“I had a really enjoyable time this evening. Thank you for suffering through my shortcomings,” I say. She laughs one more time before turning. Stopping, she looks back at me.
“To be honest. I had a really good time too. I also don’t think I can come up with a single shortcoming.” With a wave, she walks through the door taking another small piece of my heart with her.
2
Maggie
“Remember, I need your papers turned in by the end of class Wednesday.” I’m already exhausted and it’s only lunchtime. Maybe it’s because I basically didn’t sleep last night. I finally closed my eyes sometime around three this morning. Three hours is a nap, not a full night's sleep!
It took me that long to get Colin Rhett out of my head. Everybody who’s ever met Colin has spent at least one restless night dreaming about him. Who wouldn’t, he’s every woman’s wet dream. He’s tall, but not ridiculously so. His hair is a light blond, always cut to perfection. His eyes are so blue, you would swear you can see the ocean in them. That smile, with its perfect white teeth encased by two stunning dimples. Holy crap on a cracker! The problem with Colin, however, is he’s a player.
Plain and simple, he has a lot of sex with long-legged brainless women. When I say a lot of sex, I mean an insanely large amount of it. Since I can remember, Colin has had a different woman on his arm every weekend.
Some of them I’ve observed firsthand while hanging out with Lily. Some I’ve only seen pictures in the society pages in the Kansas City newspaper. You don’t have Colin’s skills of persuasion or stunning beauty and remain lonely for long. I’m not immune to his charms, but he has never given me more than a passing glance. I’ve always just been another one of Lily’s friends to him. So what was last night?
I walk down the hallway from my classroom until I push through the doors outside. I always eat my lunch on the bench under the trees when the weather is nice. Taking a moment to just relax, I lean my head back and close my eyes. I love how the remaining leaves play with the light on my eyelids. It’s always so quiet out here, I’m able to breathe.
“May I join you?” The deep, familiar voice makes me jump.
“Fucking shit balls!” My eyes fly open and I gaze into two eyes the color of the ocean. They are rimmed in laughter.
“My goodness, Miss Emerson. The language policies must have changed since I was here.” What is he doing here?
“Colin! How did you find me?” He’s still standing, so I motion for him to join me. Taking my lunch out of the same Wonder Woman lunchbox I had in elementary, I hand him half of my sandwich automatically.
“Lily mentioned you teach at my old alma mater. I had time on my hands, so I decided to come walk down memory lane. Finding you was just pure luck. Nice lunchbox, by the way.” I stare at him intently for a minute, trying to decide if he is feeding me a line of bullshit.
“Are you feeding me a line of bullshit?” Sometimes, it’s just easiest to ask. I have to slap on his back while he chokes on his bite of sandwich. When he is finally able to breathe again, he looks at me with a scowl.
“You’re not going to let me get away with anything, are you?”
“I’m just trying to outplay the player.” I say it jokingly, but Colin suddenly sobers.
“You think I’m a player? I thought I’ve always been a perfect gentleman around you.”
“Colin, you’ve always been perfectly debonaire around me. But you are a player. You have a different woman every week. You’re the center of the social section in the Kansas City paper. It’s just who you are.” His face runs through the gambit of emotions while he listens, but at the end his eyes narrow as they meet mine.
“Why are you following me in a paper about a city five hundred miles from here?” I have to hand it to him, he’s perceptive. He’s caught me twice now. I need to stop forgetting he’s a top corporate attorney for a reason. At least there is laughter back in his eyes.
“Fruit cup or pudding?” I ask, deflecting. With a smirk, he lets me get away with it.
“Really? Why would you even ask?” I roll my eyes at him as I hand over my chocolate pudding. I watch as he takes his first bite, closing his eyes as a moan escapes his lips.
“That must be some good pudding.” He gets another spoonful and feeds it to me. It’s good, but I’m not sure it’s orgasmic good. If he keeps eating it like a porn star, I’ll make sure I have some with me at all times.
“I really didn’t plan on eating all of your lunch. Can I take you to dinner next time I’m in town?” I’m not sure what his game is. I’m not interested in being another notch on Colin’s bedpost though.
My first real relationship was in college. I fell head over heels for one of my professors. I naively thought we were in love right up until I was approached by his wife. I had, unknowingly, been having an affair for six months with a married man. I was humiliated and heartbroken and swore I would never blindly jump into a relationship again. Of course, Colin doesn’t have relationships. He has one-night stands.
“I don’t know. I’m really not interested in starting anything.”
“It’s just dinner, Maggie. Two friends getting together to share a meal. Nothing more. Wow, who knew you’d want to jump my bones over sharing a pudding,” he teases me with that stunning smile as he bumps me with his shoulder. It would be too easy to fall under his spell, especially since I’m already halfway there. But instead, I square my shoulders before answering him with a resolute spine.
“I’ll think about it. I have to get back to class.” I stand up turning toward the school expecting Colin to follow. He had said he was here to look around. “Didn’t you want to look around?” He smiles at me sheepishly.
“I have to run or I’ll miss my plane.” He starts jogging toward a waiting car in the parking lot. Turning back to me, he yells, “You just wait, Maggie Emerson. I’ll convince you to have dinner with me yet.”
At the car, he waves then ducks inside heading back to his real life. Back to the beautiful fantasies he sleeps with at night. I walk slowly back into the school. I’ve already made up my mind not to see Colin again, not purposely anyway.
