Halls of Ivy

Chapter 14

It had been forty-five days since my pep talk about my relationship status with Aiden and nothing had changed. October had breezed by but winter came as fast and furious as it did in Connecticut. It didn't feel as cold, but when the wind whipped across the Long Island Sound from the north, there was nothing as frigid or nasty.

After my last class on Thursday I went back to Dempster to render the final title to my PSA. I was in an edit room staring at the hourglass timer icon when I was pleasantly surprised with a text from Aiden.

Aiden: What are you doing?

Me: Wrapping up a video project on campus. U?

Aiden: Just got out of class. Want to grab some food?

Was he asking me to dinner? Eating cafeteria food together couldn't be considered a date could it? I hated how excited and over-anxious I got at the possibility.

Me: Yea, that sounds great

No, delete-- I couldn't write that it sounded too...too excited, too eager?

Me: Food is good

—ugh, no delete!

Me: Yes

Simple, to the point, and couldn't be misconstrued or misinterpreted.

Aiden: Lol. K where are you? I'll meet you and we can walk to the SC.

Me: In the Dempster comm. building room 104 on the first floor if you can find me J

Okay the smiley face was kind of stupid, but whatever. Ten minutes and a Find Friends request later he waltzed in the door. The edit room was small and only had two big Apple desktops to work on so he rolled the other desk chair over and sat down next to me. He looked perfect as usual with a classic navy Patagonia fleece jacket and khakis. Did he ever just wear jeans?

"So can I see what you're working on?" he asked. His body was close and the smell of his clean and slightly sweet cologne washed over me making my skin prickle.

"You really want to watch it? It might be boring, it's on rescuing dogs," I said.

"Well, let's see it," he said with a big goofy smile. He pushed his chair playfully up against mine so he could get a more centered view of the monitor. My head felt suddenly dizzy. I loved that he wanted to watch my project.

A black and white photo of a pit bull puppy sleeping in the corner of a wire cage came on screen accompanied with a slow and mellow piano tune. The photo dissolved into an extreme close up shot of German shepherd with big brown eyes staring into the camera lens. A few more photos of droopy-eyed dogs came on screen and dissolved into one another until the music panned out and a long hallway with empty cages on each side came into view. The point of view shot traveled down the dark hallway until it reached the last cage. The cage door swung in and revealed a sleeping puppy curled up in the middle. Suddenly the dog's ears perked up and after a beat, the adorable little face jumped up and bounced at the camera, licking the lens like it was the first meal it's had in days. Gradually colors began bleeding through the once black and white film and the puppy's brown fur became vibrant and shiny. The dirty and dreary cage faded and transformed into a bright and rich green lawn. Two young kids pranced into view from the sides and knelt down to play with it. The dog licked and kissed the girl and boy making them smile and giggle. The blissful scene dissolved and black and white letters appeared on the screen 'Whoever said money can't buy happiness, forgot about rescuing dogs,' followed by a website link that pops up neatly on the bottom of the screen 'hua.org'—short for Hearts United for Animals.