1 Meeting Him

The first time I saw him was at a movie theatre near my house. He was chatting with his friends, and I caught a glimpse of him as he walked by. Everyone says that it feels like lightning when you first realise a crush, but for me my crush developed like a summer breeze. His chocolate brown hair and soft brown eyes just pulled me in. He wasn't particularly tall, maybe 5'7, and he certainly wasn't muscular. He just had this sort of quiet grace when he walked, and his laugh resounded within my heart. I couldn't help myself, I was frozen until he passed by.

I stared at him until he turned the corner. The salesclerk I was talking to probably thought I was rude, not really paying attention when I spoke, and my eyes looked somewhere else entirely. I shook my head with awe and logged the event in my head. If I met him again, I would make sure to catch him and get his number.

The second time I came across him was at the mall. He was with his friends, buying clothes. He had the cutest outfit I had ever seen someone wear, a black fedora, silver rimmed glasses, black slacks, dress shoes, and a dark green turtle-necked shirt that suited him perfectly. He was on the floor below me, and by the time I got to the area he was in, he was gone again. I lamented the loss. Such amazing encounters rarely happen twice, let alone three times. I stored the regret in my heart, and I gave up on talking with him.

At least, I had… Until once again we crossed paths. There I was, sitting at a park bench eating from a lunch box I prepared, just relaxing in the temptation that was a warm summer day. He suddenly appeared in front of me, and spoke. "May I sit here?" I'm pretty sure I stuttered with surprise as I said "Be my guest." I watched him sit down. He was wearing the same outfit I saw that day in the mall, except without the fedora and the shirt was a bright ocean blue. I ate silently, rushing my brain to come up with something to say, when he spoke up.

"My name is Kyle. What's yours?" "Ah, I'm Annie. It's a pleasure to meet you." I held out my hand. He laughed. "I've never heard such a formal introduction, Annie. Well, it's a pleasure to meet you too." He said as he shook my hand.

I smiled. I liked his laugh. It was quiet and rambunctious, two words I never thought I would use to describe the same thing. "I'm here on a dare. May I ask you for your phone number?" Kyle said, and I hurriedly scribbled my number on a piece of paper to hand to him. He blinked at my speed, and laughed his gentle laugh. He took the slip of paper, and tucked it away.

A neon red sign suddenly appeared next to his head. The neon sign simply said "Dating Material." I almost choked on the sandwich I was eating. I stared at the sign for a moment, before turning back to him.

"Do you always study in parks?" Kyle asked. "No, but it was such a beautiful day outside. What about you? Do you always ask girls for their phone number on a dare?" "No, just the ones that make me laugh." He winked at me, and my heart fluttered. The neon sign next to his head flashed, and I tried to ignore it, telling myself to drop by the hospital later. "What do you do for a living?" I asked him. "I work for Google. They had this little event years ago, and I got hired on as a pokemon master." I blinked. "Quite the unique job you have there. How do you keep it? Surely they didn't actually need a pokemon master."

"Ah, now that's quite the interesting tale. The position wasn't quite real at the time, you see." "What? Then how do you work as a pokemon master?" "That's the fun part. I already had a job at Google as a software engineer, and I took advantage of the position. I talked to my boss, and received permission to develop a game for the chromebooks as they were coming out. Naturally, I chose pokemon as the theme. I called the Pokemon Company and received permission to create such a game, so long as it was accurate, they received a large portion of any profit, and had their name stamped on it. They were going to have people test the game and make sure the quality was up to their standards. I worked on the game for half a year, and after receiving approval from the pokemon company, I went to my boss. I showed him the game I was allowed to create, then whipped out the business card they sent to contest winners, saying I was a pokemon master, as well as my usual software engineer developer card. He talked to the higher ups, they made Pokemon Master my second official title, and gave me a raise."

"Wow." I replied. "What about you? What do you do?" Kyle asked. "I'm afraid my story isn't quite as exciting. I'm an author, posting books on Amazon for a nice profit." "Do you enjoy what you do?" I giggled softly when he asked. "Very much so." I tucked my hair behind my ear. "By the way, this might sound odd…" Kyle started. "No worries. What is it?" I asked. "There's a neon sign next to you, blinking at me." "You see one too? What's yours say?" "Eh? You can't see it?" He asked me. "No, I just see yours." I replied. I didn't see one by me, just one by him. "I have one too?" I asked to make sure. "Yeah, it just says 'Dating Material'." I blinked with surprise. "Yours says the same…" We exploded with laughter. "I guess something would like us to go on a few dates." I joked.

"Well, it was nice meeting you, Dating Material Annie." Kyle said as he stood up to leave. "Call me, and we'll set up that date." He said, snatching some of the food in my lunchbox, eating it as he left with a wink. "But I don't have your number…!" I called after him. He points down, and I look at my lunch box. In place of the food he took, there was a note with his phone number. I picked it up and smiled.