48 First Dates (Seeking Romance #1)

The Prince of Horticulture

10

Asked out on a date,

nice guy who really likes plants,

that should be simple...

T he rest of our Appalachian Adventure consisted of more blisters, bugs, and bull honky. But it also featured laughter, long-lasting memories, and life-changing decisions. I finally decided to go to college in Sparksville, Alabama, along with Mitzi and Cynthia.

That night, by the fire at the campsite, I realized that there was no other decision about where to go to college. It was semi-close to home in case my parents needed me. And despite the size, I knew there were two familiar faces to soften the loneliness of leaving home.

When we got back, I added an AT trail charm to my bracelet. Partly to commemorate our quick journey and partly to remember the hot guy with no name who listened to my ramblings. The one who left early the next morning, never to be seen again.

After a few more bliss-filled weeks in the sun by the ocean, we packed up the parts of my life that would fit in a dorm room and headed north in a caravan. Our parents moved us all into the same dorm. Mitzi and Cynthia roomed together, but I was on a different floor.

I was subject to the roommate lottery. On move-in day, I was pretty sure I didn’t win the prize. My roommate came with enough issues to fill a book on her own. But for the sake of this fairy tale, I won’t tell you the whole legend of the roommate from hell. Let’s just say it was long. It was interesting. And she was gone after five weeks of school, which left me with a single room for the rest of the year.

Back on the first day of classes—I found myself in a room full of unfamiliar faces for the third time in a row. I had arrived fifteen minutes early to biology class to find a seat and get settled. As I pulled a notebook and pen out of my backpack, a shadow appeared.

The shoes and hairy legs told me that a guy sat down next to me. The familiar woodsy scent of leprechaun soap drifted my way. I looked up. His intense emerald eyes immediately captivated me. Ones I had seen only a handful of weeks before.

Brenn.

He had a fresh scar on his left eyebrow, but I would recognize those eyes anywhere. I felt my cheeks flushing.

“Hey, aren’t you Adelaide? The girl we rescued on the Appalachian Trail and then made out with my friend, Pete?” Brenn asked.

Oh, so that was his name.

Pete. No longer the Prince with No Name.

I considered denying that it was me. But there was no chance I could hide. He would be in this class all semester, so I fessed up. “Yep, that was me. And you’re Brenn, the EMT friend who played soccer.”

Brenn nodded. “Yep. Stretch is here at Frogmore U, too. Mitzi and Cynthia make it here as well?”

Boy, oh boy, did he look good. Even better than he had in the woods...

The memory of Brenn taking off his shirt to go swimming filled my mind. Heat crept up my neck, and my breath hitched. I nodded.

“That’s cool! We’ll have to have an AT Hikers lunch and swap stories of the end of our adventures. Your ankle is all better now, I see. Man, you were the highlight of our trip! Pete kept talking about you. He’s going to die when I tell him I sat next to you in class today.”

“Oh, really?” I said, as my eyebrows raised.

“Yeah, I can’t wait!” Brenn said with a laugh before he turned when the girl on his left tapped him on the shoulder. I overheard her asking him for a pencil, though I could see one poking out of the top of her purse.

Of course, she was the picture-perfect, perky blonde squeezed into a pink pencil dress way too fancy for a college class. I bet the shiny pink glaze on her lips came from lip gloss that tasted like bubble gum.

No way I’m competing with that.

I sighed as I watched the missing-pencil girl vie for Brenn’s attention. I turned to my other side and noticed a guy staring at me.

“Hey, I’m Michael,” the guy with shoulder-length brown hair said. “Nice shirt.”

I looked down and realized I was wearing my Mary Jane’s Last Dance T-shirt, the one that said, “Honey, put on that party dress,” on it.

“Thanks.” I took in his vintage Dazed and Confused T-shirt and cargo shorts before my gaze arrived at his soft brown eyes. “I’m Adelaide,” I said as the professor walked in. My focus turned toward learning what I needed to know for the class.

All through the semi-interesting lecture on cells, I kept sneaking glances at Brenn. I wasn’t the only one. Some were less subtle than others. Brenn’s soccer player build and Irish features were hard to avoid.

And then it was over. The class dismissed, Brenn waved, and I headed out to my next class.

Over the first week, my biology class followed the same pattern. I arrived early. Brenn sat next to me a few minutes later, and we would share a laugh. Missing-pencil girl would arrive— seriously, how many times can you ask for a pencil? I would go from talking to Brenn to noticing Michael on my other side. We’d chat about the weather, and class would start. And we’d all go our separate ways at the end of class.

Until Michael disrupted the pattern.

Oh, it started the same. Brenn. Laugh. Can I borrow your pencil? Michael. Lecture.

But at the end of class, as I was packing up my bag, I heard Michael clear his throat. “So, it’s our first weekend here, and I haven’t met a lot of people. Would you like to go out on a date tonight?”

“Umm...” I glanced at Brenn. A part of me hoped he overheard and would chime in with an invitation of his own. But he was too busy walking out the door with the missing-pencil girl. And at that moment, I knew the date invitation I wanted wasn’t going to come. It was going to go to the missing-pencil wench. So, I turned back to Michael. “Yeah, sure, why not?”

After all, I thought, how bad could it be?

“Awesome! Meet me at the Student Center at six. That should give us enough time to grab dinner and then head to the arboretum before sunset. What do you think?” Michael asked as he rubbed his hands down the front of his pants.

“Why not?” I said with a shrug.

The rest of the day passed quickly. The next thing I knew, Mitzi and Cynthia were walking with me to the Student Center. They had helped me get ready, but I didn’t go all out. The date had a low-key vibe to me. Minimal make-up, comfy sandals, ripped jeans, and a crop top sufficed.

