Surf or Turf

The rest of summer sailed by smoothly.  Sarah and Maddie had both moved back in to our apartment.  Maddie and I were working hard through two or three-a-days in our respective sports.  There wasn't a lot of hanging out time except on weekends.  We usually both crashed early at night and didn't see each other until the evening right before bed.  Sarah had picked up a waitressing job for extra money, so we all had opposite schedules until classes started again.

It was three weeks after Elena's wedding, and only one more full week until classes started.  I was feeling anxious for the arrival of everyone else, which I knew would be happening later on this next week.  Anxious because along with all of my friends would come Luke and Victoria.  I hadn't heard anything from either of them in months.  But I also hadn't heard that Luke was either kicked off the basketball team or out of school.  I had considered trying to prove to Victoria that Luke was the asshole in this situation.  But decided against it.  I hadn't deleted the pictures off of my phone, though, because I wanted the physical proof should I run in to her face to face.

Since it was Saturday night, I was stretched out on our living room floor, covered in a quilt and relaxing.  Sundays were the only days we didn't practice right now, so I was staying up extra late.  I looked at the clock on the wall and saw it was 9:13 p.m.  I smiled to myself, realizing how lame I sounded stating I was staying up extra late.  But that smile quickly dissipated into a yawn.  Sad.

I was watching Olympus Has Fallen on Netflix, and snacking on some popcorn.  Maddie was out with the boyfriend, and Sarah was working.  I was super sucked in to the movie when I heard the tone of my text message notification resonate.  I hit "pause" and grabbed my phone to check it.  It was Elena.

Check your email.

That was it.  I raised an eyebrow curiously and opened up my laptop, also on the floor next to me.  I frowned thoughtfully, trying to figure out which email she meant.  From the time I was 16 and allowed to have my first email count until now, I had created multiples.  Hotmail, Yahoo, gmail, and now my UNL account.  They all served different purposes, obviously.  Hotmail was personal, yahoo was for playing games, gmail was for my phone, and UNL for school.  I doubted Elena remembered, if she even knew, what any of my email address were except my UNL account.  I quickly opened a browser and logged in, revealing several new emails, all school related except for one.  The email was from a couple days ago, and an email address I didn't recognize: cmiller2009@gmail.com.

I double clicked on it to bring it up and read:

Aleah,

I hope you don't mind, I got your email address from Elena.  I didn't want to come across as too forward, but realized that after accidentally spilling your drink all over myself, and then dancing with you, I never asked you for your number.  So I thought it would be less intrusive to email you instead.  Of course, writing that now sounds a little ridiculous.  

Anyhow, Elena told me you've been really busy and have early mornings for tennis practices, so I didn't want to pressure you with finding time to chat on the phone, and texting is so short and impersonal.  But I would like to get to know you, and am hoping you would be up for that.

I believe Elena told me that classes start up for you all again August 25th, and that usually your schedule is more manageable then.  I considered waiting until then and calling you, but I couldn't.  So how about a game of three questions?  It's my email version of twenty questions so we can get to know each other a little bit before I call you on the 25th.

Favorite movie?
Dream vacation?
Surf or turf type of girl?

Your turn,

Chase

I grinned cheesily, ecstatic that he had sought Elena out to contact me.  And rolled my eyes at his emailing me, but felt grateful (and thought it cute) that he actually hadn't called.  I hate talking on the phone.  It's so awkward.  I think reading expressions is so valuable when conversating with someone.

After Elena was back from her honeymoon, I may or may not have ranted and raved about how gorgeous and fun Chase was.  I silently sent up a prayer that Elena didn't repeat everything I said and quickly texted Elena back:  You're the best!  And she responded right back with a winky emoji.  Then I wrote Chase.

Chase,

Thank you writing me!  I do think there's a lost romanticism to letter/email writing.  And, you aren't being too forward.  I really enjoyed talking to you... and your moves to Dancing Queen.  I was secretly hoping I would run in to you again someday so you could teach me.

I have been busy.  We've had 3-a-days, starting at 6 a.m. and the last one getting over at about 4:30 p.m.  I've been exhausted and going to bed early.  Once classes start, we only have practices once a day, except when we have matches, then we obviously don't practice.  And we aren't practicing Sundays, which is why I'm up so late.  (If you consider 9:25 late!)

So on to your questions.

My favorite movie is White House Down.  And/or Lion King.  And/or 300.  It depends on my mood :)
My dream vacation would probably be Brazil.  I've been there once before, but have been itching to go back ever since.  It's beautiful, and warm, and exotic.
And I'm definitely a turf girl, if you're referring to food.  I LOVE steak.  Definitely in my top 7 favorite foods.  I do like surf, but prefer turf.  If you're referring to physical location, I prefer surf.  I love the ocean.  It's majestic and powerful, and all-consuming.

I feel like your third question was kind of a cheater question, because you got 2 in 1, since I didn't know which you meant!

Siblings?
Favorite color?
Fastest speed you've ever driven?

Tag!  You're it!

~Aleah

I only had to rewrite it about 14 times.  But I read it over and felt satisfied with my response, and clicked send.  Butterflies already started forming in my stomach, anticipating his reply.

I closed my laptop and rolled onto my side and hit play on the remote. Although I was watching Gerard Butler run around like a BAMF on-screen, Chase was running around my mind.