Wednesday I woke up to a text from Tyler.
Tyler Hot Ecology Guy: Good Morning Beautiful
Tyler Hot Ecology Guy: Can I still work out with you?
Me: No normal person is up at this time.
Tyler Hot Ecology Guy: You’re up…
Me: Like I said no normal person is up at this time
Me: People usually yell at me for getting up this early
Tyler Hot Ecology Guy: I couldn’t sleep
Me: Why?
Tyler Hot Ecology Guy: I thought you talking to me might have been a dream
Tyler Hot Ecology Guy: I needed to check, and you never answered the question
Me: Sure, I’ll be there in about 10 min
Tyler Hot Ecology Guy: Can I pick you up?
Me: I usually run, I like getting my warm-up in before I get there
Tyler Hot Ecology Guy: Can I run with you?
Me: Sure, how long will it take you to get here?
Tyler Hot Ecology Guy: I’m outside
I hop out of bed and start rushing to get ready, what the hell is he already doing here? I throw on sweats over my sports bra and shorts, grab my bag so I can actually shower this time and race down the stairs and open the door to Tyler’s smiling face. The look is cocky and smug. He could hear me racing around to get ready. Well, at least he thinks I want to see him really badly.
“What are you doing here?”
“I thought I was picking you up so we could run over to the gym? I thought you said I could join you. Was I mistaken?” He’s trying to be playful, but there is a look of uneasiness that crosses his eyes briefly. He’s not as confident as he’s pretending to be. Good.
“I mean why are you here now? How long have you been outside my house?”
“Would it make me sound crazy if I said all night?” He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks at the ground, kicking invisible dirt around.
“How long have you been camping out at my house all night?”
“Since your birthday. I stayed far enough away so I wouldn’t make you or your uncle uncomfortable, but being too far for too long was terrible. There is definitely something about you that makes me calm.” “Huh.” I raise an eyebrow letting him know I very much think that is a line. “So what do you want to talk about first, the flirting like I am your mate when you told me yourself you know I’m not or what you and your buddies actually get up to in the woods, cause it’s not just to run?”
His head shoots up at me and I raise both of my eyebrows at him, daring him to lie to me. He opens his mouth. Closes it. Opens it again and then looks at the sky blowing out a huge breath. “Seriously, you are too perfect and observant for your own good. This was not supposed to be this hard.”
“That is going to require another explanation, but I will let you get your thoughts in order.” I swing my small one shoulder backpack over my head and signal for him to follow me.
We don’t talk at all and are in no hurry to get to the gym. It takes about fifteen minutes and neither of us have broken a sweat, but move right into training, both avoiding topics we don’t want to or can’t discuss, but I’m pretty sure he implied that he wasn’t supposed to get involved with me which can mean so many things.
When we are done, we both head to the locker rooms to shower and change. I still have classes this morning, so I don’t have a ton of time.
We head to the diner and grab what has become our usual booth in the back corner.
“Alright, why don’t you start with the easiest topic. What is this about you already meeting your mate?” I don’t even hesitate to ask right after we place our order. “And just to clarify, I’m not mad or jealous.” I gave him a look. “I am genuinely curious because you and Mike and mostly Robbie seem to have this big issue with mates being a stupid or ridiculous concept, yet you know who yours is, or I guess maybe ‘was’ is a possibility.”
