Love and Other Goals (Love and Other #1)

Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

A fter sitting and writing for so long, I need some physical movement to help clear my head. I decide to go for a walk around campus, but first drop my stuff off at AOPi. Teegan is reading her Bible in the living room when I walk through, and she raises her eyebrows at me. “Someone wasn’t in our room early this morning…Did someone have trouble sleeping because someone was busy thinking about a very intriguing someone?”

I quickly glance around to make sure no one is listening, then shush her. “Super subtle, Teegs,” I call back to her as I head out the side door toward campus.

Teegan wanted to immediately broadcast to all of Townsend that I was going on a date with the most eligible bachelor on campus, but I swore her and Amaya to secrecy. I’m still having a hard time coming to grips with this reality, and I don’t need the added pressure of nosy people’s judgments of my own eligibility in this situation.

Speaking of judgy people, I walk right into Bailey where the sidewalks from AOPi and TriAlpha converge.

I give her what hopefully passes as a smile. “Sorry about that, just lost in my thoughts.” Unfortunately, she’s headed the same direction as I am, so we fall into step beside each other. “So, how are things at TriAlpha going?” I ask. Encouraging her to talk about how awesome her sorority is seems like a good way to avoid her asking me any questions.

“Oh, fantastic,” she gushes. “We got the best girls from the pledge class this year, so we’re having a great start to the semester.” She drones on for another couple of minutes about all the fabulous things about their A+ new pledges, naturally mentioning the heavy influence she had on their selection list. “Girls are already fighting over who will get to be involved in the homecoming events, so I’ll have a lot of tough decisions to make when we put teams together.”

“Sounds intense,” I say, trying to tell her what she seems to want to hear.

“And how is the new AOPi pledge class doing? I hope you’ll be able to find enough girls to participate in all of the homecoming competitions,” Bailey quips. “If Amaya needs any assistance making sure she doesn’t fall behind with the preparations, tell her I am absolutely here to help.”

I roll my eyes so hard I give myself a headache. Nothing annoys me more than people backdoor badmouthing my best friends. “Amaya is doing an incredible job. She’s the most organized, ambitious person I know, so AOPi is in great hands this year,” I counter, trying to sound lighthearted and unaggressive.

Bailey does her signature one eyebrow raise. “Well, I’m sure you’ll do fine by AOPi standards. I’ve got to head this way to the union—big meeting with the OG president to start planning our homecoming showcase routine. See you at Arrow Thursday night!”

Thank goodness Bailey heads the opposite direction from me before I say something I might regret. I take a deep breath and remind myself that I do not hate Bailey. I really don’t. But I wouldn’t hate it if she maybe stepped in gum on the way to the union.

I pause walking to shoot a text to the Beefs’ group message.

Don’t worry Amaya, I just talked with Bailey and she has offered her services to help you handle homecoming eye roll emoji

Amaya

smh. Her high opinion of herself knows no bounds

Or maybe it’s just her low opinion of us

Teegan

Lana, are you really positively sure we can’t announce your date to the entire campus? It would sure knock Bailey off her high horse to find out Mateo Alvarez asked out an AOPi prayer hands emoji

NO

Teegan

sigh

On Wednesday afternoon, I’m getting ready for chapter with Teegan when my phone pings with a text. I swipe it open and see Mateo’s name in my notifications.

Mateo

I have a reservation for dinner. Wear something you’ll feel comfortable sitting outdoors in. See you at 6:30 Friday

I don’t know exactly what my face is saying as I read the text, but Teegan looks over and asks, “Everything okay, Beef?”

“Yes,” I tell her. “Mateo just sent me details for our date.”

“Ooooo, why was your face looking so weird then? This is exciting!” She grabs my phone from my hand to read the text from Mateo. “Something comfortable to sit outside. We can work with that.”

She immediately starts rummaging through my closet. “That was nice of him to give you wardrobe instructions.”

“We still have plenty of time to pick an outfit for Friday, Teegs,” I say, pulling her arm away from the closet. “Right now, we have to get ready for chapter, or we’ll be late and Amaya will punish us in unsavory ways.”

Even as I try to act breezy with Teegan, all through dinner and the chapter meeting, I’m thinking ahead to Friday. It was thoughtful of Mateo to let me know how to dress. Where could we be going? I try to think of every place in town with outdoor seating . Is it going to be somewhere with a fancy patio? Or a casual place in Center Square with high top tables on a wood deck? Super public, where we’ll potentially be seen by a lot of Arrow people? What should I wear? Will any article of clothing help me feel comfortable on this date?

After chapter, I sit in our room with my laptop, trying to will myself to concentrate. I had marked in my calendar to be finished with a first draft of the personal statement essay for my law school application by tomorrow. I haven’t even started. I really need to focus if I’m going to meet my own deadlines.

Too bad all my focus is being disrupted by Mateo right now.

The next day, I’m welcoming people to the Arrow meeting and fearing that everyone would take one look at me and know exactly what’s going on in my mind. Mateo and several of his teammates came in a while ago, but they mercifully got name tags from a different welcome team member.

“What superpower would you pick?” I ask the person standing in front of me, writing down their answer. Teleportation is beneath my name, but at this moment, I’d take invisibility.

I’m relieved when the music starts inside the meeting room and I can cease small talk with people. I put the name tag supplies away and duck into the row with the AOPis.

The band plays “Promises” by Maverick City Music, and I close my eyes and try to focus on the lyrics. By the end of the song, my heart feels calmer. We take our seats as a student heads up for the testimony .

