Burned (Beautiful Mess) (3 page)

“I hope to see you
again
, Ethan,” I said. Darn, I regretted saying that the moment the sentence came out. I did not mean to sound insecure and desperate but my little sigh exposed me. I read something on the internet saying that, if a girl told guy that she wanted something other than what’s inside a guy’s pant, the guy would run the opposite direction. Clingy girls were not hot.

Ethan narrowed his eyes, and then he smiled and copied my words. “I hope to see you again, too!” He emphasized on the word “too”. Was he making fun of me or was he serious? My eyes widened at his response. Ethan looked quite satisfied seeing my silly expression. He came out of the car and opened the door on my side. I got out and stood beside him. Ethan opened his arms and smiled. “Now can I have a hug, Miss Proper?”

“Miss Proper?” I wasn’t sure if that was compliment. But I liked the nick name. I felt the corners of my mouth lifted up as I heard it.

Ethan smiled a bit wider too. “You look cute when you blush,” he said.

Oh no. Was I blushing? And he could see that under the moonlight?

“Now, tell me, do you want me to demonstrate how to hug, Dana?” He was teasing, and I liked that smirk on his perfect face a bit too much. Ethan obviously knew how hot he was and he was using his charm on me.

“I know how to do a hug,” I replied quickly in a small voice. Yes, I hugged my parents, my friends and cats and dogs. I could totally hug a super-hot guy, especially this one who was displaying his charm to an extremely irresistible level. I longed to get closer to him, despite how this all looked like a dangerous trap.

Ethan opened his arms but stood in place, smiling. He waited for me patiently. The night wind brushed over his golden hair, I looked at him in awe. His eyes, his smile, his muscles, his smell…no, it was his magic that had me overwhelmed. I felt I was losing my balance. Finally my hormone took over my brain and I opened my arms and warped them around Ethan as if my very nature commended me to do it. The warmth from him felt magnificent, my skin couldn’t get enough of it.

The early spring night was cooler than usual. My body temperature must be a bit low. Ethan seemed to notice that I was cold. He slowly bended down and wrapped me in his arms. For a moment, I felt safe, like nothing could harm me as long as Ethan’s firm muscles were forming a wall around me. Being so close to him, I could hear the strong and steady heartbeat. I knew this heart was where Ethan’s warmth came from and it was melting my heart and transferring warmth into my entire body. I felt dreamy and dreamed about his heart beating for me. Maybe for this very moment, it was.

Time had become irrelevant. I couldn’t remember how long we hugged each other, it felt long but it felt short too. I was only wakened when I heard Ethan calling me.

“Dana, I will email you, okay?” His hand still rested on my shoulder.

“Okay,” I answered quietly.

Ethan turned quickly and went in his car. He started the car and waved at me. Then, he drove away in his shining SUV.

My hands were still waving in the midair and Ethan was already disappeared.

Why did he have to leave in such a hurry after a hug? He could stay and spend more time with me. But he just said he would email me. What did it mean? Oh, I seriously needed to not overthink it.

Now my biggest wish was to receive Ethan’s email soon.

Chapter 4

I came back to my dorm room and found my roommate Vicky was getting ready for a party, as always.

“Ah, Dana, you are back! Look, how do you like my skirt?” Vicky stood up from her chair.

She was wearing a black short skirt with fish net stocking and long leather boots. The light pink blouse she had matched her complexion and softened the look. Vicky had gorgeous blond hair and big blue eyes. Everyone said she could easily make a career in modeling if she wanted. But she was too busy with college parties and boys at the moment.

“It’s…” I tried to find an appropriate adjective. Personally I thought her shirt was too short. But who was I gave an opinion about fashion? I was a living fossil.

“Never mind,” Vicky waved her hand and sat down. “How’s your date?” She changed the topic.

