Hot For Nerd ✓

45 | time

raine
one year and two months later

•

I didn't expect to be spending my twentieth birthday all alone at the bar of a cheese fondue restaurant.

Sipping on a lemonade, I dip another piece of grilled chicken into the pot of melted cheese, swirling it on my fork until it is covered in the gooey substance. I pull it off the fork with my teeth and chew, swallowing and washing it down with more lemonade.

When I first arrived at the restaurant, the waitress at the front smiled at me. Our conversation went a little something like this:

"Hello! Welcome to The Melting Point! How many?"

"Um... table for one, please."

"...one?"

"Yep."

She looks at me with pity. "Unfortunately, the only place we have for one is the bar."

"That's fine."

So here I am, all alone, sipping lemonade at a bar. Sad.

My brother and his fiance are busy preparing for their wedding, which is only three weeks from now, in August. He wanted to come, but I had shooed him off. He was stressed enough already– he didn't need to worry about me. And Lilah was in Texas, visiting her family, and she hadn't been able to drive.

Truth is, I haven't been doing well. I've always had trouble making friends, and over the past year, I've retreated into myself. I am inexplicably alone. The girls at Juiliard are mean to me, and I don't do a damn thing to stop them. I just take it.

After I finish my cheese fondue, I ask for the check. I pull my card out of my wallet and move to set it on the counter, when I hear:

"No dessert? That's not the girl I know."

I freeze. My heart beats raucously in my chest.

He's right behind me. I can feel him. And god, he smells so good. Like maple and wood and so so familiar. I turn on my stool, and there he stands, in the flesh.

Warm brown eyes. Tousled chocolate curls, disheveled in the best way. He still towers over me, broad shouldered and handsome as ever.

He nods to the stool next to me. "Seat taken?"

I'm still frozen in spot. "No," I squeak out.

Sliding on to the stool, he nods casually to the bartender; she blushes, pink tinging her cheeks, and whisks away into the kitchens. A wave of jealousy surges through me, but I guess I should've known by now. Brooding, handsome, and the polite charm. He's like a magnet, and all the ladies are attracted to him.

Arrow. Arrow, Arrow, Arrow. You never know what to expect next with him.

I want to ask him so many questions. But my mind can't get past the shock of seeing after a year. He looks healthier. Happier.

"I know you have questions," he says softly, reading my mind like it's second nature. "And I'll answer them all tomorrow. But for now, let's celebrate your birthday."

He remembered. Of course he did.

"You remembered?"

"I could never forget."

"You'll be here tomorrow?"

"And every day after," is his response.

Here come the butterflies. It's not a new feeling. It's like hanging out with old friends.