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When I broke the kiss, I couldn’t restrain the loving smile that had spread widely across my face.
“When did you know?” she breathed.
“Know that I wanted to know you, or know that I wanted to keep you?” I asked.
“Both, I suppose,” she 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 at the table where I forgot my Biology book, 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,” I explained as I held both of her hands again in mine.
“Okay, so then that just leaves when you knew you wanted to keep me,” she pressed further.
“The night that I came by your apartment and we got to talk and got 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.”
Then my thoughts turned serious as I looked down at where our hands were intertwined together. I 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.”
Just thinking of it had me getting angry all over again. I pulled her in for a tight embrace, and just held her momentarily. When I loosened my hold, I pressed another soft kiss to her lips with my arms still circled around her. Zia, in turn, wrapped her arms around my waist.
“What took you so long to say something if you’ve felt this way all this time?” Zia asked, looking expectantly at me.
“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,” I teased with a laugh.
“Hey, now! I was just trying to help,” Zia 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?”
I laughed internally at the way she put it.
“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.” I saddened at the memory and how crushed I had been.
“I see… Dylan, I have no interest in Becker. The truth is, I really never did. He was just someone Clara had been trying to set me up with for a while before you came into the picture, so when I started getting to a point where it was getting harder and harder to ignore my feelings for you, I got desperate for a distraction. So I agreed to go out with him one night a couple weeks ago.”
I laughed and shook my head, relieved. “I’m glad to hear you’re not interested in him. Apparently he’s been known to have a temper. ‘Roid rage, or something. I was going to hate to have to beat up your boyfriend if he ever laid a hand on you,” I said as I brushed a hand down the side of her arm. She thought I was joking. I knew I wasn’t.
She laughed. “Thanks for that. Why are you just now telling me this?” She lightly hit my arm, feigning anger and disbelief. “You were just going to let me figure that out on my own?”
“Would you have listened to me if I had told you?” It was a rhetorical question, as I already knew the answer.
“Well, probably not,” she admitted. “But I’d at least have kept it in the back of my mind so that I could have watched out for the signs.”
Thankfully that was no longer an issue.
We talked and laughed together for another hour or two before I drove Zia home that evening. I walked her up to her apartment and kissed her silly before heading home and texting her for several more hours that night.
As I lay there, feeling like a giddy little school girl, on top of the world, I couldn’t help but recall that first night I had seen her at the Book Shelf. I remembered thinking to myself that Zia was probably just another girl like any other girl I’d been with. I didn’t think there was any point in going out of my way to try to meet her, talk to her, or get to know her.
Then, I recalled that night at my soccer game after seeing her walk away with Becker. I had thought that I could step aside and try to let her be happy with him if that was what she really wanted.
Somehow things had turned around, and I couldn’t believe my luck a
t how it had all finally worked out.
The one thing I could say for all of it: thank God for second thoughts!
EPILOGUE: ZIA
“Oh my God. Get a room, you guys!” Clara joked as Dylan kissed me hello in front of the Student Central Building.
Dylan looked down at me with an innocent chuckle before taking my hand, and the three of us walked into the building together to grab lunch.
