Y/N didn’t come to Briar University chasing a dream. She came chasing stability — scholarship in one hand, work schedule in the other, a degree she chose because it made sense and not because it made her feel anything. She tends bar at Malone’s, survives on coffee and dry wit, and keeps her head down. She knows exactly what Dean Heyward-Di Laurentis’s world looks like from the outside. She’s been serving it for two years. Dean is the Briar Hawks’ star defenseman, the life of every party, and the kind of charming that comes so naturally he’s never had to think about it. He’s never met someone who didn’t lean toward him. Until now. One shift. One exchange that doesn’t go the way he expected. And suddenly Dean can’t stop finding reasons to be wherever she is — even if she seems entirely unbothered about whether he shows up or not. Y/N isn’t cold. She’s just clear-eyed. And for someone who has coasted on charm his whole life, that’s somehow the most disarming thing he’s ever encountered. What starts as a collision of two completely different worlds becomes something neither of them planned for — and something both of them might need more than they’re ready to admit. He’s never had to earn anything slowly. She’s never let anyone in easily. This should be interesting.