I sigh as I start to make my way toward the coffee shop, moving double time. “You’re hopeless.”
“But not entirely useless. Turn around.” Doing as he says, I turn and look around before I spot a magnetic smile leaning over the bed of my truck, coffees in hand.
I shake my head, retracing my steps. “How did you know where I was?” I ask as I approach.
“Lucky guess.” He shrugs. “Although, it helps that I’ve been on campus a bit longer than you and all it takes is looking in the directoryto figure out where the engineering courses are held. I also saw you pull in.” Extending his arm, he hands me one of the coffees. “I didn’t know what you’d like so it’s a cold brew with vanilla flavoring.”
I grab it, thanking him. “Vanilla? What about me screams vanilla?”
He lets out a low, smooth laugh. “Oh, love. I have a feeling you’re anything but vanilla.”
My face warms under his gaze thanks to the hidden innuendo and I have to turn away from him. I hear feet shuffling until he puts a finger under my chin, tipping my face to look at his. His eyes lock onto mine, a playful glint dancing in their depths. “See? Definitely not vanilla.” His voice drops even further, rich and inviting.
I try to steady my breath, to calm the heat that is slowly making its way down to the apex of my thighs, but his thumb gently brushes my jawline, causing my brain to short. “You don’t even know me,” I manage to whisper.
“Not yet,” he murmurs. “But I’m looking forward to finding out. What do you think I wanted your number for?”
I step back slightly, my body suddenly cold despite the heat that was running through it moments ago. A slightly dejected look crosses his face, but he hides it quickly. “You still could have gotten it from the application, whether I wanted to give it to you or not.”
“I just want to show you my intentions.” He steps up beside me, leaning his back against my driver’s side door.
I take a sip of my cold brew, the beverage only adding to the sudden chill in my bones. “And what are your intentions?”
He pauses, likely assessing what words to say next. “To get to know you, to see if we share mutual feelings.”
“And if we don’t?” I ask, looking at him.
He narrows his eyes, studying me with an intensity that makes my heart skip. “Then we go back to being what we started as. No hard feelings. But I don’t think you’ll want that.”
My pulse quickens, the weight of his words hanging between us.The temperature between us shifts again, charged, as he reaches out to sweep a piece of hair out of my face. I swallow hard. “And if I do want it?”
He grins, his confidence radiating off of him. “I’ll hope you’ll change your mind, but I will respect your decision no matter what. Now, don’t you have a class to get to?”
I look at the clock on my phone. “Shit, yeah. Thank you for the coffee.” I spin on my feet and start to walk away from him. When I look back, he’s still leaning against my truck.
“I’ll pick you up tonight around six?” he calls out.
I ignore him, looking forward again. He yells back at me, “That wasn’t a no!” A smile creeps onto my face as I take another drink of my coffee. I’ll never admit it, but I love vanilla.
My first lecturecame and went, and despite the stress of the course work it felt good to get back into something I loved. If there is one thing I have always been super dedicated to, it's been my future. That was something my dad ensured for me, encouraged me to focus on even when I could’ve been helping with the house and the bills in some other way. He was never the type to believe that a college education was superior to anything else, but he just always wanted more for me. I’m not sure if that was his way of somehow making up for how frequently we moved around, how often I was without him and being raised by my grandparents, but either way I was thankful for it. I want to make him proud now more than ever. He was the man who shaped me. Through all the instability we had growing up, through the trials and challenges, he was my one constant, my foundation. Except now I no longer want to succeed for myself, I want to make all of his sacrifices worth it. It’s the least I can do…
I wander outside of my building a little after ten o’clock, leavingroughly an hour until my next course. There are tables scattered about the grass, some full with other students and some blissfully empty. I spot one that’s close to the building and I’m about to approach it to take a seat when someone behind me taps me on the shoulder. When I turn around, I come face to face with a girl that was in my first lecture with me, a few seats down. She has long, wavy brown hair that falls just past her shoulders and her eyes compliment the shade nicely. She’s smiling at me with a warm smile that is broad and inviting.
She extends her hand to me. “I hope this isn’t too strange, but this is the first time I’ve seen you in the lecture hall since classes started. I figured you were new to campus so I wanted to introduce myself. I’m Lacey.”
I hesitate for a few moments before slowly reaching out to shake her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Dylan.”
Her smile falls and she sighs. “Ugh, I’m sorry. This is totally weird, isn’t it?”
A rush of regret runs through me as I shake my head. “No, I’m sorry. I just wasn’t expecting anyone to be friendly off the bat. I was honestly kind of expecting to have to be the one to introduce myself to others, so this is kind of nice.”
Lacey’s smile returns, a little more tentative this time, and something inside me tells me that she’s probably more of an introvert like myself, trying to make acquaintances. “Okay, good. This isn’t normal for me, I mean I don’t usually randomly approach people, but something about you made me think I should say hi. You’re in your third year, right?”
My shoulders relax as some of the unease leaves them. “Yeah, I am. I’m studying chemical engineering. I should be graduating this next spring, but I started a year late. I’ve been doing online courses up until recently, obviously.” I gesture to the campus. She doesn’t immediately respond right away and I immediately feel rude for not asking her about herself. “What about you?”
“Same, actually. Thank god. I was hoping to find someone tostudy with… but everyone else doesn’t seem as approachable as you.” I wasn’t sure how to take that, so I just ignored it.
“Well, I was actually going to sit outside until my next course if you wanted to join me?” Her eyes brighten at that as she nods her head.