The Virgin’s Bucket List Episode 5

📖 The Story Continues

Wayne stood in the center of Lindsay’s bedroom with a towel around his waist and the strained patience of someone negotiating his way out of an arrest. Lindsay kept herself between him and the door, phone ready in her hand. “Why are you in my house?” she demanded. Whatever connection he claimed to have with her father, she wanted the entire story.

He explained that he had transferred to Maple Hill Academy to play football. Coach Johnson had recruited him personally, arranged a scholarship, and offered him a place to stay because the funding did not cover housing. Wayne would be living with them until the season ended.

Lindsay stared at him. Her father had invited a stranger into their home without mentioning it to either daughter, then apparently expected everyone to adapt. “So you’re like an exchange student?” she asked. Wayne’s expression suggested the description was not quite accurate, but he let it pass.

His reason for being in the house still did not explain the most immediate offense. Lindsay gestured at her bed and demanded to know why he had been in her room—and naked, no less. Calling him a pervert felt safer than acknowledging how enthusiastically she had touched him.

Wayne’s patience finally snapped. He reminded her that she was the one who had mistaken him for a sex robot and reached what he called second base without his consent. “Who’s the pervert here?” he asked. Lindsay wished the floor would open beneath her.

She protested that the room had been dark, even though there had been enough light to admire every muscle. Wayne raised an eyebrow but spared her from exposing that particular lie. Lindsay insisted the misunderstanding never would have happened if he had not climbed into her bed.

Wayne explained that he had showered after traveling and entered the wrong room. Coach Johnson had told him the guest room was the first door on the left, but Wayne had misunderstood the directions. Exhausted, he had lain down for a moment and fallen asleep.

The explanation was humiliatingly ordinary. Lindsay lowered her phone, though suspicion lingered. Her father was fully capable of reorganizing their household around a promising athlete and forgetting to tell her.

“Come on,” she said. “I’ll show you the guest room.” She opened the door and ordered him to keep the towel secured this time. Wayne followed, muttering that he would be equally grateful if she kept her hands to herself.

The hallway forced them close together. Lindsay became painfully aware of his clean scent and the water still shining along his shoulders. She stole a glance at his face and resented the absurd length of his eyelashes. No boy should be allowed to look that good after waking to a stranger groping him.

Wayne caught her staring. Lindsay abruptly studied the family photographs on the wall, pretending one she had seen for years had become fascinating. Her embarrassment should have cured the attraction, but knowing he was real only made it more dangerous.

The bucket-list dare returned to her thoughts. Wayne attended Maple Hill now, possessed more than the required number of visible abdominal muscles, and would be living a few doors from her. The universe had not delivered a boyfriend, but it had delivered an opportunity.

If Wayne pretended to date her, Alyssa would have no choice but to admit defeat. If Lindsay actually slept with him, every cruel rumor about the sexless loser would vanish. The idea was reckless and shallow, yet after a lifetime of being overlooked, she could not stop imagining the faces of everyone who had laughed.

She glanced at Wayne again and tried to picture asking. He already thought she was a predator with poor judgment. Requesting that he become her boyfriend minutes after meeting him might confirm that impression forever.

Still, desperation made impossible things sound achievable. He needed housing, and her father clearly needed him on the team. Perhaps Lindsay could help him settle into Maple Hill, and he could help her survive the semester. It did not have to involve real feelings.

Wayne stopped outside the guest room and caught her watching him once more. “What are you doing?” he asked. Lindsay opened her mouth, ready to propose the strangest bargain of her life.

The front door opened downstairs. Her father’s voice traveled through the house, calling her name, and every bold word vanished. Mike’s heavy footsteps began climbing toward them as Lindsay realized exactly how the scene would look.

Wayne stood beside her wearing nothing but a towel, and she was still flushed from imagining him as her secret solution. Mike reached the top of the stairs and said her name again. Lindsay turned toward him, caught between an explanation she could barely believe herself and the boyfriend plan she had not yet dared to voice.