Free Lost In Autumn by Frankie Delgado Page A

smirked to myself. It’s a good thing I don’t have anyone to impress today .   My long chestnut hair had a slight wave in it
from the humidity and I could tell my eyeliner had smudged. I walked under the
archway and opened the glass door of the library adding my sweaty palms to the
collection of handprints on the glass.

 
    I plopped down in
one of the wooden chairs and opened my textbook. Long rows of tables spread out
in front of me with a handful of other students spending the afternoon in the
same pastime. I read the first page of words and after I reached the last
sentence, I realized that I couldn’t remember a single sentence I had read. I
sighed and started over only to be distracted by a soft deep voice behind me.
“Is that seat taken?” I followed the sound of the masculine voice up from the
dark wash of his snug fitted jeans, the swell of ripped pectoral muscles to the
intense chestnut eyes that were inquisitively looking at me. “Huh?” I swallowed
awkwardly and immediately felt embarrassed over my not so glamorous response.
    “Oh. No.” I barked
out and flashed my eyes back to my studies. I peeked up through my eyelashes as
he walked in front of me and gave me a full view of his glutes. Shit, stop gawking! I was acting like I
was going through puberty and I was ashamed of myself. He sat down in the seat
opposite from me and appeared to lose himself in his book. I turned my full
attention back to my studies, narrowed my eyes and focused.

 
    I struggled my way
through two chapters. I felt like I hadn’t accomplished very much, but I needed
to go. It was only 12:02 pm now but the game started at 1:05 pm and I wanted to
stop by my dorm and have a quick snack to avoid the expensive stadium food.
    I gathered my things
and had almost reached the door when I heard that deep voice again.
    “Excuse me. Miss? I
believe this is yours?”
    I turned around in
response but no words came out of my mouth.
    The muscled almost
godly man handed me the small canary yellow case that I had somehow nudged out
of my purse that I tried to carry all my belongings in.
    I flushed a bit
knowing the contents were my pocket-size vibrator and tampons – an odd
combination.
    “Thank you!” I
studied his face trying to decide if there had been enough time for him to look
inside.
    The mischievous look
in his dark eyes made my cheeks turn even brighter than they already were and
my stomach dropped as he replied with a smirk,
    “My pleasure. ”
    He dragged the word
out as long as possible and finished it with a knowing wink.
    I was flustered and
quickly stuffed the damn yellow case back in purse and continued my journey to
the door, hoping that even though he was incredibly hot, that I would never run
into him again.

 
    I arrived back at my
small off-campus apartment where my best friend and roommate Janet was waiting
to ride with me to the game.
      “Hey girl heyyyy,” she drawled dramatically
and slapped my booty as I walked in.
    “I swear Nala, your
butt gets bigger every day - it isn’t fair!”
    I giggled over the
compliment and walked over to the refrigerator even though I knew it was
probably empty. Janet rarely bought groceries and I hadn’t been to the store
yet this week.
    An eggroll that was left
over from Chinese takeout I had ordered on Tuesday and a small amount of lemon
chicken was all that was inside, apart from condiments and a half empty ginger
ale bottle.
    “Still good,” I
mumbled and stuck the whole eggroll in my mouth so I could free both hands and
pour myself a glass of J. Rieger whiskey – Kansas City deliciousness that Janet
had bought for my 21 st birthday.
    I topped off my
midday drink with the rest of the ginger ale and one of my circle ice cubes
that I kept in the freezer just for such occasions.
    Setting the rest of
my eggroll on the counter, I joked “If an ice cube is a circle, do you still
call it an ice cube or is it an ice circle ?”
    I had a bad habit of
making dumb jokes and