Page 12 of First Impressions Series

“That’s cool. Are you going to see her again?” Jonas asked.

“If I can help it, I am,” I admitted. “I’m curious to see what she’s about.”

“Well, if it doesn’t work out, send her my way,” Jonas joked.

“We’ll see. Looks like I’m going to have to step up my game with this one. I don’t think she likes me yet. I’m going to have to work a little harder on this one,” I admitted as I sat down at a bar stool in the corner next to the wet bar in the game room.

“Say what? Why do you say that?” he asked me in disbelief, taking a seat on the stool two down from mine.

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Getting her to talk to me in the first place was tough. I thought maybe she already had a boyfriend, but she said she doesn’t.”

I didn’t want to tell Jonas about the arrangement that Zia had offered me, to help me find the right girl. Jonas and I both knew I had no trouble getting girls, but telling him I wasn’t finding the right girls was a little too far on the female emotional side to talk about with one of the guys. He and I were close, but not that close.

“Wow, she’s taking you down a few notches. Maybe that’s just what you need, bro. You’ve had it too easy for far too long. It’ll do you some good to have to work for it.” Jonas teased. He meant everything he said, but was able to get it across in a way that gave me a hard time in good fun.

I still wasn’t sure about the offer she had made me, but I did know one thing. I had to see her again. That was all I needed to know before I decided to send her a text.

Me: Ok I’m in.

Zia: In where? Who is this?

Me: It’s Dylan. And I’m in. I’ll let you help me.

Me: If you still want to.

Zia: Ohhh. Ok :)

Me: So what now?

Zia: Now we go to bed and talk about it tomorrow.

Me: Ok sounds good. I’ll call you after practice.

Zia: Ok

Me: Goodnight

Zia: Goodnight

At that, I said my goodbyes and headed out to drive back to my apartment for the night.

I didn’t know what it was, but something in me couldn’t wait to talk to Zia the next day. Where would this thing take us, I wondered, and I couldn’t wait to find out.

CHAPTER 3: ZIA

I worked the reception desk at the university counseling center on Tuesdays and Thursdays after class and all day on Fridays. It was partly a work-study program, but also served as a means to get my foot in the door to a graduate program and hopefully an internship in a few years.

It worked well with my schedule, since I had classes Monday through Thursday with Friday off. The center was closed on weekends, which left me free to study, relax, or whatever fun or madness that Clara came up with for us to get into. I was usually fairly, if not grudgingly, agreeable to Clara’s social plans.

Since she had her date Friday with Cason, I decided it was the perfect time to start my sessions with Dylan without her being around as a distraction. I loved that girl; she really knew how to dominate a room. She liked to be the center of attention, which I normally appreciated, but since I had a purpose this time, I figured I’d wait to tell her about it.

Here it was, already Thursday evening, and I was counting down the minutes before my shift ended so I could walk home and get started on planning the details of tomorrow night.

Dylan and I had arranged to meet Friday for our first session, and I needed to think about a good place to kick things off.

I took a university shuttle across the campus since it was already dark. It wasn’t so much a bad part of town as it was growing up with a single mom who ingrained a certain level of paranoia in me. She could be a little overprotective at times, but I wasn’t so naïve as to not err on the side of caution. I didn’t take it to any extremes like she could sometimes.

As the shuttle neared my stop and slowed, I observed out the window at the people waiting to get on. I noticed a group of people, all girls except for one guy right in the center of them. Of course, it was Dylan.

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