Page 24 of Courting Clemson

Now her smile was forced. “I asked you who you’re here with?”

“A bunch of coworkers,” I explained, thumbing over my shoulder toward our tables. “We landed a big account today, so we’re doing a little celebrating.” Though I answered the woman in front of me, I couldn’t control my eyes from darting to the blonde on the dancefloor.

If the planets aligned, and we were both at the same place, I definitely needed to speak to her.

Lauren turned to scan the dancefloor when I missed another attempt at furthering our conversation. She seemed to zero right in on what held my gaze.

She turned back to me. “I get it.”

“What do you mean?”

“You like ’em young. At least I didn’t waste a whole night, right?” She gave me a bitchy glare and turned and walked away.

Insecurity was my main turn-off. That woman was a ten in any man’s book, but her attitude and snotty personality were the two main reasons she was still trolling for men in a bar.

A headache was building low in my skull from the volume of the place. After I battled my way back to our group, I found Liam to tell him I was leaving. I learned a long time ago to drive separately to these types of functions. That way, when I wanted to leave, I wasn’t someone else’s hostage.

“Aw, come on, man!” he shouted. He was in full life-of-the-party mode. “You can’t leave already!” he slurred and grabbed my forearm.

“My head is going to explode from the noise in here,” I told him as I tried to regain possession of my limb.

“We’re just starting to have fun, Luke. Don’t be so lame.”

As if peer pressure still worked at my age. I laughed at the ridiculous tactic and took a step back from him. He was swaying to the music and stepping all over my good shoes while we were talking.

“I’m leaving,” I told him seriously. “Have a great weekend, and make sure you call a ride tonight.” With that advice, I headed toward where I thought the door was. Now that the lights were flashing to the beat of the music, it was hard to find the exit.

And as for the blonde I’d spotted, she’d disappeared into the crowd during my conversation with Lauren, and I hadn’t been able to locate her since. That letdown was another reason I was no longer enjoying this place and longed for the quiet of my penthouse more than anything.

Later that night, when I crawled into bed, Liam’s words don’t be so lame kept replaying on a loop. Over and over, I heard his slurred speech delivering the goading comment.

Was I lame? Was that what everyone thought of me? Or was it my immature buddy giving me shit because he never wanted the good time to end?

Finally, the medicine I took when I first got home for the headache dulled the pain enough to allow me to fall asleep. I didn’t move an inch on the mattress and caught about eight hours of dreamless, uninterrupted sleep.

So why did I still feel so drained when I woke up? I didn’t really have plans for the weekend outside of work, so there was nothing to be excited about or look forward to. That probably had a lot to do with my lethargy. I considered texting Liam to make sure he made it home safely last night, but knowing him, he’d sleep past noon and then do it all over again tonight.

Deciding to hit the gym, I left my building and briskly walked in that direction. The blonde I saw at the club last night popped in and out of my thoughts, reigniting my curiosity about Clemson. By the time I worked out, sat in the sauna, and made my way back to my penthouse, I decided I needed to try messaging her one last time. I couldn’t score if I never took my shot, or so the worn-out quote said.

For good measure, I allowed myself a peek at my social media feed to see if by some stroke of luck, she had messaged me since the last time I looked. Unfortunately, the last message in the thread was still mine, so I tried to come up with a clever way to ask her out that didn’t sound desperate or creepy given our age difference.

“What the hell am I doing?” I muttered to myself and tossed my phone back in my pocket. I was acting like a teenager, and it was ridiculous. I decided to just suck it up and ask her. If she said no, well…then so be it.

I waited until I was in the safety of my home, though, rather than squinting in the mid-morning sun to see what I was typing on my phone screen. I pulled up the same message thread on my laptop and wrote a quick, to-the-point, message.

Hey there. I hope your week went well. I was hoping you’d have dinner with me. Are you free?

Happy with the way that sounded, I hit Send before I could second-guess myself. If she said no, I’d delete our messages and never bother her again. If she said yes, I knew a great restaurant in Sea Port Village that I would take her to. We could walk around the tourist trap after we shared a meal and see where the night took us. I had a tendency to overthink and over plan, so that was exactly where I limit the brain time I’d put toward this.

I buried myself in work for most of the afternoon. Sitting outside on one of the balconies, I soaked up some sunshine and worked on a spreadsheet my boss was waiting for.

These tedious tasks were what sucked the life out of me. I always loved the rush of closing a big deal. I didn’t even mind the runaround you typically got from a client. But the paperwork and number crunching I was forced to do as a manager took the joy out of my day.

After saving the document I was working on for the better part of the afternoon, I stood and took a good stretch. The sun was over on the other side of my building, so I knew I’d been working outside for a couple of hours. My stomach let me know at the same moment that dinner wasn’t far off.

Back inside, I zeroed in on my cell phone. I’d left it on the kitchen counter while I worked so I wouldn’t be tempted to continuously check if she responded. But now that a good amount of time had passed, I gave myself permission to look. I almost dropped the damn thing on my floor when I saw she finally replied.

Hi. That’s very kind of you to ask, but I have a lot going on right now and don’t think I’d be great company. I really appreciate the offer though. Take care!

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