Once more I turned the page of the Art History book sitting in front of me and once more my eyes blurred but this time my brain seized up and began leaking out of my ears to pool on my shoulder and drip down into my lap.
"Ugh!! I can't take any more of this!" I sighed heavily and dropped my throbbing head onto the desk in front of me with a loud thunk.
"There. That'll teach you to stop working brain," I muttered to myself. I was actually holding a conversation with my brain! Not with myself, with my brain! That alone should have told me that I had been sitting in the security shack for far too long. It was a little before 11 p.m. on a Sunday night, I had a 9:30 a.m. class the next day, and I wouldn't be relieved from my job as a security guard for my apartment complex for another hour.
"God, what possessed me to work tonight?" I groaned, eyes closed and head still on the desk. Just then I heard the shuffle of feet and a polite cough.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything," a deep masculine voice said from the doorway, surprising me because I hadn't heard the door open.
I looked up and found myself staring at a nice pair of muscular shoulders. Suddenly realizing the guy I was staring at had to be at least 6 feet tall, I slowly brought my eyes up to his face, taking in everything from the broad shoulders to the well shaped mouth until I was finally staring into the deepest green eyes I had ever seen.
"Umm...I'd like a parking pass," he said, snapping me back to reality.
"Oh...Sure. Sorry," I fumbled. What apartment number?" I reached over and grabbed one of the temporary passes hoping that taking my eyes off of him would clear my head.
"Uh..., 143," he said vaguely.
I picked up my pen and started writing the number on the pass when I suddenly realized something. "Hey! We don't have a 143! This building goes from the ground floor to second floor numbers," I informed him.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say 143?" he asked nervously. "I meant 243. Yeah. I haven't lived here long."
"Obviously, you...wait. We don't have a 243 either; the numbers only go to 39. You don't really live here at all do you?" I looked at him and in the dim light thought I saw him blushing.
"No," he sighed, "I don't really live here."
"So why are you here then?" Red flags should've gone up but I was curious.
"Oh, no reason in particular, I was just out walking and decided there wasn't anything better to do."
I nodded incredulously and gave him my blank stare. This usually works in convincing people to stop bullshitting me. He gave me big innocent eyes for a couple of seconds and I could tell he was trying hard to pretend like he didn't know that I knew he was lying. I continued giving him my patented blank stare but this guy was either accustomed to it or just very stubborn. Eventually, being too curious to continue playing games, I just gave up.
"Okay," I began. "I seem to make you nervous, which is just weird, and I know you're not telling me something, so why don't you just sit down and explain all of this to me."
"Okay," he said a little uncertainly as he shut the door and sat down in the old as dirt rolling chair next to mine and quickly arranged his long legs so they were close to mine without invading my space. "Where would you like me to start?"
"Well," I said thinking, "We could start with names. Mine's Bailey," I said sticking out my hand.
"I'm Ian," he replied. He took my hand and shook it, then held it for a few seconds longer than necessary before letting it go.
"Now tell me why you're here if it's not to see someone. He looked at me and seemed to be considering his words.
"I am here to see someone," he stated simply.
"Well then why didn't you just go on up to their apartment, You obviously didn't drive or else your car would be outside the security shack and you don't need a parking pass if you didn't drive."
"I didn't go inside because I'm not here to see anyone in the building; I'm here to see you."
"Well than why did you ask for a parking pass," I questioned, confused, exasperated, and trying to avoid the real subject.
"Because I couldn't think of anything else to say. I really didn't want to just come in here for no apparent reason without a good opening line. I would have ended up saying something stupid like 'Gee you're purty' and there is just no way that would've ended well."
I looked at him incredulously for a moment, then the last thing he'd said registered and I couldn't help but giggle. When I finally had control of myself I replied, "Yeah, I guess I can see how you wouldn't have wanted to say something like 'Gee you're purty'. That is pretty lame,"
"I'm glad that you finally understand," he said with a grin.
"Yeah, except for one thing," I said. "Obviously you've seen me before but I know we've never met, I would have remembered a face like yours.
"No, we've never actually met," he replied, "but I live on the second floor of the building next to this one and my living room window looks out over here so I was sitting in the living room one night and happened to look over here and there you were. I have looked for you out here pretty much every night since then, wondering what I would say to you if I ever had the guts to come over here. I couldn't think of anything I could actually get away with until I walked by yesterday afternoon and heard some guy arguing loudly about how he shouldn't need a pass just to park here. I realized that was the only reasonable excuse I was ever going to have to talk to you, so... here I am. The only problem is, when I imagined this, it went a lot smoother and I was a lot more charming."
"So in other words," I began, "the only reason you're here is because you were finally presented with an excuse that might not get you thrown out of here."
"Ummm, yeah! Pretty much," he agreed. "Well, that and the very real chance of driving myself completely insane."
