I flinched when someone spoke into my ear. Carley. “I know you’re freaking out right now, butyou can do this. Remember, you’ll never see him again.”
I nodded because I couldn’t speak.
“Ask him what his sign is.”
His sign? She’s talking about his Zodiac sign. I’m into that. Well, we’re into that. Both Carley and I read our horoscopes every day, and wait one gosh-dang minute. Turning to face her, I asked, “Did you read my horoscope today?”
Carley smirks. “Of course.”
Now it all made perfect sense. The reason she was dragging me out here today. The urgency was because my stupid horoscope said something about romance and taking risks. “Carley….” I practically growled her name.
“What?” She looked a little surprised by my reaction. “This is meant to be. The stars say so. Now go.” She touched my shoulder and gave me a gentle shove. “Go.And if you don’t want to ask him his sign, use one of those pickup lines you read about.”
Oh, right. One of the other times she’s tried this, I prepared by looking up cute things to say when you first meet someone. I paused for a moment to think. Sure, some of them were pretty raunchy, but there were a few I really liked. I even wrote one of my own. One that fits me perfectly.
“Right.” I nodded and took a more self-assured step toward the man. The closer I got to him, the more I realized he was aman. He’s definitely not a boy like so many of the guys, the nerds, I take classes with.
When I was less than a foot away from him, I looked down at his feet. He was wearing dress shoes. Nice ones. I could also see from here that his pants were black, the same color as his dress shirt. Taking a small step closer, I leaned in, closed my eyes, and took a whiff.
Yes, I realize that was probably weird to smell him, but I had to know.
Answer? He smelled good.Verygood. Like musk and spice.
Before I could lose my nerve, I reached up and, with my pointer finger and tapped him on the shoulder. I watched in slow motion as he turned his head, but he looked above me. So I did what I could to draw his eyes down. I raised my hand and waved in front of his face. It worked. His head tilted down until our eyes met.
Holy shite. His eyes were blue. Probably not as blue as Paul’s but pretty dang blue. I’d categorize them as steel blue. It goes along with his expression, which I’d categorize as a steely gaze. I’d also like you to know that he’s better-looking up close than he was far away, which is saying something, because he was flipping gorgeous from across the room.
Oh, crud. I can’t do this.
It was too much.
I glanced back at Carley. She was leaning against the bar, her left elbow resting on the wooden surface, her right hand on her hip and her expression? If I told you her brow was arched so high it’s nearly at her hairline, would you believe me? Plus, she’s not smiling.
This is it. I have to do it. “No excuses this time, Emma.”
“Huh?” He speaks. It’s too bad I didn’t have time to explain because I did it. With bravery I didn’t know I had, I said what I needed to say. “Do you generate electricity with water through the process of hydropower? Becausedammmmm.”
I did it.
I said it.
I can’t believe it.
Except… time froze. It stood still as he stared at me. He blinked. I had no idea what to do next. I mean, I had no plan after I said what I said. I guess I assumed he’d chuckle, look at me adoringly, then he’d hug me or something.
That’s not what happened.
Instead of the hug I so desperately needed, he blinked some more then said, “Uh… what?”
Ordinarily, when someone asks me a question, I answer it. Correctly. In this case, his ‘What?’ was asking me to repeat my previous statement, which I was hesitant to do.
“Huh?” I gave him a few blinks of my own. When his eyes met mine, I was struck rather dumb. And believe me when I tell you, I’mnotstupid.
“What did you say to me?” he asked again.
Wow, he’s got a nice voice too.The man was the entire package.
Instead of doing what I should––you know… run––I repeated myself. My personalized pickup line. “Isaid,‘Do you generate electricity with water through the process of hydropower? Because dam.’” This time I didn’t emphasize the last word because now that I repeated it, it sounded really stupid. The two guys standing with him must agree because they started laughing.
Great.
Not only that, but the guy I just said those words to smiled, rather smugly, if I were being honest. I watched as the smug smirk on his face morphed into a toothy smile. It’s like he was about to laugh at me too.
I was right. It did change into a laugh. A chuckle, I guess is how I’d describe it. It was mortifying. Suddenly, he wasn’t so good-looking anymore.
Not in the least.
