JJ's Dinner waffles taste better. Hands down.
What I had in front of me is a second rate, trying hard, copycat. But waffles are waffles, I still couldn't resist them. I added double the whip cream toppings to make up for it. I looked at my watch and confirmed that my project partner was five minutes late. My waffles are almost done, if he doesn't appear soon, I'll have to order another. Although, that wasn't a really bad idea.
The door to the café opened and my partner, Tom Haverford, swaggered in. He was my classmate in Business Management 101 and due to some random partner generator that our professor used, we are now assigned to work together on a presentation that is due next week. We had to come up with a business idea and present it to the class.
"Hey beautiful, hope you weren't waiting too long for me." Tom sat down in front of me and looked at the menu. I took this time to assess him as we would be working together for a week and I hoped that he wouldn't cause me to get a bad grade in this class.
Tom was dressed in expensive clothes, I could tell because a famous logo was embroidered on them. He also had a very confident air about him. He looked foreign, though he did speak with a perfect accent. Maybe he was born in Libya and grew up in America. And the fact that he called me beautiful meant that he was a charmer. Not my type though. If I even had a type.
What is my type? Hmmm, I'd have to think about that one.
He called for a waiter, placed his order and turned his attention to me. "Alright, let's talk business. I have a thousand ideas that we can use." And with that, he started shooting off his ideas one by one. Some of them, nay, most of them were very absurd ideas. Online butler, Swaggerbook that was kind of like Facebook but for cool people, gourmet cafeteria food, vending machines that spray you with perfumes, glitter condiments... And he just kept rattling on one after the other.
"Okay, pause!" I gave him a time out gesture.
"Too many to keep up? I'll give you a few minutes to think them over and we can go with the one that speaks out to you." His food arrived and he took a few minutes to capture photos of them. I had to stop him when he wanted to stand on his chair and take a shot from that angle. He was going to break his neck for an Instagram post. He finished posting them online and started eating his food.
"Three questions." Tom said looking seriously at me. "Which idea are we going to present? Are you single? And will you go out with me?"
"I haven't decided yet, yes and no, in that exact order."
"No? But, but can't you feel the chemistry between us?"
"Tom, this is the first time we have ever talked longer than 5 seconds. And most of the talking has been done by you. What chemistry are you referring to?"
Tom reaches out and places his hand on top of mine. "Leslie, you can't deny it. Your genes and my genes, we would be doing the world a favor."
Before I could react, a looming shadow appeared next to our table. "Hey, Leslie." I looked up and saw that it was Ben. Ben staring suspiciously at Tom's hand over mine. He turned to me with a questioning look, "I'm sorry, are you guys on a date?"
"Yes." Tom answered quickly.
"No, we are not." I snapped, shaking his hand off of mine.
"Not yet." Tom looked back and forth between me and Ben, waiting for an introduction.
"Tom, this is Ben Wyatt. Ben this is Tom Haverford, my project partner."
"Ben Wyatt?" There was shock in Tom's voice. "The Benjamin Wyatt?"
"Yes."
"Dude, isn't your mom like on the list of Fortune Magazine?"
Of course she is... I wasn't surprised to hear this at all.
"Yeah." Ben mumbled.
"Here, come sit with us." Tom said, patting the empty space next to him.
I wanted to kick Tom hard on the shin. If I wouldn't end up losing my scholarship, I would hurt this little man in front of me. "I don't think that's a good idea." I gave Tom my sternest look. "We have a lot to talk about for our presentation." But my protest was of no use, Tom already grabbed Ben and was making him sit in the booth next to him. I bit the inside of my lip to keep from displaying my frustration.
"Ben can help us! This guy is a legend. He practically aced this class. I heard that his presentation blew everyone away and professor Dickhead even bought his idea so he could open up that laundromat business for himself."
"Professor Dickens." I corrected him. But my mind was now tumbling back to the events that occurred during his birthday party a week ago. I was already past this. We went home that night and I told April and Ann what happened and we all agreed that Shauna was bitch, Ann's words, not mine. Then I kicked my feelings down a pit and didn't bother with it again.
