Page 35 of First Impressions Series

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.”

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