The boy shyly laughed and leaned in, gathering his courage. The sunlight cast itself over them, awakening a distant, old memory of youth.
“Huh? Isn’t that Arianne? Our year’s campus belle. Damn, she is really robbing the cradle now.”
The classmate beside me said it a little too loudly.
Arianne’s head snapped in our direction.
Our eyes met, and panic flickered across her face.
She instinctively pushed Hudson away and started to walk toward me, but he grabbed her arm firmly. He said something I could not hear, and she hesitated, lowering her gaze.
My phone buzzed. It's Arianne's text.
[Don’t get the wrong idea. They were just messing around, and I didn’t want to kill the mood.]
I didn’t even bother giving her the bare minimum “okay.”
Soon after, I followed the group to the café we used to visit, listening to the familiar chatter all around me.
“Clyde, what is your situation now?”
I lifted my coffee and answered calmly, “Single.”
Someone leaned in with interest, clearly ready to stir the pot.
“You should take a page out of Arianne’s book. If a relationship doesn’t work out, go find yourself a younger guy. Look at her and her new boyfriend. They actually look pretty good together.”