hand twitch under mine and try to move up my thigh.

"Stop," I said.

"Too public for you?"

"Too soon for me."

He looked bummed but removed his hand.

"Reading anything good?" he asked.

"Shh."

"What?"

"I'm trying to listen to what he is saying."

"Fine."

"I have a list up here of different genres. Let's pick five to focus on for this school year," the guy said.

He handed out pieces of paper and added, "Write down your top five genres from this list. The five that are listed the most will be the ones we read."

Freddie rolled his eyes but took the piece of paper. I grabbed one as well and then realized I had nothing to write with.

"Do you have a pencil?"

"Of course, I do. You don't?"

"I didn't anticipate needing a pencil tonight. Guess I got what was coming to me."

He smiled and handed me his pencil. I wrote down romance, historical fiction, mystery, dystopian, and classic. I looked over at Freddie's list and was surprised to find it matched mine.