At that point, my best bet was just to go with the girl who was stationed right next to me during the class. We at least had that small connection of proximity going for us.
Her name was Moira, and she was another first-timer that night. I asked her how she liked the class and offered to walk her out as she told me about some other classes she had attended before, including barre and pilates.
Once we got outside, I noticed it had gotten considerably darker in the hour we were in the class, observing the clouds moving in overhead. I wondered where Zia was, and if we should hurry back to her apartment or if we should stop somewhere and wait out the storm that was inevitably coming.
“So are you seeing anybody? Maybe we could go out sometime,” Moira asked pointedly.
I grimaced as I hesitated to answer her, knowing I had already given her a certain impression. “To be honest, Moira, it’s probably not a good idea. I’m already kind of seeing someone at the moment,” I explained, wishing the words were more accurate than I knew them to be.
About that time, Zia came out of the studio, gave Moira and me a sideways glance, and kept walking. I told Moira it was nice to meet her and I’d see her around. Then I jogged to catch up with Zia who had already made it several feet down the sidewalk in the direction of her apartment.
Catching up to her, I smiled and said, “That wasn’t bad.”
“Any luck?” she asked as we continued down the sidewalk.
“I guess we’ll see.” I shrugged, initially thinking I was making her proud, but seeing her darkening mood as a sign that maybe I’d done something wrong.
Then again, maybe she was worried about the weather, and I looked around for a nearby store or restaurant we could take shelter in if it didn’t look like we could make it back before the rain hit. Across the street was a diner. “Hey, have you eaten yet?”
“No, not yet,” she admitted.
“Come on. I’ll treat you to a burger,” I told her as I looked at her and smiled, angling toward the diner and reaching for her hand.
Zia paused for a moment in contemplation before deciding against it. “I should probably get home and work on some homework,” she said.
“Yeah, I have a few assignments I should probably work on, too.” I tried to hide my disappointment. “So I guess I’ll see you this weekend?”
“Oh, yes! I almost forgot. Clara, my roommate, asked if we wanted to go with her and this guy she’s been seeing to the Thunder Lounge this Friday. It could be a good place to try out your new skills and maybe apply some of what you’ve learned so far.” Zia smiled with raised eyebrows, letting me know she was waiting to hear what I thought.
“Okay, sounds great. What time?” I asked.
“How about ten?” she suggested. It would be early considering the usual time that place really started picking up, but it would be good to have time to talk before it got too crowded. I agreed.
“Cool. I’ll pick you up and we can ride over there together if that sounds good to you,” I offered. That way I could drive her home alone once the night was over. Maybe that would give me an opportunity to take Sarah’s advice and just be honest with her about what I felt and what I wanted.
“Yeah, sure. That sounds great. I’ll see you Friday, then,” she said as we got to the front entrance to her apartment building. I didn’t know what to make of it when Zia continued inside the building as she waved goodbye to me without a hesitation, just before the rain began to pour down in sheets around me.
CHAPTER 7: ZIA
On Wednesday night, I got ready at a leisurely pace, since I had plenty of time between my last class and the time I had agreed to meet Becker at the Daylee Grind. I didn’t work on Wednesdays, and I was worried that all the free time I had would cause me to feel nervous the longer I waited, but thankfully nervousness never came.
When I arrived at the Daylee Grind a few minutes before seven-thirty p.m., Becker was already there with a table toward the back of the room. I had never met him, but I recognized him from the selfie he had sent me the night before while we planned our meeting. I smiled as I approached him, and he stood from his seat and pulled my chair out for me.
Not bad as far as first impressions go.
Becker was an attractive guy, fairly tall with a basketball player’s build. His short bed-head hair was a dark blonde color and his blue-green eyes popped with the green button-down shirt he wore.
I had to hand it to Clara. She could never be accused of having bad taste or ugly guy friends.
Becker and I sat and talked for a couple of hours with the usual getting-to-know-you banter. He seemed like a nice enough guy from what I could tell, and he was not lacking in the flattery department with all the compliments he doled out at me throughout the night.
He did mention that he played basketball for the university, and invited me to see him play sometime. I wondered why Dylan had never invited me to see one of his soccer games before, and then I felt bad for thinking of Dylan while I was supposed to be getting to know Becker.
But then one thought of Dylan led to another, and I couldn’t help but remember the first night I had met Dylan right here in this coffee shop, when we had made the deal in the first place for me to help him learn how to find the right girl.
Then there was the night of Halloween when we had come here to see the band play, and he had met the girl with the scarf. My eyes wandered to the table the girl with the scarf had been sitting at, and I remembered the way Dylan had smiled and his eyes had sparkled as he talked and shared a piece of pumpkin spice cake with her.
Focus!
I drew my attention back to Becker, and luckily it didn’t appear I had missed anything too important in the few moments that I had zoned out. I wanted to give Becker an honest chance and really get to know him, if only to prove to myself that Dylan was not the guy I wanted to be with.
I was able to keep myself in the moment for the rest of the night with Becker and had an enjoyable time. We didn’t make any specific plans to see each other again, but we left it open as a possibility.