"I actually just wanted to ask how you were. You left the party in such a hurry, I wondered if something was wrong." Ben looked genuinely worried. I tried to remember what happened after Shauna confronted me. I think I shoved his jacket back in his hand too hard. And I might have forgotten to say goodbye to his sister.
"No, nothing was wrong. I remembered that I had to study for a big test on Monday." Also, your future girlfriend was marking her territory. I didn't say that last one, but I sure wished I did. I felt a bit sorry for him if they actually ended up together.
"Ok, well, I guess that clears it up. I have to get to my next class. But if you give me your number I could maybe text you some of my ideas and help you out with this project."
Ben was asking for my number. My number. I stared at him because I was stalling. I was trying to stay away from him. Why is he making it so hard?
"Here, I have her number in my contacts list." Tom started rattling off my digits to Ben. I wanted to take his phone and throw it to the furthest corner of the café. "You can save my number too. I'm down to hang out with you anytime."
"Thanks, I'll text you later." Ben gave me a smile, got up and walked out of the shop.
I smacked Tom really hard on the arm. "Why did you give him my phone number?"
"Owwieee!" He cried, rubbing his arm and pouted at me.
"I have been trying to avoid him since the day I met him!"
"Why? I mean, he's a nerd, sure, but he's like super rich. Everyone wants to be his friend, including me. Every girl I know wants to date him."
"I don't care if he's rich. Why does everyone assume I'm after his money? And I keep trying to avoid him because he is a jerkface."
"Jerkface? What does that even mean?"
"It means, I don't like him and I don't want anything to do with his world."
I was walking back to my dorm, passing through Freedom Park along the way. Tom and I finished our discussion about the presentation and planned out each other's tasks. My phone vibrated and I grabbed it from my pocket.
'Hey. This is Ben.'
Gaaah! Why is this happening? The text notification showed up on my locked screen. I slipped the phone back into my pocket, I had no plans to reply.
I finally reached my dorm and settled down on my desk. I opened my laptop to start working on my side of the presentation. I had a few more hours till my next class. I took out my phone and placed it on top of the table. The notification from Ben's text was still there. I cleared it and went back to work.
I couldn't concentrate though. I kept glancing at my phone. It was like that feeling you have when a notification number on an app appears and you just want to click it and clear it out. I was using that as an excuse to read his text message. I read it more than once but I still didn't know what to reply so I just saved his number in my contacts.
Saved under first name "Jerk", last name "Face".
'Can I call you?'
The new message popped up just right after I saved his contact name.
No, you most certainly cannot call me. I thought to myself. This was starting to feel weird. I'm not sure why I felt so panicky.
'I'm not free atm.' I texted back in case he decided to call me if I didn't reply, locked the phone, and vowed never to reply to any of his new messages after this.
The phone vibrated again, this time it was an incoming call from Jerk Face.
Crap on a spatula. I silenced the phone and threw it on the bed.
Shit shit shit shit shit. It vibrated a few more times, informing me that there were new messages and then silence.
I tried to get back to work, but I just had to see what the new messages were. I groaned out loud and grudgingly fished my phone from my comforter.
There were two messages from Ben.
'Sorry, I hadn't seen your reply when I started calling.'
'Let me know when you're free.'
Why is he acting like we were friends? Did he want to be friends with me? Oh, God. I need to talk to Ann. I dialed Ann's number and it went to her voicemail. I left a panicky message for her to call me back as soon as possible. I hung up and stared at my phone for a while. I was startled when it started vibrating again. It was a longer message from Ben and I had to open it to see more.
'Mr. dickens likes graphs with lots of colors. And you're gonna want to focus on the return of investment. And add lots of statistics on your target demographics.'
Wow, OK, those were really good pointers. They were actually motivating me to start working on the presentation. I hit reply, typed 'thanks' and sent the message. Then I focused on my work until it was time to go to my next class.
I walked out of the classroom, my mind swimming in philosophers that I had to read up on. I noticed someone from my peripheral vision stand up quickly from a bench near the door.
"Leslie, wait up."
Nooooooo. Oh my God, is he following me? This can't be just my imagination. He was definitely waiting for me to come out. I stopped walking and was seriously contemplating on making a run for it and pretend I didn't hear. But instead, I turned around to face him. "Ben, what are you doing here?"
