Page 30 of Finding My Charming

“Oh? Very interesting. I expected him to be harder to track down.”

“Me too. I guess he’s not all that mysterious.” I shrugged and logged into my computer. As easy as Dad had been on me, I was pretty sure he actually expected me to work and not sit and gossip with Sherrie all day.

“Or you were enough to lure him out.”

I doubted that was the reason. Maybe these guys were just curious about the crazy girl that was contacting them.

Wyatt was one of the few guys I actually remembered interacting with, but this still was going to be so weird. I’d never asked a guy out, and I’m sure that’s what it was going to seem like to him. He probably assumed I was crazy for hunting him down.

I couldn’t figure out why he agreed to meet me.

by the time i found a parking spot and walked into Ben’s, I was five minutes late. I hated being late, especially when someone was waiting for me. I’d been so focused on coming up with an apology I almost missed Wyatt waving at me from a table near the back. He had two cups sitting on the table, so I made my way to him and bypassed the line at the counter.

Wyatt stood and stepped toward me. He looked like I remembered, luckily: on the taller side with short blond hair and those amazing gray eyes. Their darkness contrasted with his light skin, making him even more handsome than I remember, plus his wide smile.

“Elise. Good to see you again.” He didn’t seem to think this was as weird as I did.

“Hi, Wyatt. Thanks for meeting me.”

He pulled out my chair and gestured for me to sit. Manners? Check.

“I was really surprised when you messaged me, but I have to admit… I’m really glad you did.”

“You are?” I was barely able to pay attention to what he was saying. Those eyes! If I were a poet, I would write a whole book of poems just about his eyes.

“Yeah! I know we didn’t get to talk much at the party, but my friend Paul said he knew you. I guess you guys had a few classes together.”

I quickly ran through the few Paul’s I knew, trying to get on the same page. Paul Minik? Paul Stein?

“Paul Albom.” He instantly cleared up the confusion that must have shown on my face.

“Oh right! Yeah, we had a few of the same classes last year.” I smiled but internally groaned. Why did it have to be that one? Paul Albom was the slacker type who hung around with other slackers and did who knew what, instead of showing up to class. He’d been caught cheating off my test once and had almost earned me detention for it. Great kid to be friends with.

“He said you were cool.” Cool? We weren’t even friends.

“Right… So what school did you go to?”

He blinked a few times as if the question caught him off guard. “Um… Botts?”

“Oh.” It seemed more of a question in the way he said it than an answer and set off an alarm in my mind.

“I was only there for the last year though.” He looked down at his drink, obviously avoiding my gaze.

Botts High School. Now it made sense. No one really called it that. It was usually called Pots, where the troubled kids went after they got caught in possession of pot, failed out of their classes, or did some other unmentionable deed. It was not a place a guy would normally admit to attending.

“Oh.” It was the only word I could think of.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have mentioned that. You probably think I’m some junkie or something now.”

I shook my head but felt guilty. That’s exactly what I was thinking.

“Paul and I met when we were getting clean. I’m good now.”

Too much information. Way too much.

“Good.” I sipped on the tea he’d purchased for me and looked around for a good topic change. “So, what are you up to now?”

“I’m working at a radio station, KROK. It’s really cool.” He seemed back to his cheerful self now that we were onto a new topic.