Earlier that day, I had permanently shared my location on my phone with Mitzi and Cynthia. As we stood at the doors of the Student Center, I gave them a quick hug. I promised to check in at 9:00 PM to let them know how it was going. I took a deep breath and walked into my first college date.

I spotted Michael right away. He was wearing a vintage Tom Petty T-shirt and cargo shorts. “Hi,” I said softly when I got close to him.

“Hey, you look amazing!” Michael greeted me.

“You, too. I love Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers,” I offered.

“I know. Well, at least I guessed you did. You were wearing a T-shirt with a line from Mary Jane’s Last Dance on the first day of class.”

Wow! He remembered.

I nodded.

“Let’s eat.” Michael grinned.

“Why not?” I responded, nodding.

We both got what we wanted for dinner. As we ate, we chatted about why we came to Frogmore University. I told him about the Wildlife and Ecology Management program and my dream of going to work in the national parks one day.

He told me about how he was in the Horticulture program. He was from Colorado and planned to move back home to be in charge of the family greenhouses. He had all these plans for hybrid plants and different kinds of experimentation he wanted to do. Though looking back, he never explained what plants his family actually grew. That day, his love of plants explained the walk in the arboretum after dinner.

We laughed at the new university T-shirts we saw all over campus. The decal had the university initials with a slogan that said, “Where you come to make lifelong friendships.” The juxtaposition of our university’s initials—FU—with the word friendship... someone hadn’t thought through. Or maybe they had.

We walked all over the arboretum, enjoying the plants and the wildlife there. I pointed out some birds he didn’t know about, and he shared about some plants I had never noticed. Our conversation flowed, and I found myself surprised it was going so well.

We were exiting the arboretum at sunset when Michael turned around. “So, I don’t want this night to end. I’m having fun with you, Adelaide. How about we go back to my dorm? I’ll grab a movie from my collection, and we can watch it in the common room. You can invite your friends to meet us, so it won’t be weird.”

“Why not? I’ll text my friends to meet us at your dorm.” I said with a nod and reached for my phone.

“You say, ‘why not’ a lot.” Michael noticed.

“I do,” I said without looking up from my phone.

“I like it,” Michael’s voice rumbled.

I looked up as he stepped closer. He stared into my eyes, and I guessed what was coming. When the sun dipped under the horizon, he leaned in to kiss me. It was a sweet, just-right kind of kiss. Nice, but not exactly the prince-on-his-white-horse-swooping-in-to-kiss-his-princess-for-the-first-time kind of kiss.

“Come on, let’s go.” Michael grabbed my hand, and we started walking back to campus.

As Michael and I approached his dorm, I couldn’t help but notice two campus police officers. They stood near the entrance. One held a trash bag, and the other was showing a picture to a guy heading into the dorm.

“Umm, let’s forget the movie...” Michael backed up nervously.

“What?” I asked, squinting my eyes as I touched my temple to wipe away an imaginary piece of hair.

“I gotta go... bye!” Michael turned and ran.

I stood there trying to figure out what was going on. Why was Michael so agitated? He had been so sweet moments before. The kiss wasn’t that bad, was it?

I checked my breath to see if it stunk when I heard one of the campus policemen yell, “That’s him! Freeze Michael Boone!”

Suddenly, the black blur of two campus police officers whizzed by.

What the heck was going on?

My brain took a moment to catch up and realize—Michael was running from the campus cops.

I need to get out of here. I turned around and ran smack into a wall of muscle. Arms wrapped around me to keep me from falling, and a familiar woodsy scent enveloped me.

Brenn.

“Adelaide?”

For the second time that week, I wished I could pretend to be someone else in his presence. Once again, I nodded.

“Are you okay? That was crazy! The cops were looking all over the dorm for that kid who’s in our biology class—the one that sits next to you. They wouldn’t say what it was, but they came out of his room with several big, black trash bags.” Brenn looked at Stretch, who was standing next to him, shaking his head.

He turned back to me as his eyes flew wide open. “Wait, you’re not involved in it?”

I shook my head vigorously as I shouted, “NO!” Lowering my voice, I said, “I do not know what that is about. I don’t know Michael that well. He asked to go out tonight, and I thought, why not?”

“Let me guess—how bad could it be?” Brenn smirked.

I nodded sheepishly.

“Listen, you gotta be careful.” I was about to open my mouth to protest. He cut me off with, “Hey, the night is young. Do you want to go get ice cream with Stretch and me?”

Not exactly the invitation I’d wanted earlier that day, but I was taking him up on it. I grinned and replied, “Definitely.”

At that moment, Mitzi and Cynthia walked up. I had temporarily forgotten. I texted them to come meet us to watch a movie. “Sooo, this is not Michael,” Mitzi said out loud. The gleam in her eye demanded that I tell her the full story.

I shook my head.

“Hey, Brenn. Hey, Tom.” Mitzi waved at the boys.

“Tom,” Cynthia said with a dazed look. Her face went pale as her eyes locked with his.

Mitzi added an eye roll that said, Duh!

I turned back to Brenn. “Do you mind if they join us?”

He nodded. Mitzi, Brenn, and I turned, but Tom and Cynthia stood there staring at each other.

“You guys coming?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at Cynthia.

She shook her head, and color returned to her cheeks. She turned toward me with a painted-on smile. “Yes, of course. Let’s go get ice cream. What a wonderful plan. Plans are good, don’t you agree, Tom?”

“Whatever you say, darling.” Tom looked at her as they fell into step with us.

That was the night our college gang began. As we ate ice-cold delicious sundaes, the five of us became fast friends. We spent the night swapping trail stories and laughing our heads off. After that first Friday, the five of us spent most of our weekends together. The tres amigos became the cinco compadres thanks to the sudden disappearance of the Prince of Horticulture.