"I was hanging out with Andy and April. And April mentioned this was your last class today. I wanted to, uh, talk to you more about your presentation."
"Right, well I've done most of it already, thanks to your pointers. I was going to continue with it tomorrow. I've got some other assignments I need to work on. Ok, bye." I tried to turn around but his hand softly grabs my arm.
"Wait, I got you some waffles from this place that's really famous for making good waffles." He lifted up the plastic bag he was holding.
Waffles. He got me waffles.
"We could eat it together in the park."
Waffles in the park. He wants me to eat waffles in the park with him.
"Leslie, are you ok?"
"Huh?" I realized I hadn't replied and was just staring at his hand. "Oh, uh, yeah, I'm okay..."
"Do you want to hang out in the park?"
"Uh, sure." I could never say no to waffles. It's my one and only weakness. My Achilles heel. And he was dangling it in front of me.
We walked in silence. I didn't know what to say. And he seemed lost for words too. Thank, God, Freedom Park was just a few minutes away. We found an empty picnic table and he unpacked the bag, brought out the plastic forks and the box of waffles. He handed me one of the forks and he started digging in. He cut up some slices for me to take.
Ok, wow. These waffles were good. Maybe even at par with JJ's.
"Good?"
"Yes..." I may have sighed that yes to him because he laughed at my answer. "Ok, real talk. Why are you doing this again?"
"Doing what?"
"This." I gestured to the waffles laid out on the picnic table.
"I heard you liked waffles. From April."
Hmmm, April and I needed to have a talk later on. Why the hell was she telling him stuff about me. "Ok, but why are you bringing me waffles?"
"Because I needed an excuse to talk to you."
I'm not entirely dense. So, I'm pretty sure that was a declaration of his interest in becoming friends with me. But it was really weird why he was even interested. We came from different backgrounds. And I would never be comfortable in that world he lives in surrounded by fancy gold plated everything. Plus, I'm sure he has plenty of friends. Why doesn't he go hang out with Shauna if he was so bored. But because the waffles tasted awesome, I was going to try to be nice to him.
"All right. What do you want to talk about then?"
He thinks it over then finally asked, "What are your hobbies?"
I laughed at this, "Seriously?"
"Yeah, I'm curious."
"That's a very trivial question. I'd end up telling you my hobbies and if none of them interest you, our conversation would come to a halt."
"What would you ask then?"
"How about, who's your role model? That way, once I tell you, you could come up with a dozen follow up questions."
"Alright, who's your role model?"
"Easy, I have a list, but my mother is my number one role model."
"And what does your mother do?"
"See, perfect follow up. My mother works for the local government under the Education Department in our home town."
We continued our conversation until the waffles ran out. It was surprisingly easy to talk to Ben. And it was going so well until Ann called. We paused our conversation as I talked to her on the phone. And like always, I noticed that Ben's smile turned into a frown.
"Hi Ann. No, I'm fine. Yeah, sorry, I left that awful voicemail. I'm fine, I promise. Um, I'm with Ben. Yes, really. No, I'm not joking. Ok, talk to you later. Yes, I promise I'll call." I hung up the phone and looked back at Ben. "Ok, spill. Why do you hate Ann?"
He remained silent. But I stared him down. Ben hesitated before he said, "I don't hate Ann. I just think she's not right for Chris."
"Not right for Chris? What do you mean?" There was a long pause. I crossed my arms in front of me. "What do you mean?" I repeat my words slowly.
"You know what I mean." Ben said softly.
"No, I don't know." I was starting to get annoyed. "What do you mean?" I emphasized on each word.
"She doesn't match his status quo." Ben finally blurted out.
It took me a second to process this. Did he just say that my best friend was not worthy of Chris? I took offense from this. I took huge offense. In fact, I was triggered. "What a load of bull crap."
"Look, you don't get it. Our families -"
"You're right, I don't get it. Thank you for the waffles. I think we are done talking. Good day, sir." I stood up and left him alone on the bench. I heard him call out my name but I was not going to sit there and let him look down on us from his high horse. I should have known.
Once a jerkface, always a jerkface.