Page 2 of Just Another Meet Cute

Would it be too obvious if I leaned casually against the rock? Maybe even crossed my legs to make them look longer? Probably.

The Cute Guy cocked his head to the left and he pointed down at my knee. His dark brown eyes were wide with concern. “Are you okay? You’re bleeding.”

“I—what?” I glanced down at the blood dripping down my leg. A steady, straight ruby-red line from the top of my knee down to my ankle, staining my sock. The cut itself wasn’t too bad or deep. Barely bigger than an inch or two. And it was the exact height of the rock beside me.

As soon as I spotted the blood though, the pain hit me like a bolt of lightning and I stumbled backward. “Damn it! Jeez, that—Owww…”

He reached out and grasped my elbow, so lightly that I barely felt his touch through my pain. “Why don’t you sit down? I have a first aid kit in my bag that you can use.”

“No, it’s … it’s okay.” I shifted my weight to my other leg and sucked in my breath at the movement. I’ve never been able to deal with blood well. My gaze skimmed around as I looked everywhere—anywhere—but at the cut. “I don’t want to bother you.”

With a half smile, he clasped his hands together like he was praying. “Please? You’d be doing me a huge favor. The path is pretty long and this book bag will be so much lighter if you took a couple of Band-Aids off my hands.”

Cute with a sense of humor. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to hang out for another few minutes. And looking at him actually made the pain hurt less.

“Well, okay. Only because it would help you out,” I said with an exaggerated sigh as I slowly sat on the rock. Wincing, I stretched out my leg toward him.

“You’re a lifesaver.” A full-on smile crossed his face as he pulled a small white first aid kit from the side pocket of his book bag. “My name’s Ian, by the way.”

“Nina.”

He knelt down beside my bleeding leg and dug around in the box. “That’s a pretty name.”

“Thanks. It’s short for Nina.” After the words popped out of my mouth, I wanted to smack myself on the forehead for sounding so stupid.

Thankfully, Ian mistook my word vomit for humor or charm or something and laughed.

He pulled a couple of wet wipes from a pack and cleaned my leg and cut as best as he could before shoving them into a small plastic bag.

Then he spread some white ointment on the cut and unwrapped a couple of Band-Aids.

His fingers were long and moved quickly, like this wasn’t his first time.

After he put two Band-Aids on my cut, he pressed the edges down to make sure it was firm.

This time I felt the warmth of his fingertips on my skin, and the goose bumps that rose on my arms in response.

Rubbing my arms to make them go away before he noticed, I gently stood up. “I’m okay now. Thanks.”

“Are you sure? Your face still looks kind of red.”

Embarrassed, I adjusted the sunglasses until they fell lower on my face, like a shield. “No, it’s just—the sun. It’s hot today.”

He glanced up at the overcast sky. It was so thick with clouds that you could barely see the sun anywhere.

“It was sunny earlier,” I said quickly. “Like scorching sunny.”

“Yeah, Texas’s weather is pretty unpredictable.

” Still crouched down, Ian leaned to the left to pack everything up.

When he was done though, he still didn’t immediately get up.

Instead, Ian stared at something on the rock behind me.

I followed his gaze and groaned out loud in horror.

There was a dark butt-shaped smudge right where I had been sitting a few seconds ago.

With a puzzled expression, his eyes slid up and down my legs—which sounded way dirtier than it was. I almost wished it was dirty so at least I’d know he was thinking of me in a cute-girl-I’m-attracted-to way instead of a weirdo-girl-he-regretted-bumping-into way.

I knew the exact moment when my embarrassing situation clicked in his head. It was almost like his brown eyes cleared—as impossible as it was. My first instinct was to bury my face in my arms and flee, but my feet were frozen in one spot.

To my surprise, Ian didn’t immediately run away.

Instead, he stood up, still digging in his bag.

His head ducked down until I couldn’t see his face anymore.

Especially as one hand messed with his hat, tugging it side to side.

I could see that his ears were flaming red though.

“Well, I think I have something else in here to help you with … that. If you—you need it.”

“What do you—” I glanced down at my legs and his pink face. Until my eyes finally landed on the tampon and pad he held out in his hand.

Oh. My. God.

I didn’t know how this could get even worse, but somehow it did.

My red cheeks nearly exploded with embarrassment as I shoved his hand away. “No. NO! I didn’t—this isn’t what you think it is. I just sat on my juice box.”

“Your. Juice. Box.”

Even though he only paused a second or two between each word, it felt like an hour.

An eternity. Time had frozen. Melted into nothingness.

And I never wanted to escape so badly. Like make a Mission Impossible –style roll off the cliff and dive into the stream below.

It didn’t even matter that I didn’t know how to swim, my survival instinct could kick in.

Hopefully.

Since escape wasn’t possible, again, I tried to play it cool.

With a loud cough, I swept my hair over my shoulders. “Band-Aids, pads, and tampons? You’re like a walking pharmacy.”

“Oh, yeah.” Looking sheepish, Ian glanced down at his shoes. “My family likes to go hiking, and I have a bunch of older sisters who always make me hold their stuff for them. I also have some hair clips and Midol in here somewhere if you need them.”

“I’m good. You’re basically like their pack mule. That must be super embarrassing for you.” At this point, I was so desperate to change the subject that random words were basically pouring out. Apparently random insulting words.

