Nick called around noon. Class let out mere minutes before, and Melany hadn’t left campus yet. “I was thinking about you, and ummm … Do you wanna grab some coffee or something?” Those were his exact words. A coffee date! What did it mean? Were coffee dates like official date dates? Did she need to dress nice? If only she had the time to call Nadia. Her sweater was nice enough. Hopefully, it would do. She ran home to drop off her books and met him in Oasis Springs. 

Her heart did a little dance when she saw him on the sidewalk waiting. But, then she panicked. His outfit was much too nice for a coffee date—if coffee dates really were as casual as she hoped. He wore a blazer, slim fit jeans, nice loafers and looked more like he was attending a party than a midday coffee date. Oasis Springs was unusually cold and windy that day. Maybe he didn’t check the weather report and wore the blazer instead of a coat. Or, perhaps he had an important presentation in class and wanted to dress to impress. Could it be a message of some sort? What did it mean??

Besides his spiffy outfit, his whole demeanor was different—good different.  Normally, he was adorably bashful and sometimes got flustered when he spoke. But that afternoon, he gazed at her with a confident little smirk. Something told her this coffee date was the beginning of something really nice.