When Becker walked me outside of the coffee shop at the end of the evening, I noticed how comfortable it felt holding his hand. He even gave me a sweet little kiss before helping me into the back of a cab. It was one of those kisses that were just short and sweet enough to make a girl wonder what a longer kiss would feel like.
I smiled at him waving at me as the cab drove away, and considered in the short couple of blocks to my apartment building when I might see him again.
After this weekend, I thought.
I hadn’t had high expectations going into this meeting with Becker tonight, so maybe that was why things had gone much nicer than I had hoped or expected. I had a renewed optimism that I could see this promise through that I had made to Dylan to help him find the right girl without letting it affect me.
Correction: I would see this promise through without letting it affect me!
CHAPTER 7: DYLAN
“It’s ladies’ night at the Book Shelf, Porter. Are you going to bail on us again?” Jonas asked as we walked off the field at the end of practice, but his tone indicated that he already knew the answer.
“Sorry, not tonight. I need to study for an algebra test I have tomorrow.” I knew they wanted me to help them find some new girls to hook up with that night, but they were just going to have to figure out how to get along without me.
“What’s been going on with you lately? You’ve been spending an awful lot of time with this new girl you met.” This time it was Ethan. “You must really be into her.”
We walked into the locker room and started getting cleaned up and ready to go home for the evening.
“Yeah, I guess I am,” I admitted, knowing how the conversation would turn at that point and not looking forward to it.
“Have you hooked up yet?” Jonas teased, just as I expected.
I just laughed and shook my head. “Don’t you guys have love lives of your own to talk about? Ethan, what abou
t Katy? How’s that going?”
Normally I’d join in on the guy talk, but knowing how they would talk about Zia if I went along with it honestly made my blood boil at just the thought of it. She was different, and she deserved more respect than that. I wasn’t going to go there.
“I don’t know,” Ethan replied. “Katy runs hot and cold. Sometimes she seems into it and sometimes I go days at a time without hearing from her. I haven’t talked to her since Saturday night, on Halloween.” It was already Thursday.
I remembered her trying to invite me out Halloween night and me giving her a push back in Ethan’s direction. It was nice to know she did, at least. I still wasn’t about to tell Ethan she had messaged me. It wouldn’t have done anyone any good.
“So call her. If you like her so much, why don’t you ask her out on a real date? Katy is high maintenance. You just have to feed her ego now and then. Give her some compliments. Buy her a nice gift. She’ll be receptive if you do that,” I explained.
“What kind of gift?” he asked.
“I don’t know, flowers, jewelry, concert tickets. Don’t you know anything about women?” I chided. “Just talk to her. Invite her on a date. Take her dancing.”
Ethan took my advice and texted Katy, asking her out for that following Friday and, of course, she accepted.
And while we were at it…
“Hey, Jonas, you’re looking for a date, right?” I asked.
“Yeah…” he answered with a puzzled look on his face.
“Next Tuesday night, go over to a Yoga Studio just off of ninety-eighth and Chicago at six-thirty. Look for a pretty red-head named Moira and ask her out. You can thank me later,” I said.
I figured she was a nice girl, and Jonas really needed a lead. What could it hurt?
“Yoga studio?” Jonas questioned.
“Trust me,” I told him as I threw my book bag over my shoulder and headed out the door to walk home.
CHAPTER 8: ZIA
On the Friday night of the “double date,” Dylan picked me up outside my apartment in his pick-up truck at about nine forty-five p.m., and we drove to meet Clara and Cason at the Thunder Lounge. Clara and Cason were meeting us there, and Clara had already left by the time I got home from work that evening.
As soon as we arrived, I could tell that Clara was not feeling well.
“What’s wrong, Clar? You don’t look so well,” I took Clara by the hands and immediately noticed how clammy they were.
“I suddenly have the worst headache. I’m sure it’ll pass. I just need a minute. I got some water. I’m hoping it will help.” Even Clara’s voice was weak and low.
“Clar, maybe we should take you home. If you feel better in a bit, you can always come back,” I suggested.
“You’re probably right. But please stay. I can get a ride back to the apartment. It won’t take that long, and I’ll be fine,” Clara insisted.
“Okay, well, let me at least call a cab to come get you.” I pulled out my phone and called for a cab while she said her goodbyes to Cason. She also insisted that he stay, as she didn’t want to ruin his night just because she wasn’t feeling well.
“Clar, I just got a call that your cab is parked out front. Let me walk you out so I can tell the driver to make sure you get home okay.”
I linked Clara’s arm with mine and walked her through the club and out to the front parking area where we found the cab. I paid him the cost, plus a nice tip, and gave him instructions to get her home and help her inside. He said he was glad to be of help, and said he would call me if anything happened. I felt a little better about not accompanying her back home.
When I got back inside, I found Dylan at a table and sat with him. “So sorry about that.”
“I hope she’s okay. Do you think we should have gone with her?” Dylan asked concernedly.
“She didn’t want us to, but the cab driver seemed happy to help her home. I’ll call and check on her in a few minutes just to be sure,” I said as I sat in the chair next to Dylan.
