Great. Date.

“Aleah.”  I faintly heard my name being hissed at me.  Um…

“ALEAH.”  What is going on, I was thinking to myself.  I know I’m not making this up.

I slowly opened my eyes to see the wall in front of me.  I had slept poorly.  I yawned.  Usually I slept on my stomach, but apparently was on my side, facing the wall.  My bed was pushed up against the wall, opposite of Sarah’s.

“ALEAH!”  I jumped and swung my elbow backwards behind me.  “Ow, shit.  Seriously?”

I jerked my face around and looked to see Sarah lying on my bed behind me.  “Ohmygosh, Sarah, I’m so sorry!”  She was rubbing her jaw.  I made a sorry face at her and stuck my lower lip out.

She fake glared at me and then smiled.  “If you’re ever attacked, you’re going to need to learn to hit a little harder.”

“Why are you even up here?”  I rolled over to face her.

“So I was thinking, Elena’s getting married this summer.  Obviously, she’s not going to keep living with us.  We need to find someone else to fill her spot.  Or get stuck with some rando.”

“We should probably ask Madison what she wants to do.  Because if we get another apartment like this, she’ll be the one living with the newbie.  Why did Elena have to go and mess our perfect living situation all up?” I asked half jokingly, half seriously.

“I know, right?”  Sarah laughed.

“That still doesn’t tell me why you crawled up here into my space, yo.”

“I just missed you.”  She grinned at me, and then swung her legs off my bed and hopped up.  I smacked her butt.

“Liar!”

“Breakfast?”

“Yes, please!”  I drug myself out of bed.  I am not a morning person.  It wasn’t even that early.  10:45.  Looks like I had missed my morning class.  Usually an alarm at least goes off on my phone, whether I respond to it or not.  I grabbed my phone off my desk, next to my bed, and looked at it.  My alarm was shut off.  Oops.  I stretched and saw I also had a couple text messages.

Joe:   Hit tomorrow?  (Me: Definitely!)

Sarah: Wake up already  (I just rolled my eyes and laughed.)

Mom:  When can you come home again? (Note to self, respond to her later.)

Luke:  Two words

Luke: You’re

Luke: Awesome

I smiled to myself.  Luke and I had another date last night.  I let myself collapse back down onto my bed and closed my eyes, allowing my thoughts to drift back to last night.

Luke had picked me up from the apartment at 7:30.  He took me to dinner at a basic sit down restaurant.  He apologized, “Sorry we aren’t somewhere nicer… you know, poor college student…”

I shook my head, “Don’t apologize.  Why would you think you’d need to apologize?  I’m just happy to be with you!”

“I just get the feeling you’re highfalutin.”

I busted out laughing.  I literally had a tear fall down my face I was laughing so hard.  I took a deep breath and glanced at Luke.  He was looking at me with a half-smile on his face.  “Whoa!  Excuse me?  What are you talking about?”  I started giggling again.

“You know, highfalutin, like high class, rich…”

I cut him off.  “Stop.  I know what that means.  I just can’t believe you thought that.  Why would you think that?”

“Well, look at how you’re dressed.  Look at what you drive.  Don’t get me wrong… I don’t think you’re too good for me, or anything like that, I just thought you had maybe more expensive tastes in things?”

I tilted my head to the side and squinted my eyes, looking at him.  I drive a 2011 370Z.  I looked down at my shoes and outfit, which probably totals close to $350.  I know that I’m pretty spoiled by my parents.  Even though, I thought I was down to earth and not snobby.  “Luke, I’m sorry I made you feel that way.”

“No!  You didn’t do anything wrong… I just thought maybe you were used to eating filet mignon and caviar every night.”

I laughed again.  “I wish!  I eat more ramen noodles and canned tuna than anything else!  My parents bought me a car for high school graduation.  So cliché, I know.  I have a credit card that they pay the bill to, but I have to turn in all of my receipts to them that I use it for.  I only buy necessities with it, you know, like toiletries, food, gas, and school and tennis supplies, that kind of stuff.  But I try not to buy expensive stuff, hence the ramen noodles and tuna.  They just do it to help build up my credit for the future.  I know I’m blessed.  I really do, and I’m so grateful for my parents.  But that’s also why I work at the Racquet Club.  It’s why I pick up extra shifts.  Because they don’t buy my clothes.  When I go out with friends, I pay with cash that I made.  That’s what I spend my own money on.  I save up for all of this stuff.  I mean, sometimes I do use the credit card for something I’m really wanting, but that’s maybe twice a year.  And I always ask my parents’ permission, first.”

“That is so amazing of your parents.  I wish my parents could afford to do that!  I’m thankful that I got a full ride for basketball, and so everything my parents had saved for college for me, I’m able to use on things I need, or at times like this, to take someone special out for dinner.”  He smiled at me, and then continued.  “So what do your parents do?”

“My dad is a retired Marine Corps officer and an orthopedic surgeon.  He also teaches at the University, but in Omaha.  My mom used to be a nurse, but after my brother and I were born, she became a stay at home mom until Tom entered school.  Then she went back to school so she could teach, and she started teaching nursing classes at the University.  What about your parents?”

“My dad is a construction worker and my mom is a school teacher.  She teaches 7^th graders.”

“That would be hard!  That age is so moody and disrespectful.”

“You should hear some of her stories!” He laughed.  “My dad got into the union when he was really young, and so he makes quite a bit of money now, and since I’m an only child, it’s not like they had a bucket of children to feed.  We were well off, just not…” He looked at me pointedly, “rich.” 

I nodded my head.  I guess I took my family’s money for granted.  But it had never really affected my relationship with Derek, and Zach’s family was just as well off as mine, so I never considered how someone else may feel.  We continued talking and getting to know each other and finished up dinner.  Which was wonderful, might I add.  After, we went to Coldstone to get ice cream.  I love their ice cream.  And, it is never too cold for ice cream.  I got my favorite: cake batter ice cream with raspberries and white chocolate chips.  We talked longer.  Conversation flowed naturally, with very few pauses, and when there were some, they were comfortable.

When we were done, he took me home and walked me into my apartment building.  He walked me upstairs and to the door.  Before opening it, he grabbed my hands in his and looked into my eyes.  “Well, beautiful, I had a wonderful night with you, again.”  He leaned down and pushed me up against the wall.  Luckily, I was wearing heels that put me at close to 6’, because otherwise his 6’7” frame would’ve really had to stoop to get down to where I was.  He pressed his lips to mine, and kissed me.  I kissed him back, standing on my tiptoes, to get that much closer.  I put my fingertips lightly on either side of his jaw line.  He ran his hands down my back until they rested on the very top of my butt.  He pulled away, just as quickly as he leaned down to me.  He smiled, said goodnight, and walked away.

“ALEAH!”  Sarah’s voice snapped me back to reality.  She walked into the bedroom.  “Breakfast is ready.  I called you 5 times, daydreamer.”

I hopped up and grabbed my phone and texted Luke back.  “Amazing, you.”