“I’m not sure,” I thought about Ethan’s perfect hair and the feel of his muscles. He was so beautiful it was unreal. “We went to
Little Palace…”

“Wait, wait!” Vicky held up her hands. “You went to Little Palace and you are back in one piece,” she looked at her fashion butterfly watch. “At only 9 pm!”

“Is there a tradition that you should not be back at 9pm from Little Palace?” I started to worry. What if Ethan didn’t like me and just brushed me off? He said he would email me. But there were plenty guys told me that they would call after a first date and I never heard from them again. More importantly, why would a hot guy like Ethan date a girl like me and be so nice to me?

“No, silly,” Vicky shook her head. “It’s like this,” she took a pencil and a mini-pencil sharpener from her desk. “Boy meets girl,” she put the pencil and the sharpener closer. “Boy likes girl,” she put the two objects even closer. “Boy
be nice to girl. Girl happy. Girl kiss boy…and,” she put the pencil into the sharpener and started to sharpening it. “Boy gets into girl’s pants.”

Great, I was officially 5 years old.

“Ouch, Vicky,” I pretended to cover my eyes. “Good thing he didn’t get into my pants. I am wearing granny panties.”

“Seriously?”
Vicky took out the pencil from the sharpener and wrote on her sticky note. “Tomorrow…take..Dana…to sexy panties shopping.”

“Right,” I sighed. “I am not really wearing granny panties. I quit them after I started dating.” I read an article saying that fancy underwear could improve a woman’s confidence, even people couldn’t see them. I decided to make myself a test subject.

“And how long has it been now?” Vicky asked. She had been my unofficial dating advisor for a while now. Vicky had a nickname “Huntress.” She always managed to get different sexy guys with no interval in between.

“About five months I think,” I said. It made me sad. I was 19, already a sophomore, but never ever had a boyfriend. “Why there is not a guy for me?” I looked up the ceiling-not that it would give me an answer. 

“Because you always act like a strict librarian, so stern all the time,” Vicky petted my head. “Why don’t you just come to the clubs with me already?” Vicky said. “You need to lose up a bit. Maybe you will find a cute guy there.”

“Last time I went with you, my shirt was soaked with other people’s sweat.” I mumbled.

“Come on. Don’t let a one-time experience frighten you. You scared bunny, Dana,” Vicky laughed. “You are so uptight. Guys won’t find that attractive. You should really go out sometime. It’s fun.” She brushed her hair for a moment and asked, “You like any of my ex-boyfriends?”

“You said they were just playboys looking for, err,
pleasure, right?” I said.

“Sex, yes, you can say it.” She winked at me.

“Well, I am thinking to find a nice, devoted boyfriend who I can really care about, someone shares the same interests, the same goals, someone honest, understanding, have family value…”

“Oh, gosh.”
She interrupted me, leaning her forehead in her hand. “I heard they are discovering aliens on Mars any days now. You have a better chance to find a boyfriend like that on the other planets.”

“It shouldn’t be that hard. I have some friends on Facebook who dated the same person for years. Two of them recently engaged.”

“Those are high school sweethearts.” Vicky waved her hand, “College made people wild.”

She took her hair straightener and rushed to the bathroom. Clearly this discussion was over. For a second I thought I mentioned something that made her upset. But I was sure she would party that away tonight.

I changed into my comfortable pajamas and started to work on my history paper about Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and their ever-lasting love.

Chapter 5

I did not know why I kept checking my email every 10 minutes for the past 48 hours. Ethan said he would email me but he didn’t say when. I was driving myself mad. Every time I logged in my email and saw no emails from him, I closed my browser completely and told myself not to check it again. Then after a few minutes I wondered if Ethan’s email was flapping its little wings to my inbox the very second. Jeez, I needed to throw my laptop into the trash can.

He said he had a good time with me. But maybe he was just being polite. When I thought back our date, I could clearly remember his green eyes looking at me with amusement. He had paid attention to me. He had found me interesting. But I could be all wrong. I had absolutely no idea what was going on in a guy’s head.

