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behind her, combing her long, thick brown hair with my fingers as thoughts of Mark start to flood my mind.

 
     
    “Jase, are you coming out with me tonight?”
    Looking up at Kimber, who is standing in Candace’s doorway, I say, “I don’t think so.”
    “Are you serious? Why the hell not?” she barks as she sits down next to me while I lie on Candace’s bed.
    Propping my hands behind my head, I tell her, “I’m supposed to be meeting a friend later.”
    “What friend?” Candace asks as she walks out of her bathroom. She makes her way over to her dance bag and takes out her ballet shoes to start powdering them.
    “So, I’ve been watching you do this routine with those damn shoes for years and have never had a clue why you douse those things in powder.”
    She looks up at me and says, “Because your feet sweat when you dance and the powder absorbs it. It also keeps the shoes from smelling like crap.”
    “Ahhh.”
    “Don’t change the subject on me. Who are you seeing tonight?”
    “Mark.”
    “You’re going out with him again?” Candace asks in surprise and then Kimber pipes up and adds, “That guy from the other night?”
    Looking between the both of them, I answer, “Yes, and yes.”
    “You’re such a slut!”
    I just laugh at Kimber.
    “I didn’t know you were seeing him,” Candace says as she stands up and starts walking into her closet.
    “I’m not seeing him. We’re just hanging out, that’s all.” But I know that’s really not all. It’s not like we’re dating or anything—we are in fact just hanging out—but a part of me really does want more.
    Kimber jabs me in my ribs. “Fine, ditch me for ass.”
    Laughing at her, I tease, “Has anyone ever told you how delicate your mouth is?”
    Hopping off the bed, she kisses the air while flipping me off. When she walks out of the room, I continue to laugh at her crudeness as I hear her call from down the hall, “Text me later, bitch.”
    Walking out of the closet, Candace strips out of her sweaty dance clothes and throws on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. She turns to me and lies down beside me.
    I wrap my arms around her when she softly questions, “Do you like him?”
    “We’re just grabbing coffee, that’s all.”
    A few moments later, I feel my phone vibrate in my back pocket. Candace giggles and she reaches under me to retrieve it. When she hands it to me, I swipe the screen to see the missed text from Mark.
    “I gotta run. He’s leaving campus now.”
    “Okay. You wanna spend the night here tonight?”
    “Yeah, I’ll text you when I’m on my way,” I say as I get off the bed. I lean back down and kiss her cheek before I leave.
     

     
    Walking into Café Allegro, I see Mark standing at the counter chatting with one of the staff. I step up next to him and he says, “Oh, hey. Jase, this is Nathaniel.”
    I nod my head, and Nathaniel reaches over the counter to shake my hand. He’s an older guy with a bit of a gnarly look about him. “Nice to meet you,” I say.
    “Any friend of Mark’s is a friend of mine.”
    Mark laughs and tells me, “He owns this place.”
    “Thirty-seven years,” he proudly says.
    We visit for a couple of minutes, and then Nathaniel makes our drinks before we find an empty table to sit down at.
    “Did you get your schedule fixed?” I ask him.
    “Yeah, I really wanted to get into Gibson’s studio, but when I first went to register, it was full. But I hopped online the other day and saw that someone had dropped and there was a seat open.”
    “Gibson’s Tuesday/Thursday studio?” I ask.
    Taking a sip of his coffee, he sets the mug down and says, “Yeah.”
    “That’s my studio.”
    “Really? That’s cool. Yeah, originally I was signed up for Professor Walter’s.”
    “Oh, man, he’s so traditional. I had him sophomore year, and he criticized everything I did. He was a dick about it too.”
    “Well, since we have our capstone this year, I really wanted Gibson ‘cause our