Not seeming to mind, he snorted. “Pack mule and errand boy. I have to go to the dry cleaners on Fifth Street this weekend to pick up a bunch of dresses for some Vegas bachelorette trip they’re going to next month. And one really weird-colored bed sheet. I didn’t really want to ask for details.”

My lips pursed together in sympathy. “Well, at least you had a lot of siblings growing up. I’m an only child, so it was pretty boring sometimes. Actually, all the time.”

“Really? Just you?”

“Well, I have a half sister and a half brother. Sort of. It’s complicated.” I shook my head. Why did I have to tell him that? “You don’t want to know. But I do have a cousin who’s like a sister to me.”

“Well, sisters aren’t too bad. But sometimes I wish I could be bored.

You don’t want to know about all the times they made me play dress-up with them growing up.

” His face was scrunched up like he was in pain from trying not to smile.

“It’s too traumatizing. I try to block it from my memory whenever I can. ”

Momentarily forgetting about my own embarrassment, I laughed. Probably harder than I should have. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

“Thanks.” Ian unzipped his navy jacket and shrugged out of it. “Here, why don’t you use this to cover yourself up?”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t—”

His right dimple flashed at me and my stomach did a backflip. “Come on. I doubt you’ll ever make it home if you have to walk backward the entire time. Plus, I don’t have anything better than Band-Aids and gauze to patch you up if you did fall again.”

“How do you know? I could be pretty awesome at backward walking,” I said, wagging my finger at him. “I certainly can’t be less graceful than walking normally.”

“You do look like a girl with many talents.” He leaned over and wrapped his jacket around my waist before tying the sleeves into a knot so it wouldn’t fall off. This pulled me a little bit closer to him and our faces were barely a foot apart when he looked up.

Without realizing what I was doing, I reached out to fix his crooked cap. My hands lingered on the sides of his head and froze when I noticed him staring back at me.

With a nervous laugh, Ian rubbed the side of his neck with one hand and stepped back.

“Maybe you could tell me about your other talents some—” A loud buzzing rang through the air before he could finish his sentence.

With a sigh, he dug his phone out of the side pocket of his book bag.

“Sorry, it’s one of my sisters. You know, the bullies. ”

“Oh, go ahead.”

He walked over to the trees and turned around. “Hello? What are you …”

This would be the perfect time to escape. I could just run like hell down the path and never look back. Pretend that this horrible hike was just another nightmare. I mean, this pretty much ranked right up there with the zombies and that freaky Chucky doll.

Before I could even take a step, this overwhelming reluctance to leave swept over me like a tidal wave.

Despite the fact that I pretty much made the worst first impression ever and had a thousand and one reasons to get the heck out of here, I couldn’t.

Because there was one major reason to stay that overshadowed everything else.

And just then he looked right at me and smiled.

A slow smile that started at the corners of his lips and sparkled in his eyes.

I swear, even my goose bumps had goose bumps by now.

Maybe the blood loss was finally making me loopy.

I had just sat down when Ian hung up and came back. He chewed on his lower lip and gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry, I have to go. An emergency came up with my family.” Ian glanced back and forth between the phone in his hand and me. “Do—”

Before I could say anything, his phone rang again. Somehow it seemed louder and more urgent than before.

With an annoyed sigh, Ian gave me a small wave before racing down the path. His phone was already pressed against his ear as he disappeared around the corner. Gone almost as quickly as he had appeared.

“Bye, I guess.” With a sigh, I kicked a rock and it ricocheted off a nearby tree. Guess there was nothing left for me to do but start my own slow trek back to the parking lot. Alone.

Funny how I came all the way out here to be by myself and now it just felt … lonely.

My phone buzzed in my back pocket. Probably Mom texting me with Dad’s flight information. I fumbled with the oversized jacket around my waist before it suddenly hit me, and I stared at the jacket I was still wearing. Ian’s jacket.

“Oh crap.”

Racing down the path that he took as fast as I could, the cut on my leg stung with each step.

I scanned the area around me, but it was too late.

He was gone. Man, he was fast. He had left only a few minutes before me.

How did he disappear so quickly? It’s like he had a magical pumpkin carriage that whisked him away.

My fingers played with the soft sleeves, swinging the ends back and forth against each other, as I tried to figure out what to do.

Of course, the nice—honest—thing to do was to return his jacket.

But how? I should have gotten his number or something.

Maybe he would come back once he realized he had left his jacket. Should I wait? But for how long?

He did say that his family hiked a lot. Maybe he would be back tomorrow. Or the day after that. I mean, technically, I was free all vacation anyway. If we bumped into each other again, then it would be fate. And this time, I’d be sure to be a little more glamorous and a lot less sticky.

Although was I really going to hang around the trail all day hoping to catch a glimpse of Ian again? Would that be considered low-level stalking? I wasn’t sure I wanted to be that girl. No matter how cute he was. Or funny. Or—

My phone vibrated again like a wake-up call.

I carefully draped the jacket over one arm as I read my messages and groaned.

Apparently, the nice Texas weather also helped the pilot fly their planes faster because Dad had landed early.

And now I was late picking him up, which would only make the car ride even more awkward.

Great.

Back to reality and life, I guess. No time for daydreaming about cute dimply boys who I was probably never going to see again.