To the Steadfast (20 page)

My upstairs neighbor is always
the first thing I hear in the mornings. It’s one of
the pitfalls of living in such a small apartment building. I can hear every
cough, groan, and footstep. A repetitive pounding begins and it can only be one
of two things. Cardio workout or an early afternoon delight. Gross.

“Turn on the TV or
something. Anything to cover that noise.”

Lydia doesn’t answer.

“You still asleep?” I
look over to my couch to find it empty. Lydia is an early morning riser. She
was probably up at the crack of dawn running. I get up to make my morning
ritual coffee and sit at the kitchen table to pour over my anatomy book before
my final later this afternoon. As hard as I try to concentrate, my eyes keep
drifting over to the Rubik’s Cube on the microwave. I stand to refill my coffee
and as the machine fills my mug, I move the blocks around, hoping to get a
little closer to solving it. When I’d packed my room for college, I’d found the
cube tucked in an old purse in the corner of my room and didn’t have the heart
to throw it away. The little puzzle kept calling to me, begging me to fix it.
There was so much in life I couldn’t fix, this wasn’t going to be one of them.
For the past few months, I’ve been trying desperately to solve it. Every time I
got one level completed and went on to the next one, I’d mess up my work.

 An hour later, the
front door opens and Lydia sticks her head in.

“Yoo hoo!” she calls
out. “Don’t hate me, please?”

What does she mean? I
brace myself for the worst as she walks inside. Not a moment later Bassam comes
strolling in behind her. There’s no hiding the shock and utter disapproval on
my face.

“I found library boy!”
she sings out.

Bassam is grinning from
ear to ear. Does this guy ever stop smiling? Pulling the bun from my hair, I
wipe under my eyes and try to fake a gorgeous ‘just woke up’ look. Ugh, I’ve
never been one to pull it off.

Lydia looks into my cup
and turns to the guy in my apartment. “A little Cody 101, Bassam. She’s a major
coffee snob. Don’t piss her off until she’s had her daily dose of caffeine. She
also hates dating so you’re gonna have to work for your booty call. Oh, she
likes chocolate…impress her.”

Bassam looks back and
forth between the two of us. She’s confused him. No big surprise considering
Lydia tends to ramble when she gets excited. He walks closer and holds out a
cup in his hand.

“What’s this?” I ask,
glancing at it but not taking it.

“It’s a mocha latte.
Coffee and chocolate in one.”

“I know what a mocha
latte is.” Normally, I don’t drink after people, but I take the cup and sip the
sweet goodness.

“Thanks.”

“Am I your new favorite
person now or what?” He winks and sits across from me in the only other chair.

“So how did you guys
meet?” I ask them.

Lydia, her eyes glued
to her phone, begins talking. “I went for a jog, decided I needed coffee, and
went looking for library boy.”

 She says it so
nonchalantly that I look to Bassam for the real story.

He agrees. “She was
walking around asking people if their name was Bassam, and if they had hit on a
pretty nursing student at the library last night. I fit the bill so here I am.”

I try to hide my
embarrassment behind the cup of coffee. “I am so sorry. Lydia likes to try and
control my love life.”

“She cares about you,
it’s nice to have a friend like that. Anyway, the engineering department is
having this end of the year slash holiday dinner tonight, and I was supposed to
go with my roommate, Abs, but he’s going back home early. I thought maybe you’d
like to join me?”

I should say no. He
looks like the type of guy who breaks hearts, and I’m only the type who gets
her heart broken or breaks them.

“Yes,” I whisper, half
surprising myself. “But this isn’t a date. It can be a friend thing, and I
fully expect you to live up to that promise to be my study partner.”

“Wonderful.” He
practically jumps out of his seat as if he hasn’t had a date all year, which
has to be impossible. He must have girls dying to go out with him. It’s not
every day you meet a smooth talker with gorgeous caramel-colored skin and a
perfect smile.

 “I’ll pick you up at
six then. Nice meeting you, Lydia. Thank for convincing me.”

Lydia waves her hand at
him. “What are BFFs for?”

After Bassam leaves, I
turn around to glare at my friend. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“Did what? Get you a
super-hot date? By the way, you totally played down how incredibly good-looking
he is. I mean, really? His eyes are super intense. Admit it. You are excited.”

“I didn’t want to turn
him down.”

“You are excited,” she
says a bit more forced.

“Not even a little
bit.” I shake my head.

“Not even the itty
bitty slightest?”

I blow out a breath of
air. “Fine, maybe a little.”

“Just a little?” she
holds her fingers out pinching them together slightly.

“Maybe a little more,”
I admit. “I haven’t been on a date, not a real date in public.”

Her expression drops
into horror. “What? You’re kidding me, right?”

“No, in high school
there was only me pinning after Mischa, and he was my first. At St. Cecilia’s I
didn’t have time to date, you know that, and now I frankly don’t feel like it.”

She jumps up and down,
squealing like a monkey in heat. “This is so exciting. Aw. Your first date.”

“This isn’t a real
date. It’s just a funny, interesting guy who invited me to a dinner.”

“You forgot smart.
Engineers are like super smart.”

I open my book back up.
“Whatever, I need to study.”

