But before I can even open it, I see a text from an old friend of mine.
Bobby: Any chance you're available to work a shift tonight?
I let out a grateful breath at the offer.
Dani: Yeah that's perfect. What time you need me?
Bobby: An hour? Two bartenders just called out so I'm officially fucked.
Dani: Figures. I'll come over around 10:00pm.
I look around my room, contemplating what I need to do for the next hour. On a whim, I open some of the old pictures I've been meaning to edit. It's a folder of my extracurricular events, some events that I took pictures of as a hobby. When I pull up the latest one, I come across the last pictures I took of a crowd.
They're the pictures of Jesus-lady. Which immediately makes me think of Aiden.
I scroll through the pictures he took, tamping down on my smile when I notice the focus of his shots. Almost all of his pictures are people-focused—specifically, of college kids. Every picture I review is one of a student and their college experience.
He's got a good eye for it. In only a few minute span he's captured academic life, a relationship, and plenty of different cliques. I could print any of these as a representation of the college experience.
At his memory, my brain starts to go down a rabbit hole of Aiden experiences. Of meeting him, of our time together, and then of my subsequent date with him at the bar.
He's… the ideal fuck buddy. And not just because he knows how to fuck, but because he's detached enough to understand why a woman might not want a longer term commitment. A lot of young men just assume women want relationships, but Aiden seems like he might actually understand a woman wanting a partner for orgasms only. That he might actually want a situationship of his own.
I scroll through the pictures until I reach the one that I secretly took of him before he even approached me. It's one of him with his water bottle in his hand, looking out over the college campus as if he's ready to take the next step. Like he's ready to move on from college and take the world by storm.
He looks… confident. Not just because he's well-dressed in slacks and a button-up in the picture, but because he looks like he knows he's in the right place. Because he looks like he wouldn’t question why someone might be taking a picture of him.
The memories of that night, and then of our first date—
I shake the intrusive thought from my head the second that word comes to mind. I don’tdate.We just went out for drinks.
Fuck buddies don’t date.
Reminder firmly embedded in my mind, I let myself go back to the memories of my time with Aiden, making sure to linger the most on the physical moments. Those thoughts are enough to drag me away from my current thought process. Instead of thinking about how I want to edit a picture, I'm thinking about when I want to see Aiden again. Of when I want to say yes to another offer, to a night where I can make him laugh and feel his body against mine.
On a whim, I grab my phone and send a text.
Dani: Feel like keeping me company tonight?
The answer takes some time to come through, making me question our last encounter. Making me question if he was as interested in us as I thought he was.
Which then makes me annoyed that I’m even questioning myself. I don’t doubt myself overmen.
But then my phone beeps.
Aiden: What did you have in mind?
My exhale is one of relief. I knew after our last date that I wanted more of him, but putting my number in his phone wasn't exactly a surefire way of seeing him again.
Dani: I'm covering a bartending shift at a friend of mine's bar tonight. Join me at the end of the night?
His answer comes immediately.
Aiden: Done. Send me the address.
* * *
I'm standing behind the counter when he appears. He's wearing jeans and a light grey Henley, the shirt tight enough that I can see his muscles ripple as he walks in. His dirty blonde hair is styled to look perfectly messy, and with his hands in his pockets showing off the ease with which he walks into the now-closed bar, his entire stance screams his self-confidence.