How to Love

It was around a week after the wedding and I was regretting letting Brendan get my number and not getting his. Or maybe regretting thinking he would actually text me.

I rolled my eyes at myself, deciding to stop the self pitying and get dressed. For the past week I went to the gym, came home showered, visited with nearby relatives, came home, rented a movie than went to bed. It was getting old.

Today I was opting for a beach run instead of the treadmill at the gym. I threw on a pair of nike pro's and a sports bra and headed out.

I was midway through my run when I heard someone faintly yelling 'Clara'. I silently prayed it wasn't one of my cousins. I loved my family but a girl could only handle so much foreign relatives. I took one earbud out, trying to see if I heard my name again.

"Clara!"

I slowed my pace and looked around, not seeing any familiar faces so I almost had a heart attack when I felt an arm on my shoulder.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare ya."

I turned around to come face to face with a smiling Brendan.

"You suck," I said, pushing him lightly - I was so tired and scared that the shove was more like a light tap.

"Chucky insisted it was you but I couldn't tell so I kinda just ran after you," he smiled, running his hands through his hair and catching his breath.

"Chucky?" I crinkled my eyebrows.

"Oh right, Alex, the russian - it's kinda his nickname."

"Ah okay," I nodded.

"So why were you ignoring me?"

I stared at him for a few seconds, confused at what he meant.

"I texted you like 5 times…not creepily or anything just ya know, saying hey," he said.

He did text me, I smiled to myself, not feeling so pathetic anymore.

"I didn't get any," I said as confusion came over his face, "Pinky swear," I held out my pinky for him, "What number do you have?"

He took out his phone for me to look at it, he had a 6 in the place where a 9 was supposed to be.

"You seriously suck," I said, fixing the number and giving him his phone back, "You copied the wrong number."

"So you weren't ignoring me," he smiled cockily as I shook my head 'no', "Great, so uh, still need a tour guide?"

I tried so hard to control the color that was rising to my cheeks but the way his smile was growing wider I knew I wasn't doing a very good job of it, "Definitely. I'm friendless here and I can't handle hanging out with my cousins who barely speak english any longer."

"She say yes? Hello Clara," Alex came up next to Brendan who looked like he wanted to slap him, "Told ya it was her."

"Chuck shut up," Brendan said as Alex only laughed.

"You," Alex said to Brendan with a big, shit eating grin on his face, "Owe me. So see you tonight Clara?"

I looked from Brendan back to Alex.. Confusion probably evident on my face.

"I didn't ask her yet," Brendan said to his friend, I watched on, amused, "Anyways uh, first stop on the tour is a stop at this awesome Italian restaurant…if that's you know, ok."

"Italian works for me."

"Awesome," he smiled, "Chucks actually bringing along a date so we can pick you up at 7 if that's okay?"

I smiled and nodded, trying to control the stupid butterflies I felt in my stomach, "Sounds good."

"We let you get back to your run, right Brendan," Alex grinned at Brendan.

"Oh uh, ya, can't wait for later," Brendan said before I turned around to get back to running. Before my music began to play I could hear Alex messing with Brendan who was whining about if he sounded lame saying he couldn't wait for later.

I smiled to myself and finished my run; wanting to fast forward to 7 as quickly as possible.