I sat down in Hotel Ops today in my usual strategic location. Any seat that has empty seats on all sides of it. This is so Hot GES still has a chance of sitting next to me if he comes in right before class starts, which happens sometimes.

I pulled out my book and started reading, since I was ten minutes early. Occasionally I glance around to see if he’s entered the room. Nothing. Dr. Walls walks in. Nothing. I do a full 360 sweep, which I typically avoid doing to not seem like a total weirdo. I mean, the guy has the right to sit wherever the hell he likes. He doesn’t have to sit next to me all the time, like he has the past month. But much to my dismay, I don’t see him.

As I turned back around to continue reading though, I caught something out of the corner of my eye. Someone stood up from their desk. Shortly thereafter, Hot GES walks right by me and sits down in the seat in front of me saying “hello!” with a huge smile in his face. “Oh! Why hello!” I said genuinely surprised this time. The guest speaker began to talk a few minutes later.

Halfway through the lecture, I check my phone and see I have a couple texts from my friend Matt who also has Hotel Ops with me. He wrote “I think your homeboy is looking for you. He keeps looking around.” he sent them to me about 5 minutes before class started.

The person standing up out of their desk in the corner of my eye was him! I smiled.

We then went to our RPT class and kept talking to each other and he naturally situated himself a desk right next to me as usual and we talked. Class went by fast and he had to talk to our professor after class about a project he turned in. Without even thinking, I walked with him, our professor and another student to the professor’s office. And I waited for him. Way to go captain obvious, I thought to myself. But then I realized fuck this shit, this guy is about to bounce out of the country in a month. I don’t have time for subtlety or mystery.

After what seemed like years, he finally came out of the professor’s office. “Thank you for waiting for me.” he said. “Oh no problem,” I replied. We walked to the top of campus together until I had to depart for the shuttle. I told him to let me know if he could make it to Off the Grid tomorrow and he said he’d message me tonight.

And then, without any hesitation from him or initiation from me, he leaned in and gave me a hug.

I no longer care if he can’t make it tomorrow.

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April 13, 2012