I recognize Andrès, one of Mateo’s teammates, standing on stage. He introduces himself and says he’s going to share the story of how Jesus has changed his life. In contrast to Amaya’s polished speech, Andrès is visibly nervous, losing his train of thought a couple of times and saying “um” a lot. But his vulnerability only makes his story more real.

Andrès shares about his difficult upbringing in Miami, living in an area of the city divided by rival gangs. His dad was incarcerated for most of his childhood, and he didn’t want to end up the same way. But avoiding the gang life seemed impossible, until a coach for a local soccer nonprofit took notice of Andrès’ athletic abilities and got him involved with a team.

The team helped him avoid the full gang experience, but Andrès was still exposed to plenty of violence and drugs. He was always afraid he was just one mistake away from ending up like his father. When he got a scholarship to come join the soccer team at Townsend, he saw it as his way out.

“I arrived last year with a chip on my shoulder,” Andrès shares. “I felt like the students I met here couldn’t relate with my life. And most of you can’t, thank God. But my teammate Mateo kept making this effort to get to know me, to ask me questions, and he was never scared away by any of my answers.”

I glance over at where Mateo is sitting in the second row, and see him give Andrès an encouraging smile.

“So, when Mateo asked me if I’d want to read the Bible with him, I realized I trusted him as a friend, so I wanted to see what it was about. I started feeling so much more peace in my life. I went home over winter break and saw all these guys around me throwing their lives away, and I knew I didn’t want that to be my story.” Andrès glances down at Mateo and says, “I came back that next semester and told Mateo I was ready to go all in, that I knew I needed Jesus to save my life. And I’ve been growing in my faith ever since.

“I guess the point is, if God can change my life, he can change anyone’s life,” Andrès concludes. “Thanks for letting me share my story. ”

The whole room claps as Andrès jumps off the stage to rejoin Mateo and the other soccer players, receiving lots of bro hugs and thumps on the back.

My heart starts pounding. I don’t even know what the message is about at Arrow. I don’t think I hear a single word. I just keep thinking back over Andrès’ testimony and the look on Mateo’s face as he listened. He obviously cares deeply for Andrès and has invested a lot into their friendship.

Suddenly everyone is standing around me, and I realize the band has started playing the final song. I quickly rise to my feet and go through the motions of singing along. The meeting ends, and the air fills with a mix of conversations and upbeat music pulsing through the speakers.

I watch out of the corner of my eye as the soccer guys congregate around Andrès. My attention snaps less subtly to them when I notice Bailey giving Andrès short congratulatory remarks before turning to Mateo. I have no idea what she’s saying, but her body language screams flirtation. My eyes shift to Mateo’s face, trying to assess his reaction to Bailey’s obvious interest in him. He nods in response to whatever she just said and smiles.

Huh .

I squint a bit as I study his face. It’s a very polite smile, but his eyes aren’t in it.

That’s definitely not the same smile he looked at me with.

“Are we going to After Party?” Liz asks me.

“What?” I say, shaking my head to clear my thoughts.

“They said that After Party is at Creamiery,” Liz says. “Are we all going?”

“Of course we are!” Teegan jumps in. “Like I’m going to miss a chance at gelato!”

The girls start walking out the doors, and Teegan leans in toward my ear. “That was quite the testimony, huh? Andrès sure seems like a nice guy, with even nicer friends.”

I give her a slight shove as her eyes twinkle mischievously. “Yeah yeah. Let’s go get some gelato.”

When we arrive at Creamiery, there’s a long line of Arrow students waiting to order. The AOPis are talking around me, but I’m still lost in my thoughts.

“Hey Lana.” Aaron’s voice suddenly cuts through the fog.

“Oh, hey Aaron,” I stutter, flustered, as though he could read my mind and know who I was thinking about. We take a step forward as the line moves.

“So how are your classes this semester? Do you have a tough schedule?” he asks.

“I’m only taking twelve hours. I wanted to give myself some margin to work on law school stuff. But they are all upper-level courses, so I still have my work cut out for me,” I tell him. “What about you? How’s your senior year starting off?”

“Same, not too many hours, but more work in each class. Two of my marketing classes are going to have a lot of group projects this semester, which always seem to take more time than individual assignments,” Aaron replies as we move up in the line. He gestures at the tubs of gelato in the display case. “What are you going to order? They have this new Almond Joy flavor that totally slaps—you have to try it.”

I wrinkle my nose. “Yeah, I hate coconut.”

“What?! Aw, it’s so good though!” he persists. “You should ask for a sample. You’ll love it.”

“Um, I guess,” I say uncertainly. Aaron asks the employee for a sample and hands me the tiny spoon. I raise the gelato to my mouth and immediately know I won’t like it just from the smell. Ugh, the flavor and texture of the coconut shreds are so overpowering, I have to try hard not to gag.

Aaron looks at me expectantly, like there’s no way I won’t like it. I swallow hard and say, “I mean, it’s not my favorite. I’m going to stick with my go-to.”

Aaron orders a cup of the Almond Joy, and I ask the next employee for peanut butter cup. As soon as I say the words, I think about how Mateo would have known exactly what I was going to order. Aaron is laughing with a friend waiting for his gelato, and I glance at him out of the corner of my eye.

If I were keeping score, tonight would be a definitive tick on Mateo’s side. Aaron may have a few years-long head start, but I’m starting to wonder if he’ll be ticking any more boxes.