When she turned her attention to the person she hadn’t realized had fallen into step with her, she came face to face with Amy. She couldn’t remember the last time she'd seen the other woman, but she knew it was before she’d confessed her attraction to Avian by attempting to kiss her. Eri knew Avian had seen her after the fact because they had a class together, but they hadn’t spoken. She could only think of one reason the other woman would be approaching her now.
“Yeah,” she responded, coming to a stop. “What’s up?”
“I’m Amy. Avian and I had a couple of classes together.”
“I know.”
“Um, right. I saw on social media that she got married, and I… wanted to give her this.” She held up a gift bag, which Eri eyed skeptically. “But I don’t want to make her uncomfortable after our last…conversation. Could you give it to her, please?”
Her first thought was to say no because she didn’t know what was in that bag, and like with Deborah, she didn’t want her friend to receive anything that could upset her. She must have been displaying her thoughts loudly because Amy shook her head.
“It isn’t anything weird.”
“Sure,” Eri replied, taking the bag. “I’ll give it to her.”
“Thanks. See you around.”
After putting her bag in the backseat, she got into her car. Eri moved the decorative tissue in the gift bag aside, trying to see what it was to ensure it wasn’t, as Amy put it, weird. However, whatever it was had been wrapped in wrapping paper too. She thought about opening it but decided to tell Avian who it was from and let her friend choose whether she wanted to open it. She would give it to her when she saw her in a couple of days.
Eri entered her apartment ten minutes later. She put the gift on the side table in her living room to avoid forgetting it before taking her bag into her room. She’d been able to get a jumpstart on the assignments in her syllabus and was a couple of weeks ahead, but she debated working on the next module in one of her classes since she had nothing else to do for the rest of the day.
She was grabbing her textbook, laptop, and tablet when her phone vibrated. Eri checked the caller ID, and a number she wasn’t familiar with flashed across the screen. It was pitiful that butterflies formed in her stomach at the idea of who it was.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Amate.”
Pitiful became pathetic as those wings kicked into overdrive, and Eri felt the need to sit down. What was wrong with her?She’d talked to and dated men and hadn’t felt like this since middle school.
“Hey, Elias.”
“Did you miss me?”
She could hear the smirk in his voice and picture it on that far too attractive face. “You would like that,” she responded.
“Yes, I would.”
His response did not surprise Eri. He was always so honest with her, even when he was being flirtatious. She wasn’t sure if that had been the case with anyone she’d dated before she put it on the back burner.
“How was your first day of classes?” he asked.
Eri went into the living room and set her materials on the table. “It was fine. Most of the classes were spent going over what the semester would bring. How much of our score projects and finals were worth. The usual.”
“How many classes are you taking?”
“I’m taking four and auditing one.”
The class she audited wasn’t a requirement for her major, but she thought it would be beneficial to audit a few business classes while getting her degree. It would be helpful when she wanted to strike out on her own. It also helped that she could ask Avian any finance questions she might have.
“What class are you auditing?”
“It’s a business management class. It’s the last one I need to feel confident opening my own design firm one day.” She paused. “Have you been busy the last few days?”
Eri tried to keep her voice neutral and her question passive, but she wasn’t sure she’d succeeded. She wondered if that was why he hadn’t reached out until now.
“No, not really. I had a couple of tattoos.”
Oh,Eri thought.So he wasn’t busy.
