All I Have To Give

Hello, Good Sir

"The name's AJ, AJ McLean.." He holds his hand out for me to shake it.

"Uhh, I didn't ask, but nice to meet you." I shake his hand.

I can't tell if we met by chance or if he's been lowkey following me and my friend through the mall.. The first option makes me feel less anxious, so I'm just going to go along with that.

I hadn't really noticed him until Christina pointed out that she'd not only seen him in the bookstore, the coffee shop, the generic clothing store, but also the crystal shop. All of which the two of us went to. To be completely fair this isn't uncommon for a mall, but the way Xtina explained it I was a little skeevied..

"Hi, I'm her best friend and we'll be leaving, Good Day Sir."

She practically pushed me out the door until we were in the parking lot, standing next to her car.

I looked at her before getting in.

"What? You can never be too careful nowadays."

"Even with a cute guy?" I shrugged my shoulders.

"Especially, with a cute guy."

As she started to drive off, I realized I left my wallet in the mall.. Hopefully at one of the stores we went to. This led her to bust out a quick illegal U- turn and head right back.

"Okay, well we didn't go to too many stores today so it won't be that hard to find, hopefully." She said as she tried to soothe my anxiety.

We both hopped out of the car and diligently retraced our steps. After going into every single store we went to we ended up with nothing and my stomach was in knots. I sat down at an empty table in the food court with my head in my hands.

"It's okay, we'll find it."

All I could do was nod.

To make matters worse, Christina tapped me on the back and said "Oh boy, here comes you're secret admirer." I looked up and saw that AJ guy walking towards me.

"Hey! You left before I could give this to you."

He handed me my wallet.

"Oh my God! Thank you so much, you don't even know how long we've been looking for this."

Christina whispered "Maybe he isn't a creep after all."

I give her a quick glance.

"I should have just given it to you to begin with instead of introducing myself like that."

"No, it's fine. Thanks for making sure I got it back."

"No problem, well hope you two have a good day."

"You too, bye."

As he turned to walk away I had an annoying sense of longing.. How could I possibly miss him? We just met..

I look at Christina "What should I do?"

"Well if he didn't take the two crisp dollars you had in your wallet, you could treat him to mall Pizza."

"Xtina!" I hit her arm.

"Am I wrong though?"

I check and sure enough they were still there along with a slip of paper.

"Sorry about earlier. When you get the chance, text me some time. AJ."

On the other side his number was neatly written down.

"Are you gonna text him?"

I look up in a failed attempt at seeing if he was still in eye range.

"Maybe."

*********

A month passed and I still hadn't texted him.. I figured he forgot about me by now. I got up from my bed to look at the little piece of paper I left on my dresser..

I shrugged "Wouldn't hurt."

"Hey, this is the girl from the mall.. You had found my wallet. Sorry it took so long."

I re-read it over and over to make sure it sounded alright enough to send. As soon as I sent it, rapid fire scenarios began to play out in my head..

What if he forgot about me for real and doesn't reply? Or if he waits a month to respond, which is petty, but I understand. Or he could have a girlfriend now and she sees this and think he's cheating on her? Maybe he does have a girlfriend and he is cheating on her, but my text reveals the truth by accident? What if he changed his number randomly last week.. I throw my hands up in frustration.. Great! Now some middle aged mom from Albuquerque thinks I'm trying to scam her out of her delinquent son's College Fund!

What if he does this to girls all the time?

I felt my heart sink a bit with that one..

I jump when my phone goes off and sure enough it's a text from AJ. I try and calm myself down. "It's just a text, it's fine." I realize that I'd literally spent an hour ruminating over someone I barely talked to at the mall.

It read:

"Hey, I was starting to get worried.. Figured I'd weirded you out. How's it been?"

Every little thing I thought of for the past hour evaporated. I quickly came up with something clever to say, which I then sent after the texting time grace period passed.

Over the next few days we texted constantly and eventually it led to us talking on the phone for hours, then Skyping and finally our first date.

Christina called me from the kitchen "He's here!"

I basically run down the stairs "Thanks!! I'll see you later."

She had promised to come down to restaurant with her boyfriend to make sure I was safe.

I walked out the door and towards his car. He got out and opened the door for me.

I smile "Well hello, Good Sir."

"Hey, you look fantastic!" He kissed my cheek.

"Thanks, so do you."