When six o’clock rolls
around, I’m completely panicked. Now that all my test stress is out of the way,
my mind is kept running with thoughts about how this dinner is the worst idea
ever. Lydia has decided to stay in but insists I don’t worry about entertaining
her and enjoy the party. Bassam shows up right on schedule. Points for him.
He’s dressed in a pair of brown pants and a very expensive looking sports coat.
When he smiles at me with a mouthful of perfect teeth, I try to relax and
breathe. I shouldn’t get worked up over nothing.

“You look great,” he
says nodding toward my plain black dress.

“Thanks, I wasn’t sure
how formal it was, so I decided black was a safe bet. You look great as well. I
love that coat.”

He tugs on the sides of
his jacket. “Yeah, my father bought this for me when he found out about this
dinner.”

“Your daddy dresses
you?” I try and cover a snicker with my hand.

“Hey, only when it
comes to special occasions like these. We’re knee deep in alumni involvement
and making sure the engineering department gets what it needs.” He holds an arm
out, which I graciously take. “Nah. It’s not that bad. None of my family will
be there. It’s just me, you, and a hundred other people we have to suck up to.”

“Even worse.” I
grimace. We leave the apartment and get into his car, a Prius, which doesn’t
surprise me. He looks like a hybrid kind of guy. Save the world, do-gooder.
Whatever you want to call it. I bet he recycles.

“Nice ride,” I comment.
It’s lame, but I don’t know what else to say. At least I’m not talking about
the weather.

“Thanks. I got it my
first year here. I couldn’t do the whole walking everywhere thing, and the bus
here is freakishly empty all the time.”

“Tell me about it. If I
need to leave campus, I end up taking that bus.”

“You don’t have a car?”

“I had a car, but…it’s
a long story.”

“Tell me.”

“I wasn’t allowed to
have a car at my old school so my parents sold it, and I just never got a new
one.”

“You weren’t allowed to
have a car?”

“They were a little
old-fashioned. It was a Catholic boarding school.”

He looks at me, eyes
wide in amazement. “You went to boarding school? Didn’t you miss your friends
and family?”

I shrug. “It was only
for my senior year. I missed my friends, but my parents and I were never really
that close.”

“You didn’t buy one after
school?”

I hate admitting this
next part and look out the window as I say it. “I’ve never had a job.”

He does a double take,
and I have to bite my tongue from yelling at him to watch the road. “So you
rely on your parents for everything still? Man, and you gave me shit about my
dad dressing me.”

“Is that a crime?”

He shakes his head.
“No, you just don’t seem like the type of girl who would depend on anyone but
herself. You come off as very independent.”

I fiddle with the
heater on his dashboard. “Never mistake fierce for independent.”

I’m not independent.
I’m very much a dependent people pleaser. “You from around here?”

“About an hour or two
east of here. You?”

“A really small town
outside of Atlanta called Betty.”

“How small?”

“Everyone all up in
your business small.” I don’t want to talk about that place and change the
subject. “Anyway, I’m interning with my father at the hospital this summer and
in return he promises to buy me a car for my nursing clinical. Provided I
actually get in.”

“I’m sure you will.
Your father must be proud.”

I want to laugh but
hold back. I don’t want to come off as cynical or whiny. “Let’s just say he
likes that I’m in the medical field.”

“Ooh, sounds like he
wanted you to go all out? Doctor?”

I nod. “He’s a little
disappointed.”

“Same thing with my old
man. He’s all about family commitments. It’s why I chose chemical engineering.”

“It doesn’t interest
you?”

“I love it. Science has
always interested me, and I plan on finding a cure for cancer or something, but
I’d rather be…now you can’t laugh.”

“What?” I lean forward.
He’s put too much suspense on it not to tell me now.

“I’m really into
archery.”

My mouth drops. “Like a
bow and arrow? Do people make a career of that?”

“Not unless you go pro,
but I’m actually here on an archery scholarship. I play in a few tournaments
throughout the year and they pay half of my tuition. Considering I still need
to get my master’s and doctorate, I’m already going to be knee deep in debt.”

“They have archery
scholarships?”

“Apparently. I’m also a
range master and make money by teaching archery in the summer. Camps, private
lessons, things like that, so I get some money from that as well. You ever shot
a bow?”

I shake my head. “Can’t
say I have, but I can play a mean game of darts.”

“You should come
shooting with me sometime.”

“I’d like that.” I tuck
my hair behind my ears and look out the window as he pulls into a parking spot.
Did I just agree to meet him again? It’s too late to take it back now.

“It’s a date,” he says
proudly.

The party goes by fast.
I meet a bunch of his colleagues, to whom he introduces me as a friend. The
entire place is high-class fancy. Sit down with white linen tables and five-course
meals. I have a feeling this is one of those fundraisers that cost $250 a head.
He keeps his attention on me the entire time. Asking about my home life, what I
like to do, and my hobbies. I tell him all about Nona, and how she is the only
relative I feel connected to. I tell him about Lydia and how I’d backed out of
our plans to attend Columbia at the last moment to go to nursing school. I tell
him how nervous I am about submitting my application to the upper-level nursing
school next year. They only take a handful of students, and from what my
professors told me, they only take the best of the best.

At the end of the
night, I realize I’ve only talked about myself and know nothing about him.