Page 79 of Love and Other Goals

“How’s it going, Lana? You all finished with our paper due tomorrow?” Aaron asks, but answers his own question before I can. “Who am I kidding? Of course you’re done already,” he concludes with a grin.

“Let me guess, burning the midnight oil tonight?” I tease.

“Guilty as charged,” he says. “What’s the weekly question?”

“What’s your favorite Taylor Swift song?” I reply with a smile.

“Ohhh, you would, Lana,” Aaron laughs. “We need to get someone else in charge of the name tag questions!”

“Hey! Rude!” I laugh back. “Just answer the question. You know you have one.”

“Okay, okay, ‘Blank Space’,” he responds, and I write under his name. He looks at my name tag. “What does YOYOK mean?”

“‘You’re On Your Own Kid’, from her Midnights album,” I inform him.

“Well, I guess I know what I’ll listen to while burning the midnight oil tonight,” Aaron says with a wink. He slaps his name tag to his chest and rejoins the other OGs.

As soon as Aaron steps away, Mateo steps up with Shawn and Linh trailing closely behind. “Hey Lana,” Mateo says, a slight strain in his voice. I notice his eyes dart toward Aaron’s back walking into the meeting room.

I quickly lean in to give him a tight hug, mentally channeling reassurance through my embrace. I’m grateful to feel him hug me back, arms encircling me tightly. When he releases me, I smile at Linh and hug her in greeting as well. “So glad you could come again!”

There’s lots of laughter and teasing between Shawn and Linh as they try to choose their favorite songs (“Look What You Made Me Do” for Shawn and “The Man” for Linh), but Mateo is uncharacteristically quiet. There’s a pit of worry in my stomach as I turn to him, Sharpie poised to write his answer.

“‘Timeless’,” he finally answers with a soft smile. I exhale my anxiety as I write his answer, butterflies settling when he leans in to give me a quick peck on the cheek. He whispers in my ear, “But you’re never on your own, you know.”

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I convince Mateo to let me plan our date. I’ve been so wrapped up in doing anything I can to feel like I’m making a difference following Samira’s tragedy that most pockets of my free time have been spent studying or working with Elena, rather than hanging out with Mateo. I want to be the one surprising him with something special for once.

Although Amaya is liberally granting passes to miss chapter meeting on Valentine’s Day, I don’t feel like fighting the crowds to get restaurant reservations, only to feel rushed to vacate the table in time for the next round of couples.

I also have a little surprise up my sleeve that depends upon daytime hours, so I tell Mateo to plan on me picking him up for an afternoon date at 2:00 p.m.

After a Teegan-directed wardrobe change into a wine-red dress with black tights and boots, I drive to Mateo’s house and ring the doorbell at 1:53 p.m. He answers with a grin, looking spectacularly handsome in light jeans and a black button-up shirt rolled up on his forearms. Mateo sharply inhales as he takes in my appearance. He takes my hand to twirl me full-circle, then pulls me close for a brief kiss. “You look absolutely stunning, Lana,” he says in a low voice.

I give him a “bouquet” of packets of his favorite pre-workout drink powder arranged in brown paper I got from Grow Wild. “I thought you’d appreciate these more than flowers,” I say with a smile. He laughs and kisses me again. “It’s perfect,” he responds.

We get in my car, and as I pull away from the curb, Mateo reaches over to take my hand. “Okay, I don’t know how you do this,” I laugh a minute later, releasing his hand to grasp the steering wheel. “I guess my brain isn’t capable of paying attention to driving and holding your hand at the same time.”

“What can I say? I’m a man of many talents,” Mateo jokes.

Truer words were never spoken.

I can tell Mateo is confused when I park in a campus lot and direct him to follow me into one of the buildings. Approaching a service desk, I exchange my student ID for a key labeled number six, and lead Mateo down a long hallway of doors. I’m infinitely amused by his bewildered expression.

When we reach room six, I unlock it and swing the door open with a flourish, revealing a small, soundproof room with a piano. Realization dawns in his eyes, and he turns to me. “Does this mean what I think it means? You’re going to play for me?”

Nodding with a grin, I tell him, “There’s no way I was going to play for you in front of an audience at the AOPi house. Lucky for you, the music building has practice rooms available to students, otherwise you’d never hear it!”

Mateo kisses my fingers before releasing my hand, and I pull my “Perfect” sheet music out of my purse and arrange it on the piano, taking a seat on the bench. Mateo leans against the wall watching me, and I suddenly feel self-conscious. After multiple mistakes just a few lines into the music, I cover my face and groan. “I can’t play with you standing right there watching me! It’s making me flustered!”

He chuckles and moves behind me where I can’t see him. “Better?”

I shake out my hands and place them back on the keys. With a deep breath, I start again, still making an occasional misstep but mostly keeping my composure as I focus on the notes. Soon, I’m lost in the flow of the music, like every other time I’ve practiced this piece.

My concentration is disrupted halfway through the song when Mateo slowly takes a seat on the bench next to me, but I will myself to keep going. As I approach the end of the second chorus, I feel Mateo’s gaze on me as his fingers lightly brush the hair on my back. His voice begins to softly sing along, “When I saw you in that dress, looking so beautiful. I don’t deserve this, darling, you look perfect tonight.”

I’m not sure how, but I manage to make it through the rest of the song without totally flopping. As I lift my hands from the keyboard, I turn to gauge Mateo’s reaction. The same intense tenderness fills his eyes as when I played at Thanksgiving, but this time his face is mere inches away from mine.

“Merry Christmas and Happy Valentine’s Day,” I whisper with a soft smile. Mateo cups my face and gently presses his lips against my smile.

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