Regrets

Chapter 3

I tucked my hair behind my ear, a nervous tik of mine.

"I'm AJ" he said and extended his hand.

"Layla, nice to meet you" I said and accepted his hand.

I started into AJ's handsome face. He had coco brown eyes, a strong chin with a nicely grommed beard and deep waves in his hair.

"You like what you see" AJ teased.

"Oh" I laughed nervously. "Sorry about that."

"Its ok, but listen my lunch break is ending in five minutes, how about we exchange numbers" AJ said.

"Sure" I gave him my number.

" I get off at 2:00 can I call you at 3:00." AJ asked.

My stomach did a flip flop. "Sure I would like that."

"I have to get back. I'll call you" AJ said.

"You better" I said and immediately Regretted it.

AJ repressed his chuckle. " I'll call you."

"You better" I repeated. I shook my head in disgust and walked to my hunter green Toyota camry.

                              ............

I sat on the edge of the bed twidling my thumbs, I checked my phone, it read 2:50.

After my talk with the AJ, I called the girls and told them what happened. But, I left out the "you better" comment. I would never hear the end of it if I told them.

But the girls did say I should get dressed for our phone date. The idea sounded silly until 5 minutes ago when I decided to apply some perfume and red Lipstick.

2:59 my phone read.

Just breath. I exhaled. "Oh, I need a mint." As if he could smell my breath through the phone.

Just as I put the mint in my mouth my phone rang. An unknown number, it had to be AJ.

"Hey Layla, its AJ from earlier" AJ said.

"Hi how are you" I said to enthusiastically.

AJ chuckled. "I'm well and yourself."

"I'm good... so how was work" I asked not knowing what else to say.

"Work was work, I punched in and punched out, I'm glad its over" AJ replied.

"I get that." I actually didn't, I never had a real job. I had my internship but I imagine fast food is different.

"So question my girls and I go to Panera every Sunday and today was my first time seeing you. Did you just get hired."

"No I have been there for a few months, I was just covering a shift."

"Oh, well thats nice."

"Yeah, but tell me about you, do you work" AJ asked.

For the next half hour we exchanged stories about school, families and friends.

I learned AJ was studying to become a medical lawyer, he was an only child like me and he had three bestfriends.

"So" AJ began. "About the night we met..."

I could sense he was nervous but there was no reason to be.

"You mean when I crashed into you because I was crying" I said.

AJ didn't respond.

"Hey its ok, im fine now" I said.

"Oh, well thats good" AJ said.