Page 13 of You Were Mine

“Oh, my bad! We must be on the wrong street! We thought this was a surprise party for a friend of ours.” Old people fall for anything.

“I will,” I say. “I just need to check with my roommate. He usually holds Halloweens hostage. It’s his favorite holiday.”

“Really? He’s that into it, huh?” Brandon asks. “I’ve always preferred Valentine’s Day myself.”

“Valentine’s Day? Why? It’s just so commercialized.”

“What holiday isn’t?” Brandon replies.

I smirk. “Columbus Day.”

“Fair enough,” Brandon says, “But I don’t think Columbus really deserves all that much recognition, anyway. I know Valentine’s Day is super commercialized, but I guess I just enjoy the idea of an entire day dedicated to expressing romantic love. Obviously, you want to love those close to you every day, but there’s something about making a special day to go really overboard that I absolutely love.”

“I can get on board with that,” I say. “Itiskind of romantic.”

I now have an uncomfortable vision of Branden flying around like some overgrown cherub shooting arrows at people, except there are no white flowing ribbons covering his now famous genitalia, sans pubic hair. I cannot unsee it. Sheesh.

I haven’t really celebrated Valentine’s Day in a while. I’ve been single for so long that I’ve just sort of gotten accustomed to celebrating the post-Valentine’s Day candy sales. Sad, eh?

“Hold on. Back up. So, how did you end up modeling nude?”

Brandon laughs. “Oh, I just do that for fun. I saw an ad looking for nude models, so I applied as a dare I had with my friend, Seth. Then, I got picked and figured‘Oh, what the Hell!’

"I mean, I’m incurably vain as is, so the thought of a bunch of art students painting me nude is actually pretty appealing. And it’s freeing, in a way, to be naked in front of a bunch of people. Maybe pick up a date.”

Uh huh.

“I know that sounds weird,” Brandon says, smiling crookedly, “But it’s the truth. I think there’s this atmosphere where no one is judging you. That’s powerful.”

Maybe so. But I’m at a complete loss as how to respond to that. The cherub vision is holding my tongue.

Eventually, “Logan did something like that,” I reply. “Notnudemodeling.”

Although, let’s be fair, he’d be up for it if anyone asked.

“The Secret Service sent out an email asking all the graduate students to apply for a job as a data analyst. He applied as a joke. They never called him back.”

“I’m sure he was heartbroken.”

“You laugh, but I think he really might have been,” I say. “He made jokes for months about how the Secret Service was missing out on their opportunity to have their own James Bond.”

“Did you apply, too?” he asks.

I shake my head. “I don’t need the Secret Service getting in my business; besides, the pay is only twenty-four-thousand a year. And entering data? Ugh. You couldn’t pay me any amount to do data entry. I’ve been there, done that.”

“Sounds dreadful,” Brandon agrees, sipping his tea.

I nod and now idly toy with the rim ofmycup. Strange how little we have to say to one another. It’s even stranger how my stomach flip-flops every time I look directly into his eyes. I can’t believe that he actually asked me out. I don’tgetasked out. Logan is the one who’s always being admired and getting all the phone numbers, and now that I’m in that situation, I have no idea what to do.

Maybe I should’ve taken more effort to go on dates over the years. Then, I wouldn’t have this problem. What do I even say?

“Wow, Brandon. Thanks for asking me out. I didn’t think you would, but I’m super happy you did”?

“So how far are you from graduating?” Brandon asks.

“One semester after this one,” I say, “Assuming everything goes according to plan.”

“You don’t think it will?”

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