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her hair again.     “Uh, Callum ?” She giggled.     “Yes,” I said, a grin hitting my reddening cheeks. I purposely kept her cheek to my neck to avoid her stare. You’re the king of humiliation.     “Are you-Are you smelling me again?”     “No,” I said, before breaking out into laughter.
    I felt her chest shake in amusement before I hear the chuckling. She tried to pull away and I hugged her tighter but instead of pushing harder against my chest to break free, she held tighter and my stomach dropped to my feet.
    I have perfect timing because I decided to yawn embarrassingly loudly.
        “ Tired?” She teased into my chest.     “I might be,” I conceded. I cleared my throat. “Uh, Charlie keeps egg crate foam in here,” I said, pointing to a closet she couldn’t see. Doofus . She said nothing to that so I broke away from our hug, still avoiding eye contact. I reached into the closet and start pulling out clean sheets and the egg crate. “Sometimes Charlie stays so late he doesn’t feel like cabbing it home so...” I trailed off.
    I unrolled the foam and it came spilling out in one large square, taking up most of the little studio booth. The studio is large but compartmentalized, leaving a series of medium to small rooms. The soundboard booth was the smallest besides the voice recording booth but it was the only one with an air conditioner to keep the expensive equipment cool. “So,” I continued, “he keeps all this junk here. I secretly think he keeps it here to help me more than to help himself. I called him on it,” I rambled, setting out the clean, folded sheets, “but he insists that he’s a selfish jerk who thinks only of himself and that I should watch my mouth because he has a reputation to uphold.”
    “ But why would he make sure the sheets are clean if it was only for him?” She stated.
    “ Exactly.”
    “ I think I like this Charlie,” she teases.
    “ He’s kind and I think he’s going to love you,” I said, without thinking, assuming she and I would know each other long enough for her to even get to know Charlie. She did commit to the concert in two weeks, Callum. Guess she’ll meet Charlie after all. Then a heavy stone of realization settled in my stomach. What if she meets Charlie and he takes to her?
    Charlie had a knack for getting girls. I can’t tell you how many times I’d liked a girl and he’d gotten her instead. It’s not like he steals them or anything, he probably doesn’t even know I was interested in them, but girls just flock to the guy. Oh God, what if Harper likes Charlie? What if they hit it off and start dating? I’ll have to endure them together or fight Charlie. Either leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.
    “ So,” she interrupted my rambling thoughts, forcing me to take note that I’d been standing over the egg crate just staring down at it like an idiot.
    “ Sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “You can have the pallet and I can sleep in the chair.”
    “ Absolutely not,” she vehemently disagreed. “If you hadn’t helped me when you did, I would be sleeping on a sidewalk somewhere.” I didn’t have the heart to tell her that’s, more than likely, where we’d both be sleeping the next night. “So, it’s only fitting that I sleep in the chair. Besides, you’re much taller than me. You take the pallet. I’ll be more than comfortable in the chair.”
    “ Well,” I said seriously, “if you made me sleep on that pallet, I wouldn’t get a wink of sleep knowing you were in that chair. Then, finally, when my body couldn’t take it anymore, succumbing to sleep too late, I’d sleep through my alarm. I’d wake up late, miss my appointment with my advisor, and lose my scholarship.
    “ Then, I’d be forced to take a job waiting tables while going to a community college and as we both know, no one finishes community college. So after dropping out and enduring six years of working in the food industry, they’ll offer