I tried to put Ethan’s handsome face in my mental dumpster. He was the hottest guy I ever dated-it would be really hard for me erase him from my memory. Maybe he had forgotten me already. Maybe I should check my email again just to be sure.

So there, I opened my email the 109
th
time today.

Nothing.
That’s typical. I signed.

“Ding!” The system sounded just as I was about to close the browser. A new email! Please don’t be a spam from that puppy hairspray company again.

I refresh the inbox and saw Ethan’s name. I clicked on it.

“Miss Proper, I was just thinking about you a second ago. You’re artistic, smart and goal-oriented. I really appreciate a lot of your personality traits, and I hope you appreciate yourself as well! Anyway, I look forward to seeing you again. I would like to meet you at the Westgate Mall fountain this Saturday at 3:00pm. Please let me know when you are free.” He also attached his phone number at the very end.

Yes! Yes! Yes! I was going to see Ethan again. I jumped out of my chair. I opened the window and let the sunshine into my room. Hope chased away the shadows in my head. Now I might be able to focus on my history paper.

***

I showed Ethan’s email to Vicky later in the afternoon. I was still excited and unsettled.

“Can you calm down?” Vicky said while reading the email with a frown. She looked down and asked. “Why are you on bare feet? And why do you have grass on your feet?”

“I went to the square and fed the squirrels,” I said happily. “I also chased them around the grass.”

“For real?”
Vicky raised an eyebrow. “When girls get ask out for dates, we go shopping and paint our nails. Not chasing wild animals. You acted like you never had a boy gotten interested in you before.”

“That’s right.” I said. “But finally. Thank goodness!”

“Yeah, hmm,” Vicky went back to reading the email. It was not that long. She seemed to be studying it.

“Something’s wrong?” I asked.

“He ‘appreciates a lot of your personality traits’…”

“Yeah?”

“Basically he was saying he likes your brain,” Vicky looked at me. “Were you being a walking encyclopedia when you were with him, Dana?”

“I was being myself,” I shrugged. “I did share a lot of what I read on the books when Ethan talked about his travels. But he seemed to like that.”

“Did you try to flirt with him?” Vicky asked.

“Last time when we practiced flirting, you said it sounded like I was reciting the multiplication table,” I mumbled.
“So no.”

Vicky sighed. “Be careful falling into the friend zoon, then,” she read the email some more. “And why was he picking where to meet?
And so specific. Was he bossy?”

“Look who is being analytical now?” I teased. “He appeared to be a gentleman.” Came to think of it, he was having his way about the dates. But then, he did open the doors for me and seemed to be respectful.

“Or he’s a bad boy wearing a gentleman’s skin,” Vicky frowned at the email like there was a crack in it that her sharp eyes couldn’t detect.

Chapter 6

After my excitement wore off, I started to get nervous about meeting Ethan again. There were so many things I wanted to know about him. What was his favorite movie? Did he like chocolate as much as I did? Did he read at all, other than law books of course? What’s his relationship history? What’s the size of his…SHOES! I meant shoes, really. Darn, living with Vicky was a bad idea.

The week days were going slower than ever. On Friday, I came back from the last class-European history. We just discussed how back in medieval time, it was almost impossible to divorce. I wondered what it would be like to live in that era. Many people were put in arranged marriages and did not marry for love. But did most people marry their true love now? The divorce rate was sky high. After so many months of trying to find a boyfriend, I’d rather get an arranged relationship. At least the guy would commit in a sense and I wouldn’t be worrying every time if he would call me or simply disappear.

I walked up the stairs to my doom room. A girl was sitting at the stairway with her laptop. I knew she lived on our floor and she had issues with her roommate. She often came out of the room to avoid conflict with her roommate. I walked closer and except to see her grumpy face. But she was smiling. Her eyes were on the laptop and she started to giggle. Her face was blooming like the first flower in the spring. So much joy radiated from her.