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Maybe a fruity drink would work for most girls, but Zia was not most girls. I nodded in acknowledgment before heading i
n the direction of the bar as she remained sitting in her place at the table.
Once I approached the bar, I signaled for the bartender. “Can I get a tall rum and coke with a lime, single shot, and a bottle of Dos Equis?”
The bartender nodded in acknowledgment and went to work before handing me the two drinks.
With the drinks in hand, I turned and looked back at Zia, trying to collect every ounce of confidence I could muster before putting one foot in front of the other to put my plan into action.
Here goes nothing!
Zia was looking down blankly at her phone, and as I approached her, she looked up in surprise.
“A tall rum and coke with a lime for the beautiful lady?” I said as I sat the drink in front of her. “Single shot, of course,” I added.
“Thank you. How did you know?” she asked, confused.
I sat back down at the table, beside her now instead of across. “I pay attention,” I answered. “I didn’t think a fruity drink would do for the girl I had in mind tonight,” I said as I looked straight into her eyes.
Zia looked confused. “Are you waiting on someone who isn’t here yet?” She looked around as though someone else might appear.
“No, Zia. She’s sitting right here in front of me.” This time I did grab her hands and angled her to face me directly, vying for her full attention. “It’s always been you,” I confessed, already feeling as though a weight had been lifted off me.
“Me? I don’t understand.” She was not going to make this easy on me. I began to worry that maybe this was her way of giving me an out.
But by that point, I was all in. It was all or nothing, so I persisted. “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.”
At the drool remark, she laughed as the blood pooled in her cheeks, tinting her in the most beautiful shade of crimson.
I didn’t stop there. “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.”
I let go of her hands just long enough to move my chair closer to her, then took them back in mine, squeezing them tightly as though afraid she might slip through them if I let go. “It’s you, Zia.”
Then I sat and waited for her response. She said nothing, but a single tear escaped and trailed down her cheek. I let go of one hand just long enough to gently wipe it away, preparing myself for the worst.
Finally, she spoke. “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.”
“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 wanted to be a regret you’d look back on,” I explained.
She had not run for the hills yet, which I took as a good sign.
“Me?” she asked again in disbelief.
“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.”
I was not used to being this vulnerable, and it scared the hell out of me. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could endure.
“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,” she finally admitted.
There was a long pause as I looked into her eyes, searching for the confirmation I needed that she meant the words I’d been hoping to hear.
Finally, I could not hold back another moment. My hand touched her cheek, and I did what I’d been longing to do since the moment we had met. I leaned in closely, not even a moment’s hesitation, as my lips found hers.
I finally had the answers that had eluded me for weeks. She didn’t push me away or slap me across the face. She didn’t sit motionless while my kiss unwantedly assaulted her.
Instead, my lips were met with warmth, reciprocation, and passion. I could feel it spread from the small point of contact all the way through my entire nervous system as every synapse fired a chain reaction throughout my body. They fired again when I felt her lean into it even more.
She wanted this, too.
