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Dylan continued, “From the first moment I saw you, right here in this bar several weeks ago, to the first moment I heard you speak your name when you sat at the table I had left my Biology book on, to holding you as we salsa danced, to learning the music you love and the coffee shop you spend so much of your time in. From the shape of your beautiful body in a nice pair of yoga pants, to the way you drool in your sleep.”
I couldn’t help but interject a laugh there as he continued, “It’s your smile, and your laugh, and the way you see through to the real me. The way you know exactly what I like, even when I don’t know it myself.”
Dylan moved his chair right beside mine, facing me, still looking me straight in the eyes and holding my hands like he was afraid to let go. “It’s you, Zia.”
A traitorous tear escaped down my cheek, and I was overwhelmed by the pure joy of what I was hearing from those beautiful, magical lips. Dylan let go of my hand just long enough to gently wipe it away from my face. I swear, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say I must have been dreaming.
He was right there in the middle of all those people at the Book Shelf, professing all of these feelings for me as though he didn’t care that anyone heard or saw.
“But the other night, you rejected me. I threw myself at you and you stopped me. I don’t understand how a few days ago you could just walk away when I was baring all my feelings to you like that, and now all of a sudden say that you do have feelings for me.” I just couldn’t wrap my brain around this, and I knew that when things seemed too good to be true, they usually were.
“Zia, you had just had a pretty traumatic experience the night before, and I saw how bad it affected you. What kind of guy would I be if I took advantage of you in the state you were in after that had just happened? I wouldn’t have been any better than Cason. I’m not like that. I respect you and care about you too much to ever do that to you. I never want to be a regret you look back on,” he explained.
Hearing him explain it made total sense. He was being a considerate, caring gentleman, and I was taking it personally, trying to read between the lines and finding things that weren’t there… again.
Finally, after a long moment of silence, I asked him, “Me?”
“For me, Zia, it’s you. But the question is what about you. What do you feel for me? I know that this wasn’t what you signed up for. You thought you were helping me find other girls. I’m just not sure that you ever wanted to be one of them.”
Wow, I couldn’t even fathom that he could question my desire for him, especially after I spilled my guts to him last weekend after the inebriation wore away my inhibitions.
“Dylan, is that even really a question? Do you seriously doubt what my feelings are for you? I realize that I was drunk the other night when I told you how I felt, but that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t true. I meant every word of it. The only thing I didn’t mean was for any of it to come out when I didn’t think you felt anything like that for me,” I admitted to him.
There was a long pause as Dylan looked into my eyes as though he were searching for confirmation there that my words were true.
Finally, Dylan let go of my left hand and touched his right hand to my cheek as he leaned in with those magic lips and kissed me. He kissed me in a way that had me melting right into the chair I sat in. The feel of his tender lips and the way they pressed passionately against mine had my mind reeling and begging
for more.
There we were in the middle of a crowded bar with people around us everywhere, but I couldn’t even care. Suddenly it was like he and I were the only two people in the world. This was the moment I’d been waiting for, a moment I never expected to actually happen. Yet here we were.
When the kiss broke, Dylan smiled the most charming and heart-felt smile at me.
I had to ask, “When did you know?”
“Know that I wanted to know you, or know that I wanted to keep you?” he asked.
“Both, I suppose,” I clarified.
“The night I saw you here, the night you said you first saw me was when I first noticed you. When I saw you again a couple of days later in the Student Central Building on campus at the table I forgot my Biology book sitting at, that was when I first knew that I wanted to know you. Of course when I saw you at the coffee shop later that evening I knew I couldn’t pass up my chance to talk to you,” he explained, now holding both my hands again.
“Okay, so then that just leaves when you knew you wanted to keep me,” I prodded, still afraid to believe what was happening and what he was saying.
“The night that I came by your apartment and we got to talk and get to really know each other a lot better. That was the night I lost the good fight of trying to deny how much I was starting to like you.”
Dylan’s face became serious, and he looked down at where our hands were intertwined together. Then he continued, “But what really sealed the deal for me was the night at Thunder, when I went back to find you because I just couldn’t keep pretending to be interested in all these other girls anymore, when all I really wanted to be doing was talking and being with you.
“I went back to the table and you were gone, so while I waited thinking you had gone to the restroom, I looked over and saw you being carried out by that sick bastard. I saw red. Rage just consumed my entire existence and all I could think of was that I had to protect you. I’ve never been more scared in my life as I was on that drive to the hospital that night.”
Dylan pulled me in for a tight embrace, and after several seconds he loosened his hold but gifted a soft kiss to my lips with his arms still circled around me, my arms clinging around his waist as well.
“What took you so long to say anything if you’ve felt that way for all this time?” I asked, looking up at him expectantly.
“I guess I just wasn’t sure how you would react. I mean, you were going to an awful lot of trouble to pawn me off on all these other girls,” he said teasingly.
“Hey, now! I was just trying to help,” I teased back defensively, then added, “So why didn’t you call or text me after that night last weekend when I tried to drunkenly seduce you?”
“That, I guess you could thank Becker for. I ran into him and some other guys that next morning at the gym, and he was bragging to us about going out with you earlier that week. He said he had plans to hook up with you again soon. And maybe a few other things guys usually say to each other about girls they’re seeing. I guess it caught me off guard, and I figured I didn’t want to stand in your way.” He was all serious again.
