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Night school had been going pretty well for me. Most of it just seemed to be refreshers of things that I’d learned before and just hadn't studied in a long time. Because of that, I found myself daydreaming sometimes, but I still made sure to pay attention because I didn't want to miss anything. Each teacher had taken time to go over the format of their section of the test. Most of it was multiple choice, but we were told not to let that fool us into thinking that it was going to be easy. Since we were covering so many subjects, our brains were really put to the test each night.
There was a 10-minute break between each class that I felt like we probably could have done without. Don't get me wrong, it was nice to have the break, but I felt like if we didn't waste so much time we all could have gotten out of there a lot earlier each night. While on one of the breaks, I headed to the main office to see how Adia was doing. I tried not to stop in too often, but a lot of my breaks ended up with me heading there to spark a quick conversation.
I headed to the office and spotted Adia as I walked in. She was sitting behind the main desk.
“Hey Adia,” I said as I stepped closer. I smiled at her and realized that I’d caught her eating
She finished chewing and swallowing then used her napkin to wipe her mouth. “Sorry about that.”
“No problem,” I said. “I should have noticed you were grubbing. It smelled good by the way. Did you cook it yourself?”
Adia shook her head. “No, my roommate cooked it, but it tastes really good,” she said. “So what brings you here? Did you need something?”
“Damn, I can’t just stop by and say hello?” I asked in a playful way. “I wanted to ask about your car.”
She put the container on her food and stood up. “Oh, so you were one of those students who spent all their time in the main office, huh?” she asked.
I saw an opportunity so I went for it. I shook my head. “Nah, nobody in the office looked liked you when I was in school,” I said flirtatiously.
Color rushed to her brown skinned face and she smiled a bit. “Anyway,” she said with a nervous laugh, “my car is fine. I was right about it being the spark plug. The guys in the auto shop fixed it up for me.”
“Wow, that was nice of them,” I commented.
She shrugged. “They get credit for doing outside projects. Plus, I end up throwing them a little money under the table for helping me out.”
“That’s really nice of you,” I said. The stuff that Leo told me the other night was still on my mind. I wanted to see if it was true so I went on. “What’d your roommate make? It smells like it’s on point. She must be a chef or something.”
“Actually, my roommate is a he,” Adia corrected me. “And funny enough, he is a chef. This was some stuffed chicken breast with asparagus. It was really good.”
I tried not to show my annoyance over Leo being right. “A chef? That’s really cool,” I said.
“Yeah it is,” she said. “He’s not famous or anything but he has a pretty good following. He’s always trying to make new things ,and I get to sample most of it.”
“Oh wow. You must not go out to eat too often then?” I asked. I’d had every intention on asking Adia out and I figured that dinner would be a simple and easy first date, but it looked like those ideas had been shot down. I couldn’t take her out to a restaurant when she was living with a real life chef. Nothing would compare.
She shook her head. “No, not really,” she said. Something in her eyes changed when she looked up at me again. “But there are other things that I like to do,” she said flirtatiously.
I figured that that was my opening. I knew that I hadn’t been imagining the feelings between us. “Like what?” I asked. I leaned over the counter next to her.
Adia looked like she was ready to speak when the loud chime of the bell, signaling that it was time for the next class, began. “Well, we’ll have to finish this up some other time.”
I was disappointed. “Just tell me real quick,” I suggested.
“Trust me, it’s worth the wait,” she said. She playfully waved her hands at me, dismissing me. I walked out of the office, but before I left I had to turn around to take another look at her. I was glad to see that she’d been watching me walk away. I was even more intrigued by her than before.