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“Do you want some coffee with all that sugar?”
I was momentarily distracted. It was the first time he smiled at me, an amused smirk crossing his face as he watched me. And I was staring. Like an idiot. Alarm bells went off in my head as he made eye contact with me. Stop. Freaking. Staring!
My eyes widened and dropped to my coffee. “I, uh, like it sweet.”
“Are you afraid of me?” His voice was low but not annoyed. He sounded concerned. I shook my head quickly. He reached across the table, lifting my face with a knuckle under my chin. When he raised one eyebrow, I fought the urge to drop my eyes again.
“I haven’t been out with a guy since high school,” I blurted. Oh come on! He didn’t need to know that! His hand dropped back to the table.
“I find that hard to believe.”
My mouth dropped open. He didn’t believe me? What kind of romance anime did I fall into? Oh my god, am I dreaming? Is that what this is? I tried to subtly pinch my leg, rubbing the sting when I didn’t succeed in waking myself up.
“Why do you say that?”
He didn’t answer, taking a drink of his coffee as his eyes scanned the room. A habit from being a bodyguard, maybe? I thought about changing the subject but I really didn’t know what to say. Awkward might as well be my middle name at this point in my life.
“The guy at the student center said you were looking for me. Why?”
“Because I wanted to ask you out.”
ChapterTwo
Holy crap,this guy is straightforward. I jiggled my leg anxiously. “Why?” I was getting repetitive but I was really confused why someone like him would be interested in someone like me.
He regarded me thoughtfully before shrugging again. We were getting nowhere fast with this conversation. I decided to move on to safer ground.
“That girl, the one from the exam. Is she okay?”
“What do you mean?”
I hesitated. Was I not supposed to ask about his job or something? I didn’t really have a problem with what he did, I tried not to judge people on rumors. I don’t know what the mafia actually does so I can’t really say what they do is wrong and avoid them.
“She had bruises on her face.”
“Ah. She had a run in with some bad people. She’s okay, she’s at home resting.”
I nodded and the conversation fell into another lull. I was about to suggest that we leave when he finally spoke.
“How did the rest of your exams go?”
I shrugged. “Fine, I guess. I only had two. The rest of my finals were all projects and I handed those in early.”
He shifted forward, resting his arms on the table. “What kind of projects?”
I pursed my lips. I hate this part. Guys find out I’m in the STEM program and immediately start with the mansplaining and telling me how hard I will have it as a female in a male dominated field. I felt my shoulders go up.
“I’m a computer science major, they were programming projects.”
His eyebrows flew up. “Computer science? That’s impressive.”
Once again, he caught me off guard with a response I wasn’t expecting. It certainly kept me on my toes but I felt a little disoriented. I was still waiting for this all to fall apart.
“What do you plan to do after you graduate?”
“Well… I want to be a programmer, I like making new programs. It probably won’t be easy to find a job fresh out of college but I’ve been working on projects on my own on the side so I can show the companies what I can do.”
The conversation kept going from there, finally pulling free from the awkward tension. I talked about my side projects and my love for video games. He has never played a video game before, which blew my mind. I invited him over to play without really thinking about what it meant to invite a guy to my place. I felt my cheeks burn.
