And my plan works like a charm. I see Jaxon standing behind the front counter, reading something on a clipboard. He’s not looking in my direction, so I keep walking and venture into another store. I only spend about five minutes and then I walk back down the sidewalk.
This time, he looks up and sees me. Our eyes meet through the large windows, and I stop and look confused, and surprised, and then I smile.
I wave at him as if this is just a totally random coincidence that we’ve seen each other. Deep down I feel a little stupid, honestly, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do. I didn’t get Jaxon’s number yesterday, so I can’t exactly text him and see if he lost my number.
I start to walk slowly away, but then Jaxon waves for me to come inside. Phew. I was afraid this little smile exchange was all we’d get.
I step into the clinic, happy that the waiting room is empty, although it does kind of smell like dog in here.
“Hey,” I say, walking up to the counter.
“You stalking me?” Jaxon says, but he’s smiling so I know he’s just playing around.
I scoff. “Clearly you’re stalking me. You decided to get a job right next to where I buy my nail polish.”
He laughs at this. “Dang, you figured out my plan.”
I mentally assess the situation. He seems happy to see me, and he’s all smiles, and he’s just as cute as before. So why didn’t he text me all day? Why didn’t he look for me at lunch?
“So…” I say, trying to sound friendly and not desperate. “You never texted me.”
He leans on his elbows, making us eye level. “Maybe I didn’t know what to say.”
“I was thinking you lost my number or something.”
“Nope,” he says, glancing at his clipboard. “I wrote it down.”
“Cool.” Nervousness takes over, and I’m actually a little self-conscious now that I’m in his presence. “You could have just said, like, hello.”
“That’s boring,” he says.
I roll my eyes. “Okay, well you could have texted me and asked me to see a movie or something.”
His lips slide into a coy smile. “Are you asking me out?”
I really hope I’m not blushing right now. “Nope. I’m telling you what you could say to me.”
“So I should text you and ask if you want to see a movie?”
I give a little shrug. This is going exactly how I planned. “If you want to.”
He smiles warmly, and then a door off to the side opens and a middle-aged woman in scrubs calls Jaxon’s name.
“Give me a hand, will you?”
“Gotta go,” Jaxon says.
“I’ll see you later,” I say. While he goes back to work, I head to my car and realize something very annoying.
He talked about it, but he didn’t actually ask me out.
Chapter 6
I’m deciding how desperately I want to be in this adventure. After I got home yesterday, I realized that pretending to run into Jaxon at work was probably the most pathetic thing I’ve ever done. I usually want theguyto be chasing afterme, not the other way around. I am totally embarrassed, and to make matters worse, I left yesterday without solidifying any future plans with him.
And it’s been another day and he still hasn’t texted me. I’m feeling like karma is coming to get me for trying to date a guy just to get a guitar.
