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“Not a chance.” I shake my head and drop my menu, already deciding on the cheeseburger before we even walked in. “We’ve had some great conversations before. I’m sure if you drop the shrill act you’re playing, we can have another.” I lean over to her in a loud whisper. “I brought the blindfold in case you need it.”
“That will not be happening.” She squirms in her seat, proving that I affect her more than she lets on.
I need to get to know her, get her to let me in, and show her I’m not some horrible guy she shouldn’t trust. Those words of advice Alex gave me repeated in my head,Show her you’re not a dickhead.
The waitress comes over and takes our food and drink order, me a light beer and her a martini.
“You said you came from California. Which part?”
To my surprise, she answers, but it’s short and vague.
“All over.”
“I lived in San Jose before we moved to Seattle. Ever live in San Jose?”
“No.” She’s giving me nothing. Our drinks come and hopefully it’ll loosen her up.
“Why Come to Drexton? It’s mostly known for its sports, but you don’t play any, right?”
She takes a long sip from her martini before answering. “They offered me a partial scholarship and they have a good psychology and sociology program. So, I took it.”
“Wow, I thought they only gave out scholarships for the sports programs. You must be really smart.” I’m at a loss for what to say. A little voice is in my head saying, “she’s too smart for you, too good for you.”
“Are you majoring in psychology?” I try my best to recover.
“Social work and minoring in child psychology.”
“Ah, that’s why you were chosen as our tutor. I passed my test, by the way. I found out this morning that I got a B.”
Her eyes light up with the slightest gleam.
“That’s great!” She exclaims, proudly. “I mean, it would look terrible if I tutored you guys, and you failed.”
She won’t admit it, but I can tell she’s proud of me. It’s that brief gleam in her eye, and the small tick at the corner of her lips that gives her away.
“We all passed. Finn and Alex got A’s.”
“Good.” Her shoulders relax with one less thing to worry about.
“Why social work?” I ask as our food comes.
“Are you really that interested? Let’s talk about something else.”
I am interested. I want to know everything about her, but she doesn’t look comfortable talking about it. I take a bite of my burger to think of a new topic.
Once I find a topic she’s the slightest bit interested in, our conversation flows easily. I even get a few laughs from her as we discuss some of our favorite shows again. We have a lot more in common than I thought.
“Have you noticed when professor Jansen thinks she says something funny, she always pushes up her glasses and tries to hide a faint snort by making another noise with her hand or something?”
“Yes!” Kandace agrees, and slams her hand on the table. Ok, maybe she had one too many martinis. I wasn’t stopping her. “Oh my god. How can you not notice that? But if you laugh, you’re laughing at her joke and not at her.” Definitely too many martinis. She’s a little too excited talking about the psych professor we both had, and using her hands to talk way more than normal. It’s cute when she’s pointing at me for no reason, but I should really get her home. “Wow, I forgot she did that. Have you had professor Wright for Oral Communications? I had a serious crush on him my first year. It turned out he’s married and gay.” She shrugs and laughs like it’s the best joke ever, and I’m left here getting jealous of my middle-aged gay professor.
She’s crushing on that guy over me?I am way better looking than Professor Wright. The guy has the worst mustache in need of a good trim. I heard he used to play hockey for Drexton back in his day, but those sweater vests he wears aren’t giving him sexy hunk vibes.
Is that her thing? Sweater vests?
She sighs, a tiny flush appearing on her cheeks, as her foot brushes up against my inner calf. I need to get her home before she does something she’ll regret later, and hates me even more than she already does for acting on it.
Clearing my throat, I signal to the waitress for a check.
