Free Sparks the Matchmaker (Aaron Sparks Series) by Russell Elkins Page A

the bookstore with that girl a number of times, so I’m guessing you’re plenty busy with your circle of friends.”
    “Yeah,” he said, looking down at the ground. “Looks like I’m going to need to make a new circle now.”
    “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude,” she said.
    “Oh, no. No worries,” he said. His early missteps made him uncomfortable, but making her feel awkward was even worse. He didn’t want his first conversation with Joy to be based around the girl who dumped him less than twenty-four hours earlier.
    Thankfully, she quickly changed the subject. “So, what are you going to the Wilk for?”
    “The ride board,” Sparks said, as Ollie looked to him for a lifeline.
    “Really? That’s a funny coincidence,” she said. “So am I.”
    They got to know each other a little more while they walked. Joy said she used to live in Boulder when she was a teenager, but her dad got promoted, and with that came a transfer to St. Louis. So she had to move with her family halfway through her senior year of high school. She waited a few years after that before starting college, so she was a twenty-two year-old sophomore on the path to becoming an elementary school teacher.
    Ollie had seen the ride board before, but he’d never used it. It was a large map near the front entrance of the Wilkinson Center where students would go if they were either needing a ride somewhere or offering a ride for other people to go along. If you were offering a ride, you would put your information on a small blue piece of paper and stick it in the slot near the place you were planning to go. If you needed a ride, you’d fill out a yellow slip of paper and put it into the same spot. Anybody could go rummaging through the slips of paper to find someone to split gas money with.
    Ollie began to wonder where on that map he was about to go. Standing behind Joy, who was busy with the map, he looked at Sparks a little desperately.
    “Are you offering a ride, or are you hoping to get one from someone else?” she asked.
    “Ollie’s driving to Denver to see his aunt this weekend,” Sparks said.
    Joy looked at him. The smirk on her face was all at once both delicious and razor sharp.
    “She’s always telling me I need to come see her, and I finally have a weekend free,” Ollie said.
    “You’re funny,” she said, smiling at him.
    He looked at Sparks for any cue he might have been be missing. “Anyway, I could always use someone to help chip in a little for gas.”
    “Denver, huh? Now I’m starting to think you’re stalking me.”
    “What? No. No, I’m not. Honestly, I—”
    “Relax!” she laughed. “I’m just kidding. Anyway, stalker, not even my roommates know I’m planning on going to Denver this weekend. Um, is anyone else riding with you?”
    Ollie turned to look at Sparks. “Are you coming with me? I know you’ve been considering it. Did you make up your mind yet?”
    “I think I’ll stay here,” Sparks said. “Since you have someone to split gas with, you don’t need me.”
    “Well, if it’s okay with you,” Joy said, “I think I’d feel a little more comfortable if we found someone else to come along. It’s not that… it’s just… riding alone to Denver with a guy I’ve barely met and all…”
    “Of course,” Ollie said, feeling like the world was right for the first time that day. “That’s a great idea.”
    “There’s only one person in here,” she said as she pulled the yellow slip of paper out of the Denver slot.
    “Do you want to call her or should I?” Ollie asked.
    “Probably better for me to call,” she said, laughing. “I know I’d feel more comfortable accepting a ride from a strange girl than from a strange guy.”
    Ollie watched as she pulled a cell phone from her pocket and punched the number in. While she made the call, he wandered a little away from her, thinking of what kinds of things they might be doing on their trip. Though thanks to Sparks he had seen it all