“Hold on.” I reached out to tip the bottle back up, then stepped out of my flip-flops. I climbed over the side and into the calf-height water. I turned back to Spencer and held my hand out to her. “We have to dump it in there.” I pointed to the base of the center finial where the water churned most as it spilled from the basins stacked above and was pulled back into the pump from below.

Spencer kicked off her own sandals and climbed in with me. We sloshed to the center of the fountain. She unscrewed the bottle cap and dumped what was left of the dish soap into the water at our feet. It began to froth right away, and before long, the bubbles had reached the hem of my cargo shorts. I looked up, squinting at the water that rained down from the top of the fountain, and grinned at the bubbles starting to bloom from there as well.

“This is going to get very messy very quick,” I said, taking the empty bottle from Spencer.

“Or very clean, as it were.” She laughed.

“Either way, we should probably get out of here.”

“What? We have to at least enjoy this a little.” White clouds of bubbles drifted down from the topmost basin.

“Spence, classes will be out soon, and someone is going to see this—” I swiped at one of the bubble clouds. “—and call campus security. Do you want a repeat of the other night?”

“I don’t know. Running through the kitchen to escape that she-devil hostess was pretty exciting.”

It was pretty fun. When the second baseman and his wife had shown up looking for their table, dodging dumbfounded cooks and bus boys on our way to the back service entrance had been our only option. But it had also been an adrenaline rush. We hadn’t stopped running until we’d torn down the hall and through the lobby of the adjacent Radisson out onto the street where we were lucky enough to find a cab waiting at the curb. Even then, I’m not sure my heart slowed to a manageable pace until the bemused cabbie dropped us at the Suburban Station to catch our train back to Balanova.

“What’s the matter, Mr. I-Get-Into-Fights-and-Steal-Dinner-Reservations-All-the-Time?” she jibbed. “Scared of getting caught?”

“It’s not fear. It’s self-preservation. What happened to the girl who never skips class or puts a toe out of line?”

“She fell in love with you.” Spencer picked up a handful of bubbles and smeared them in my hair. A line of soapy water dripped down my nose, but I barely noticed. I knew I had to respond. Telling her I felt the same way would almost guarantee she’d be ready to introduce me to dear old dad.

But I couldn’t say it. Not now.

I caught her around her waist and swung her off her feet. She squealed and pulled her legs up, and we both fell sideways into the bubbles. I shifted to provide a cushion between her and the floor of the fountain, and luckily for my tailbone, the thick layer of bubbles and water did the same for me. I sat up, bringing Spencer with me so she was in my lap, facing me. I wiped the bubbles from my eyes. Water streamed from her hair and her gray shirt clung to her torso, but her face was barely visible through the mask of white bubbles covering it. She swiped them away and flicked them at me. I rolled, dunking her in the fountain again. We both got to our knees, sputtering with laughter and mouths full of bubbles. I wiped my own face again, then brushed my thumbs over her eyes. I cleared the bubbles from her face. She kissed me, and suddenly I didn’t care about the bitter taste of dish soap in my mouth.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

We both looked and found a middle-aged man in khakis and a starched white shirt walking toward us. A plastic name badge hung from his neck on a red cord, and though he didn’t appear to be campus security, he certainly was someone with authority.

“Fun’s over,” I said, dragging Spencer to her feet. We stumbled through the bubbles that had already overflowed and were creeping across the courtyard and clambered over the side of the fountain.

“My shoes,” Spencer said, half-turning back.

“I’ll buy you another pair,” I said, pulling her along with me.

“Stop!” Name Badge yelled, but his order only made us run faster.

“Wait.” Spencer tugged on my hand. “Let’s go this way. The OIA house is just across campus.”

“We need to take a different route.” I was pretty sure he wasn’t chasing us, but I wasn’t going to give Name Badge a way to connect Spencer to the bubbles currently filling the quad. Rather than running straight south, I headed west toward Carr Hall. If he were still watching, he’d likely think we were aiming for the train station. When the courtyard was out of view, we cut through the Grotto and hit Lancaster Avenue, circling around the campus chapel. I slowed enough to make sure there was no oncoming traffic, then sprinted across the four-lane road without bothering to find a crosswalk. Once we were safely on the other side, Spencer took the lead.

“This way,” she said and cut down a gravel drive. We ran past a row of garages and took a sharp left down a grassy path that lead past the backyards of several large sorority houses. Spencer screeched to a halt at the door of a wooden gate and threw it open, then dragged me inside. We cut through the backyard of the OIA house, past the spot where we’d had our first kiss and straight up the back steps to the glass French doors. Once we were inside, I thought she’d finally stop, but she held tight to my hand as we passed through the dining room, the living room, and eventually into the entry hall. When she rounded the banister and headed up the steps, I froze.

“Come on,” she said, looking down at me with a smile that made my already labored breath catch in my throat.

It took less than a second for my feet to start moving again, and I followed her, taking the stairs two at a time. We turned left at the top of the staircase and walked to the far end of the hall. The girls had hung a mirror at the end of the corridor, and I caught our reflection in it before reaching Spencer’s door. We were both still soaked, and her fiery hair glinted in the track lighting above us, still slick with soap bubbles. Spencer pushed her door open and pulled me inside, then closed it behind us. I thought I heard the click of the button lock on the doorknob but assumed I’d imagined it until Spencer was standing in front of me.

“You know what this means, don’t you?” She tugged the bottom of my shirt up with both hands, and I lifted my arms so she could pull it over my head.

“We’ll probably both be expelled?” I asked, lifting one side of my mouth to grin at her. I guessed even vandalism couldn’t get you expelled from a school you weren’t really enrolled in, but I had to keep up the act despite how distracted I was by the feel of her fingers trailing down the ridges of my abdomen.

“No,” she said, with a playful smile. “I mean what it means for you to be here. In my room.”

“Remind me,” I said, peeling her wet shirt from her body and up over her head as she’d done mine. I tossed it to the side and immediately brought my hands to her now-bare shoulder blades. The pale pink satin of her bra was practically invisible against her creamy skin, and my fingers twitched with anticipation when they found the clasp at the middle of her back. I wondered if she’d stop me when I moved to undo it, but she just moved closer, pressing her belly to mine.

“It means we’re official,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “It means we can be together.”

I slid one strap from her shoulder where a light dusting of freckles peppered her skin, and I bent my head, intent on kissing each one. She tilted her head away from mine, and I trailed my lips up her neck to the sensitive patch of skin under her earlobe. I heard her breathe out a quiet gasp, and the sound of her pleasure made my whole body ache to have her. I slid my hand up her thigh and underneath her wet skirt, then tugged at the waist of the panties underneath. She helped by slipping the other side from her hip, and they fell to the floor. She stepped out of them and nudged them aside with her foot, then pulled her arms out of her bra and discarded that as well. I took a long moment to admire her, naked to the waist, and was impressed by how unselfconscious she seemed under my hungry gaze. Looking didn’t satisfy me for long, though, and soon my mouth was on hers. I moved one hand to her breast, gently pinching the rosy tip between my thumb and finger. My other hand moved up her thigh again, and this time there was no cloth to separate my fingers from the slick warmth between her legs. She rocked against my hand, and I dropped my head to her breast and took it into my mouth.