Nerd Girl(31)

Any girl would be so lucky to have his attentions focused on them. I should be so lucky. I racked my brain for someone I could think of that I could set him up with. What was wrong with me? Normally, I would be all over it. Kyle and I were the same age and we seemed to have a lot in common. I found his boyish charm endearing. Not to mention, he was incredibly easy on the eyes. Right now, he looked downright hot with his aviator sunglasses and mussed hair. I could so easily have fallen for Kyle. But I knew exactly what was preventing me from going there.

Argh! How was I ever going to get Ryan out of my head? And exactly when did he reach into my heart? I knew that I couldn’t stay passive about him anymore. Once we both recuperated from today’s surprising event, I wondered who would make the first move.

I had never had much courage about these sorts of things. I always let the guy take the initiative. I knew Anna would tell me to just go for it and not let him get away this time. She would tell me to listen and act on my intuition because usually it was spot on. Right now, my intuition told me that there was something worth pursuing with Ryan. I had been given another opportunity to find out what he might mean to me. I didn’t want to have any more regrets.

“Anyone want to go out somewhere else?” Kyle asked, interrupting my internal train of thought. “It’s still early.” He smiled, trying to coax one or all of us to move onto another location.

Matt and Mia declined and said they were going to turn in.

He looked to me with a hopeful expression. “What about you, Julia?”

“I’ve had too much to drink,” I groaned. “It’s been a long week. Can I take a rain check?” I asked apologetically.

“Man, you guys are wimps,” he said and shook his head in jest.

I pulled out my phone to dial a taxi. I was going to have to leave my car here tonight. Their wine servings were generous and three glasses was too much for me. As I started dialing the phone, Kyle took it away from me.

“Julia, don’t do that,” he said, turning my phone off. “I’ll drive you home.”

“Are you sure?” I asked hesitantly. I wasn’t sure where he lived and I didn’t want to be an inconvenience. I was also a little nervous to sit in his car with him alone.

“Yeah, totally, it’s on the way,” he insisted. “You live in Queen Anne, right? I’m in Capital Hill.”

“Okay,” I shrugged my shoulders and agreed to go with him.

I followed him to his car and we said our goodbyes to Matt and Mia. Mia looked pleased that Kyle was being a gentleman and willing to drive me home. Kyle drove a relatively new Toyota Forerunner. For some reason, this car suited him perfectly. It was comfortable yet rugged, strong-lined, dependable, and sporty. Probably just like him. Conversation in the car was comfortable. I was worried for no reason. Kyle was just such an easy person to be with.

He pulled up to the curb in front of my condo and turned to face me. “I really meant what I said at the restaurant. If you need help with the scorecard, just let me know.” His eyes looked hopeful again. “I don’t mind giving up a day over the weekend to help you.”

I looked at him and smiled thoughtfully. He just bravely showed me his cards. I paused before responding to what I found to be a delicate situation. I really liked Kyle, but I knew that we could never be more than just friends. I didn’t want to hurt his feelings, but I also wanted to be careful about not leading him on. I needed to work with him in my new job and any misunderstandings could make things awkward.

Finally, I said, “Thanks, Kyle. I really appreciate the ride. I’ll let you know if I need some help come Monday, but I think I’ll be okay,” I said quietly. Less was probably better here. Holding his gaze, I gave him an apologetic smile.

He looked down and then returned a sad smile back, knowing that he was just delicately rebuffed. “Okay. Goodbye, Julia. See you soon.”





I stumbled into my condo a little before midnight. I kicked off my shoes and drank a glass of water, wondering how I was going to get back my car tomorrow. I could call Anna and tell her all about today’s events, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to be grilled by her. I plopped down onto my sofa and pulled my laptop out of my backpack to look up bus schedules.

Before I searched bus schedules, I decided to check my email. A small part of me wondered or hoped that Ryan may have sent me something. I scanned my inbox, but saw nothing from him. Admittedly, I was a little disappointed.

Hmm, I wondered what would come up if I did a search on him. I went to Bing and typed in “Ryan McGraw+Megasoft.”

There was a long list of search results. Wow. The first item was his public Facebook profile. It was a close-up of his face, wearing sunglasses, smiling that glorious dimpled grin of his. As I clicked further into his profile, it showed that we had three mutual friends. I looked to confirm that they were all from MS. I clicked his friends list. I saw several more MS names, including Catherine’s. That was no surprise, since they did work together in the past. There were a bunch of people from the Bay Area. His education status showed UW and Stanford. His last update was over a year ago. Obviously, he didn’t spend much time on Facebook.