Cason came up with a round of drinks, and I tried to put my concern for Clara out of my mind while the three of us chatted for a bit.
I scouted the room looking for a good candidate for Dylan, and waited for the right moment to fill him in. I figured maybe I’d wait for Cason to go back to the bar to give us a moment alone.
Finally, when Cason left to use the restroom, I seized the opportunity to point out three girls sitting together. Two of the girls were done up to the nines while the third one was understated and overshadowed by her two companions.
She reminded me a lot of myself, actually, with a look of almost boredom on her face. This was not her usual scene. She added little to their conversation but it didn’t seem like she felt left out of anything. She smiled at people passing by and was friendly to the wait staff, so I didn’t get the impression she was arrogant.
She was a prime candidate.
I sent Dylan over to their table after advising him to get her away from her friends to talk to her. Ask her to dance for one or two songs, and then take her off to a quiet corner to talk and get to know her a little bit.
As soon as Dylan walked off, I sent Clara a text and she responded right away that she had made it home and was just lying down. Then Cason came back with another round of drinks.
It worked out pretty well that Cason was here, I thought. Otherwise, I would have been sitting here all alone in a club that I wasn’t really a fan of on a good day, much less if I had been sitting here all alone. Besides, this wasn’t the type of place where I wanted to chat it up with the other patrons.
I started on the second round of my drink, some fancy kind of shot that Cason had chosen. Not what I would have typically gotten, but I wasn’t going to be rude and turn it down.
Cason and I talked a little about Clara, and how things were going with them. We also talked about what kind of work he did, which he seemed pretty vague about, but I was only half-way paying attention anyway, so it didn’t really bother me.
The other half of my attention was on Dylan, who was now in the quiet corner making pleasant conversation with the other girl, by the looks of it.
For a moment, I felt a twinge of… jealousy?
No, I would not allow myself to be jealous. After all, hadn’t I had a beautiful night getting to know Becker just a couple of days ago? I wanted to be happy for Dylan. This was what I was here to do, to help him find the kind of girl he could be happy with, or at least show him how to get out of his own way and dig a little deeper.
Soon my thoughts became more and more jumbled and crazy, and I began wondering how strong those drinks were. Cason got up to get one more round, and I told him just a water would do for me.
When he came back, he had a glass of water as well as another shot for me. I tried to protest, but he promised me it was the last one, and that he just didn’t want to be the only one drinking. He assured me that he had paid out his tab when he ordered this last round, and flashed his credit card as evidence he was being truthful.
I looked around for Dylan, but he was nowhere to be found. Of course in my altered state of lowered inhibitions, I said what the heck and downed the last shot.
That’s when things got really hazy, and I knew I was way more intoxicated than I should be after only three drinks. A shiver went through my body and my head spun.
“There you go, sugar,” Cason said as he slid his chair closer to mine and started rubbing his hand up and down my thigh.
What the hell? What was happening? Why did this seem wrong? I knew this was wrong, but suddenly, I didn’t remember why. He was so hot… surely it was okay, right?
No! Oh my God, what was going on?
I suddenly felt dizzy, and my muscles all went so relaxed that I almost felt numb. The simple act of moving felt like I was treading through Jell-O, and I was confused… so confused.
Cason brought a hand up to my face and cupped my cheek, the other hand still rubbing my upper thigh. He tried to hold my g
aze with his eyes and I tried hard to focus. “Feeling okay, gorgeous?”
“Hmmmm-mmm,” was all I could manage to verbalize, panic beginning to slowly build deep in the back of my mind and in the pit of my stomach. What was going on? Where was I? Why was I… so… sleepy…
Suddenly, before I could bring Cason’s face into focus or see it coming, I could feel Cason’s lips press hard onto mine. I wanted to protest but the fight was quickly leaving my body. I knew I didn’t want to kiss him back, didn’t want his hands on me.
Temporary relief spread through me as he broke away, but followed it up with, “Come on, sugar. Let’s get you out of here.”
Cason helped me stand and started steering me toward the exit.
“No, this is wrong. I can’t.” My words slowly came out in a slur, and I was losing my will to fight it with every second that ticked by.
Where was Dylan? I couldn’t leave Dylan.
“It’s not wrong, gorgeous. I’ve got you. I’ll take care of you.” Cason’s voice sounded so calm and almost seductive as he inched me closer and closer to the exit.
That snake.
Suddenly I was frantic, the panic finally exploding inside me, but it was all trapped inside as I was no longer able to make my body protest like my mind was doing inside my head.
What was happening? Alarm bells rang in my head and I felt helpless.
Hopeless.
Suddenly, everything happened at once, and I watched as though I was looking down on the whole scene from outside my own body. Everything started moving in slow motion.
I felt strong hands grab me from behind, and as Cason turned abruptly to see who grabbed me, a solid fist connected with his jaw. Cason’s face continued in the direction of the follow-through as saliva flew from his mouth.
I thought a fight would ensue, but Cason backed off and held his hands up in surrender. Then he quickly backed away and disappeared into the crowd of people that had gathered around to watch.
First Impressions Series (1-2) Page 10
