Moving away from East Texas was enough of an adventure for me. I don’t need to mix in dating my first year of college, at least not yet. I’m too busy trying to keep my grades up and focus on school. My dad would be disappointed in me if I came home with bad grades, especially since out-of-state tuition is so high.
But this guy? I might be tempted to at least try if he actually wanted to date me. Which I doubt he would if he saw me in person. He seems like a little bit of a player, and I’m not anything sexy and special, but that’s me just judging his appearance and mine.
He’s sexy—really sexy.
We start being flirtatious, sending messages back and forth, one of them including a selfie of me sitting in my bunk bed. I try hard not to let the Shawn Mendes poster that’s hanging behind my bed show in the image.
Then he asks me to go out. Tomorrow night.
I don’t know what to say, how to say it.
My fingers freeze on the keyboard.
My brain tells me to say no, but my gut screams at me to say yes—with bells on. Maybe it’s not my actualgutscreaming… I try to ignore what it could be and pinch my eyes closed as I type inyes.
* * *
The next night,I’m standing at the back ofMidnight Hour, a club I didn’t think I would ever actually walk into again. My back is against the wall that he told me to stand by. I’m wearing a blue dress that I promised I would be wearing, my hair down, and I’m waiting—alone.
Although he didn’t specify to come alone, I didn’t have anyone to ask to join me. I should have asked my roommate to at least come and dance for safety in numbers. But I am embarrassed to be meeting a stranger, and if he takes one look at me and walks away, I’ll be far too embarrassed for words.
So I’ve come alone. Probably not one of my smartest moves.
My heart races in my chest. It beats so hard that I’m afraid it’s going to actually burst out of my body and land on the ground at my high-heeled feet. My palms are sweaty. My stomach starts to twist and squeeze. I shouldn’t be here. I feel like an absolute fraud.
I’m seconds from walking away—no,running—when I see him.
It’s like the club full of people biblically parts for him. He walks through the crowd with his head held high, his eyes locked in on me, and the entire room disappears. My stomach still squeezes, but it also flip-flops, and butterflies flap their wings inside of it.
He’s better looking in person than in any picture on his social media or selfie—my god. I didn’t think men like this existed outside of television and movies.
He’s tall and built with lean and long muscle stacked on lean and long muscle, that part I know because I saw him shirtless last night. Dark hair and gorgeous eyes that are focused on me and nowhere else.
He stops directly in front of me, his lips curling up into a grin. His eyes search mine silently for a moment. Then he clears his throat.
“Wrenly?” he asks.
“Eli?” I respond on an exhale
He looks behind him, then back to me. I watch as one of his brows arches before he speaks. “Wanna go for a walk? I didn’t think this through at all. It’s loud as fuck in here.”
Smiling, I press my lips together. Because he’s right. It’s loud as fuck in here. I know that walking around outside with a stranger is probably not the smartest decision a girl could make, but my mouth speaks before my mind directs it to say no. And my brain, for whatever reason, completely short-circuits.
“Okay,” I exhale.
His grin turns into a full-fledged smile before he lets out a chuckle.
“Yeah.”
His outstretched hand waits for my palm to slip into his. I accept, and then we casually walk out the back of the club like we’ve known each other for longer than thirty seconds. His hand is warm, his hold firm, as we move down the back of the building and toward the downtown sidewalk.
“I can’t believe you’re real,” I confess once we’re outside and away from the pounding bass of the music in the club.
He laughs softly, then shakes his head once. “Me neither, sunshine.”
“Sunshine?” I ask with a laugh.
I picture someone with bright-blonde hair and blue eyes being called sunshine, not someone like me with long dark hair and green eyes. He’s still holding my hand and gives me a gentle squeeze.
