Meeting

He walks out of the locker room after I had placed myself conveniently on his path to leave. I had wanted to see him, but as I am putting everything in my gym bag I realize my mistake and notice the shirt with his name, that I had acquired through shady means, lying right on top. I try to pretend it's not there as he walks right behind me and gives me a smile. I put my clothes back on top of the shirt after he has taken a couple more steps and move onto adding layers to the opposite side when I see in my peripheral that he has stopped. I look up at him. He's still facing away but it's almost like I can see his thoughts as he realizes he saw his name and wonders if it was a trick of the light or real. I have almost got my bag repacked after pulling my book out from the absolute bottom.

He turns and I look down to pretend I hadn't been watching him. He says, "Hey, Sam," and walks back to the other side of the table to stand. We both look at my bag as I place the last hoody on top.

"Yeah?" I look up with a smile.

His face says he doesn't want to ask but he's too curious not to. "Did I just see something with my name on it?"

I look down as I zip the bag up. "I'm sorry?" I feign ignorance.

He can tell I'm going to be obtuse because he knows me like that. "In your bag. Is there something with my name in your bag?" He isn't upset, just mildly annoyed.

I keep my answers slow in coming so my bag is on my shoulder and I walk around the table before answering him. "Why Jeff, why would there be?" I touch his arm and look up at him from right at his side. He gets flustered then, I see it in the way he looks at my hand, then my face, and down the hall. I smile in my girliest fashion without literally fluttering my eyelashes.

He responds with, "Must be seeing things. Sorry Sam, long day."

I take a few steps and he follows. "I understand. It was a relief to know I was leaving, but I've still got work to do tonight at some point." I hold up the book I had pulled from my bag.

He looks down at it as we get to the double doors which he holds open for me. "Looks like a boring night for you."

We are outside now. We cross to the cars in the lot ahead of us. Luckily my car is directly ahead so I can continue our conversation by stopping him next to it. "I don't look forward to it, but it won't be a completely boring night because me and a couple others will be going out before I get to it. That's why I showered here today since I normally don't." That makes him look up at my still wet hair. I see something flicker in his eye.

"Well I guess I had better get going. Have fun tonight. Sorry about the name thing."

I stop him before he can turn away with a hand on his arm again. He looks down at it as I lean up and kiss his cheek. "No harm done. Got a nice chat out of it didn't I?"

Amazingly he doesn't run screaming at the peck to the cheek and looks at me with new eyes. "Yeah I guess you're right." His hand goes to his cheek for a second without thought as his eyes glaze for a second as he looks into the distance.

I smile and open my back door to put my bag in. As it's only a slight lean in I am happily surprised to note him checking out my butt. He almost guiltily looks back to my face and my smile gets bigger. I lean against the now closed door and look him up and down. "You didn't say what you were doing tonight."

That causes him to flush as my tone suggests what could only be taken as flirting. "Uh yeah... well I... Uh..." his speech is stilted and he seems more nervous all of a sudden, like I might ask him out.

So I do what he won't. "Jeff?" He looks straight into my eyes and I hope I'm reading his interest right. "I know you won't ask me out because I'm already doing something tonight," he sucks in a shocked breath as I say this, "but would you like to join us tonight? We're mostly just driving but that should be fun."

I can see he won't be responding, either out of shock or thinking he was taking advantage, so I grab his hand. He seems to come back to himself. "Uh yeah. Yeah okay." His grin turns more confident. "That sounds like fun. Should I meet you or..."

I smile. This is way better than I had hoped. "Come to my place. We'll drive over to meet everyone after."

He smiles and touches my hand on his arm.

Oops. Forgot that was there.

"I'll see you soon."

I nearly flutter away on a cloud.