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“You're not seeing anyone right now, are you?”
I tried not to stop what I was doing abruptly, but his question caught me off guard. How was I supposed to respond considering the mess going on with Emerson and the scars left over from Andrew? Sure, Garrett seemed like a really nice guy, and let’s not forget that good-looking aspect, but there was no way I was going to get into anything at the moment. I had too many unresolved emotions. Still, it wouldn't be been right to lie to him either. “No, I'm not—but I'm not looking to, either. Things are… complicated. And I'm way too busy for anything like that.”
“Oh, no, no, I wasn't trying to suggest anything,” he said hurriedly.
“Oh. Alright.”
“I was just asking,” he said with a warm smile. “Because if you had a boyfriend, I wouldn't want him to get upset about you hanging out with guy friends, like me. I know some guys get super jealous about any guy their girlfriend is hanging out with, even nice, harmless gentlemen like me.”
“Oh,” I mumbled, feeling as if I had totally overreacted to his question. “No, no need to worry about that. There's no man in my life to cause any trouble if we want to hang out as friends.”
“Yeah,” he said with a big smile. “Friends. So, remember I bought those tickets from you for the film festival? Well, my buddy who was gonna go with me bailed. And that's next weekend, right?”
“Yeah, next weekend.”
“Right, so that means I've got this spare ticket.”
“Uh-huh.” I could already see where he was going.
“And was wondering if you wanted to go with me? Just as friends, of course.”
“As friends, huh?”
“Totally as friends.” He flashed me another one of those smiles.
It seemed innocent enough, but I had to wonder if there was more to it. I gave him the benefit of a doubt. “Alright,” I said. “Sounds good.”
“Excellent. So, next weekend then, after your RAG trip. You are going on that RAG trip, right?”
The RAG group had organized a four-day trip for the coming week since there would be a long weekend because of a holiday. We would be visiting some underprivileged communities in the surrounding areas to help set up organic gardens so they could grow their own food.
“Yeah, I am,” I replied. “How'd you know about that?”
“Oh, I just overheard some people talking about it.”55555555555
“Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it, actually. We're leaving tomorrow morning.”
“Awesome. I'm sure you guys will do a lot of good work.”
“I sure hope so.”
“Cool. Well, I'll see you next week when you're back. Enjoy the trip!”
“I will! See you then.”
He waved goodbye and then walked out of the lab, still wearing that strange smile on his face.
***
I returned from my RAG trip feeling pretty good—exhausted, but good. I'd stayed so busy during the trip that I hadn't really had much time to do anything other than work hard and sleep. We had risen early every morning and gone to bed late every night. I'd been dead tired by the end of each day, so there hadn't been any time to sit and stew over Emerson—who still hadn't called me or even texted. But in some ways, that was good for me. I returned feeling a renewed sense of focus, and my first class after the break was chemistry. That meant seeing Garrett.
“Hey,” he said with a warm smile when I sat down next to him. “How was your trip?”
“It was great!” I responded, happy to have someone enthusiastic to talk to about it.
“Awesome! I bet you helped a lot of people.”
“I sure hope we did. I learned so much, too. It was a rather empowering experience, overall. I'm so glad I did it.”
