“So, did you call her?” Vic asked me as he walked into the living room where I was watching TV. I automatically knew he was talking about Sarah.

“I wasn’t planning on calling her Vic,” I said not even looking away from the TV “It was a one time thing, not gonna happen,”

“Then why is the napkin with her number still?” damnit how did he know? “Dude just call her, literally you lose nothing… who knows maybe you’ll get to fuck her this time,” Vic added in attempts to convince me and in all reality I didn’t need to be convinced. A part of me was so drawn to her, especially after she rejected me. I sighed and removed the napkin from my pocket and typed in her number.

Me: “hey it’s mike,” Sent. Now I just needed a response.

Sarah: “Wow, gotta say I did not expect to hear from you but hey to you too"
Me: "You've no faith in me then?"
Sarah: "You did try to get into my pants just last night,"
Me: "Yeah, well let me make it up to you,"
Sarah:“Oh wow, is the player asking me on a date?” Damn she was flirty. I had to admit I was digging her attitude and with every text I felt more drawn into this weird mix of emotions and feelings and to be honest I wasn’t sure of how I felt about it.

Me: "My friend just got engaged and we're going out for some drinks tonight, u interested?"
Sarah: "Isn't that like a little personal though?"
Me: "Nah it's cool,"
Sarah: "Well if u say so, sure"
Me: “Okay, I’ll pick u up at around 10:30,”

---

Tonight’s celebration was going to be quite casual and it was mainly going to be the boys, the girls and a couple of close friends at a bar so there was no need to get fancy. I took a quick shower and debated on shaving but there was very little stubble so there was really no point and so I simply slipped on a pair of ragged jeans, a black and white cut-off tank and my usual black pair of Vans with a snapback. I grabbed my wallet and keys and headed to the parking lot.
When I got there and opened the car, I realized it was a fucking mess. There were boxes of Burger King and Taco Bell wrapping everywhere. Not only that, we'd hot boxed like three nights ago and the pungent smell of weed was overwhelming. After what Alysha did to me, I had sworn of relationships and this had definitely become something more than just a one-night-stand kind of thing, so impressing girls wasn't in my repertoire but I definitely didn't want Sarah to see this mess.
I went back upstairs and grabbed a black trash bag to put all the junk that was all over the car as well as one of those car versions of air fresheners that Vic always bought for his car; this one was ‘Midnight Sea’ and it had a minty yet beachy smell, if you could call it that. I placed it in the air vent and let it run for a while until my car did not smell like rotten fast food mixed with weed.

My phone vibrated and when I looked it was a message from Sarah:

Sarah: "Are we still on or are you ditchin me? ;)"

I immediately responded:

Me: "Hey, I’m kinda tryin to make a good impression here - cleaning up the car. be there in 15"

I placed her address on the GPS and turned up the music loudly; I’d recently made a new playlist and ‘Issues’ songs were dominating the playlist at certain points. The drive to her house was quite calm; for a Friday afternoon, the traffic was beautifully absent and that’s something that I thanked quite a lot and in exactly fifteen minutes, I was parked right in front of her building.
I texted her that I was outside and her response was:

Sarah: "Almost ready. Come up. Code is 908, my apt is 48"

I followed her instructions and once I got to the fourth floor, in front of apartment number forty eight, I rang the doorbell and awaited. The door opened and Sarah smiled at me automatically.

-”Wow, you look...” I said, slightly trailing off. She was wearing a pair of ripped, skin-tight jeans with a flannel-looking belt sustaining it with a simple white tank top, a black leather jacket and a pair of worn out black Converse with her hair tied in a messy bun. She looked at me in expectation which made me realize I hadn’t actually finished my sentence

-"I think the word you're looking for is hot” She said winking at me with a little cheeky smile and then invited me in.

-"That's modest of you," I added as she ran to the back of the living room and into a small hallway yelling from afar that she was getting her purse she said grinning.

-“Alright, let’s go,” she said rushing back to the front door and we headed out

Notes