The Caffeine Fix

CHAPTER 5

The club had a lot of colourful neon lights and loud party music with girls and boys dancing about, drunk. Most of the crowd consisted of young college students, spending their weekends going wild after a serious week of studying. Tyla and Matt sat at the bar enjoying the scene.

"Wrong choice, eh….?" He asked, shaking his glass of Martini, while scanning the crowd of wild college students.

"I guess it's fine!" Tyla shouted, her voice being a quiet and low one.

She took a quiet sip of her whiskey. She was always very conscious around him and tonight was no different.

"No, I mean, not the best place to catch up and talk."

"Especially not on a Saturday."

"Shall we leave after this?" He shook his glass to indicate the drink.

"Ah, okay….." She was definitely keen to get out of this loud place and actually have a proper chat with Matt.

After the drinks, they walked about the pavement. The street was busier than usual, it being the weekend. They talked of their days in high school and about their current lives. 

"Oh, so working in a cafe in Los Angeles certainly has its perks, huh? You get to meet celebrities." Matt said, upon hearing Tyla's encounter with celebrities including the recent one with Patrick James.

"Yup, even the ones you don't recognize." Tyla replied, smiling at herself thinking about Patrick James.

"So, um, anyway, are you, like, seeing someone?" 

Tyla froze. Why was he asking this question? Did he finally want to move things forward with her? Was he breaking his policy? But wait, does she still have the same feelings for him? A lot of questions filled her head at this one question. On second thoughts, he could simply be asking her the question out of curiosity, since they hardly had any idea about each other's lives, especially dating lives the whole time. The last time they met, he was dating a colleague and she was pretty neutral about it. She had been neutral since a long time whenever he dated someone but…..maybe not so much on the inside. Feelings long gone perhaps….. but still some of it existed somewhere maybe, she thought. But what would she do if he did ask her out? Maybe she would ask for some time?

"Hey…..what are you thinking?" His words brought her back to reality.

"Uhm, actually, no….how about you?" The question whose answer she didn't really want to know popped out of her mouth.

"Me neither." 

She started feeling nervous and sweaty. So, does this mean he was thinking about "them"? Is this what he wanted to talk about?

"What about that girl you were dating the last time we met? Your colleague?" She asked it out of genuine curiosity as well as a need to avoid her increasing tension.

"Well, we went out on a few dates but didn't quite feel it, you know?"

Tyla nodded in agreement. She thought of the time when Matt said that he didn't feel the same way for her when she confessed her feelings for him when he said "didn't quite feel it". Subsequently, she thought about how he told her a week later that maybe things could have progressed between them, if she hadn't been such a good friend. Maybe he would have thought about giving them a chance, though he didn't feel anything for her. But, he had a strict "no dating friends" policy to never ruin his precious friendships. Would he ever be willing to break it, was what Tyla and their other friends often thought. He had never broken it even once. Would that change?

"So….I was wondering…..I have been single for a long time now…..anyone you could set me up with?" 

Tyla felt like a balloon burst with a needle. All of the anxiety and nervousness and anticipation was fizzled out in one second.

"Ah well….." Though she was disappointed, she was somewhat relieved too from the pressure of being asked out by him. Perhaps she didn't feel as much for him anymore and it was hopefully decreasing each day. Her mind immediately went over to Nancy, who other than an occasional kiss or a hookup, was actually very single. Also, she did call Matt 'cute' when she saw his pictures with Tyla.

"Well, there is someone, remember my roommate, Nancy? I had shown you her pictures, I suppose…..I wanted her to come along the last time you and I caught up but she was recovering from a breakup. We were still new here. Since then, she has been pretty single. Now that I think about it, she has been single for a long time too."

"Ah, yeah, Nancy. Okay, she is really hot. I did stalk her social media for a while after you showed me her pictures. Can't believe she's single though."

"Yeah, it's hard to believe. She is a nice girl though, but has a hard time trusting people after her last breakup. But yeah, I know she desires to have a love story. But don't worry, she wouldn't rush in any way."

"Well, perfect. I would love to go out with her sometime."

"I'll talk to her, maybe you can go tomorrow?"

"Well, that's fast."

"Come on, it's just a first date. However, if things do progress, it would become a long distance thing. That's a concern."

"Well, we can at least try. I mean, the long distance relationship part comes after we like each other, right? That doesn't mean we cannot explore a bit."

"That's completely up to you. I am only the matchmaker here." Tyla chuckled.

"Yeah, right. Let's see. She should agree to go out with me though."

"I guess she will. To encourage you, she did call you 'cute' when she saw our pictures."

"Well, that's good to know."

"Or yeah, I can call her up and ask her where she is so we can show up there." She chuckled.

"Oh no! Not like this. I would like to make a better first impression than this." He smiled.

"Sure thing." She smiled.

"Let's go, have some more drinks, in a different club though." Both laughed.