Walking across the quad, Connor London couldn’t believe his luck. The girl form a week ago- the one who didn’t like the rain, was sitting on one of the park benches.

“Listen, Layla, I have to go. I see a friend I want to say hi to.” He started to walk away from Layla Cullen-Vazquez, but she stopped him.

“What friend? Where are you going?”

Connor glanced at Layla. She was a beautiful girl, but had serious attachment issues. “Layla, you don’t know her. I’ll see you later. Okay?” Connor didn’t wait for her to respond before making his way across the park.

He stopped a few feet away to watch as she tilted her head up to catch the sunlight and closed her eyes. Her hair caught in a stray breeze and flowed around her body. He loved long hair and it looked fantastic on her.

“Is this seat taken?”

Her eyes flew open and Connor was suddenly looking down into the deepest brown eyes he’d ever seen. Even her eyes were beautiful.

“Umm, no. No, it’s not. Please, have a seat, I was just leaving.” She started to get up but he stopped her.

“Don’t leave on my account. Stay, enjoy the sun, I promise not to bother you. I can even sit somewhere else if you’d like.” He really hoped she wouldn’t ask him to sit somewhere else. That would kind of defeat the whole purpose.

“No, sit down. I don’t have anywhere to be, I can stay.”

She murmured something else that sounded like, “Shut up.”

“I’m sorry. What?” Connor looked at her in confusion. He hadn’t even said anything! Maybe he’d read her wrong. At the firehouse, she’d seemed just nervous enough for him to think she was attracted to him.

“What? Nothing, not you. Sorry, talking to myself.”

Smart, pretty, and talks to herself? As Connor stared, she started to blush and fidgeted with her hair. So cute.

“What? What did I do now?”

He laughed and sat down, shaking his head. He just got caught staring at her. She would just have to get used to it. He couldn’t keep his eyes off of her.

“Nothing, I just wanted to make sure you were okay with me sitting here.” He put down a baseball bat, a softball, a soccer ball, football, and a basketball.

“Wow that’s a lot of sports equipment. Are you planning to use all of those today?”

Smiling, Connor said, “Yeah, well, I gotta stay fit, you know. And I volunteer with the boys and girls club.”

She laughed, “Wow, you’re like the perfect guy – educated firefighter with a heart of gold. What don’t you do?”

Wow. She had an incredible laugh. He made a mental note to say and do more things to make her laugh. Pretending to be hurt by her comment, he asked, “Why do I feel like you’re less than impressed?”

“Well, it’s not that I’m not impressed – I am,” she said. “It’s just, that’s a lot of stuff to carry around. Aren’t they heavy?”

“Pretty, smart and observant – I like that.” He winked at her. “I’m dropping these things off. And they were in my car five minutes ago. I haven’t been walking around with them.”

He paused, a slow grin spreading across his face, “You think I’m the perfect guy, huh?”

Instead of responding or flirting back, she started to pack up her things. “I need to get going. I have, stuff, to do. It was nice seeing you again.”

As he watched her, he tried to think of what he’d said to upset her and more importantly, what he could say to make her stay.

She stood up, tilted her head and said, “Damn. You better hurry up; it’s going to start raining in a bit.”

Connor looked up at the clear, blue sky. “What? It’s a beautiful spring day.” When he looked back down, she was pulling her bag strap over her shoulder.

“Trust me. It’s going to rain. See you later.”

She looked so sure. “Promise?”

“What?” A look of confusion crossed her face.

“You said see you later. Can I hold you to that?” He asked with a straight face. He would definitely see her later.

“It’s just an expression, like goodbye.” Connor just looked at her, waiting for her answer. He didn’t care how she meant it. He liked her and he was going to make sure that they ran into each other again. Obviously, she wasn’t used to someone as aggressive as he could be, but he didn’t care about that either. He wanted her.

“Ok, sure, I guess,” she said. He smiled. Just what he wanted to hear. “I’m leaving now.”

“Bye pretty girl,” he said, winking at her. He watched as she hurried off.

Frowning, he realized he still didn’t know her name. It didn’t matter, he’d see her again soon. She glanced back at him and he smiled and gave her a little wave. She turned around quickly and headed straight for the Humanities building.

Yeah, she was a keeper.

Back to the Story