Page 10 of First Impressions Series

“Oh, yeah… that. Yeah, we won our soccer match last Saturday, so me and my buddies went up there to celebrate and have some drinks.” I hoped she couldn’t tell that her question had made me nervous, since she’d called me out on seeing all the girls who were talking to us that night.

“I see. I knew I didn’t remember seeing you there before,” she told me.

“If you saw us there, why didn’t you come up and say hi or something?” I asked her, recalling how I had hoped she would have done just that at the time.

“Oh, you looked like you had plenty of company to keep you occupied. Besides, I’m more of a keep-to-myself kind of person,” she said. This explained a lot to me, as I didn’t want to jump to the conclusion that she may have been a bit stuck-up. Turned out she was just shy.

“Hmm, that’s cool, I guess.” I wondered if there was a way to play this off so that it didn’t look like I was into all those girls we had been talking to that Saturday night prior. The truth was, I wasn’t, but it probably didn’t look that way.

She was quiet, and that made me even more nervous.

“It was mostly my buddies who were talking to all those girls. They usually drag me out with them so they can pick up chicks.” Okay, maybe no dragging was involved, but other than that it was true.

“Oh, it’s cool. I totally get it. Variety is the spice of life, right?” Zia laughed softly, but seemed a little more agitated than she was trying to let on as she tapped her pen against her notebook on the table.

Variety, I thought. If only. Maybe there was a variety of girls, but if you knew one, you knew them all.

“So they say,” I agreed.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, seeming to understand there was more to the story, as she straightened in her chair and leaned in toward me. Touched by the sincerity that she actually wanted to know, I somehow felt the urge to confide in her.

“Nothing’s wrong. I mean, to be honest, I can have pretty much any girl I want, and I’ve dated quite a few girls since I started playing in the league here a couple years back.” Now that it was time to confide, I suddenly wasn’t sure it was the best idea.

“But?” she prodded. She wasn’t going to give up that easily.

Okay, what the hell, right?

“But I don’t know. They’re all the same. I just get tired of it after a while. Ya know?” I hoped none of these girls were sitting around me right then to hear me say that about them, even though it was the truth.

“I know what you mean,” she said. “But really, I have to be honest here. What did you expect?” She was suddenly turning it back on me.

Now I was intrigued. This girl was calling me out, challenging me. I straightened in my chair to mirror her in front of me. “What do you mean?” I asked.

“I mean, if you’re only looking for a certain type, then why do you expect them all to be any different from each other?” She leaned back and let that drive home.

Hmmm, I thought. She actually had a point. What was that saying about insanity? Doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results. If I wanted something different, I’d have to try something I’d never tried before.

Zia continued, “What kind of girl are you looking for, anyway?”

“I don’t know…” I did know, but how could I word this without sounding like a total ass? “Someone with a mind of her own. Someone who I know likes me for who I am and not because of who I am, I guess.”

I thought for a moment and continued. “And it wouldn’t hurt if she was attractive, of course,” I said as I diverted my gaze to the table. I couldn’t look her in the eye and say that for some reason, as her glaring beauty was staring back at me. Since when was I shy about talking to a gorgeous girl?

“Hmm…” she said, and it looked like the wheels were spinning inside that gorgeous head of hers.

I waited for her to continue, but finally urged, “What?”

“I’m just thinking. You seem like a nice guy, Dylan. I might be able to help you find the right kind of girl, if you wanted,” she offered.

“You mean set me up with someone? I don’t know,” I said, thinking to myself that there was just no way.

“No, I don’t mean set you up with anyone. Have you ever heard of the saying, ‘give a guy a fish and he’ll eat for a day, but teach a guy to fish and he’ll eat for life?’ Well, I mean that I can try to teach you how to fish,” she explained.

“I got ya. Okay, you have my attention,” I told her, but added, “So how is this going to work?”

“Well, we’d have to go out to some places where you can meet people, and I could help you figure out what to look for, what to stay away from, stuff like that,” she explained.

“I don’t know. How do I know that you’d even be able to really help?” I questioned skeptically.

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