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Greek Life
Mason
The perfect cup of coffee spiced with caramel. It was difficult to come by near Mason Matthews’s apartment. Her first two years at the University of Georgia had been filled with disgusting stir in coffee from the student center or drives past campus to the closest Starbucks until, one very perfect autumn day last year, she had come across the perfect coffee cart that made the perfect cup of coffee. The only thing that was not perfect was its location outside of the Science Library.
Just when would she ever be over there?
She couldn’t even remember why she had been there the first time. She didn’t have much need for the science library being a double major in management and marketing. In fact, she was never even on that side of campus let alone at that library except now, for her morning coffees. It was nearly on the opposing side from all of her classes but she did not underestimate the power of a good cup of coffee. She would make the trek because to her coffee would always be worth it.
Just like it was that bright Tuesday morning on her way to her internship. Senior year at UGA was full of responsibilities for her. She had landed an internship at the prestigious HW Creative Marketing, the presidency of her sorority, Kappa Phi Nu, and on the PanHellenic Board for the schools sororities and fraternities. Her future was most definitely looking bright, and brighter still once she gets a hot coffee in her hands. She hurried from the lot next to the Science Library, her heels clacking on the concrete as her paced quickened. The cart was in sight. Jonah, the geeky marine biologist who she was on a first name basis with, was reading a science fiction novel no doubt while he manned it.
Not far away, she could nearly smell the coffee and it put a smile on her pink lips. A slip of hair fell out of her elegant updo as the wind gently blew. Some boys were playing football nearby and she could hear them laughing but they meant very little to her. Jonah looked up just as she neared, closing his book and standing up from his stool. “Mornin’, Mason.”
“Good morning, Jonah. The usual, please. Extra large – I’m heading to my internship today.”
“Coming right up. How was your first day of classes?”
“Not too shabby – how about you?”
“Pretty great, thanks!”
“What’s new in the world of science fiction?” She pointed to his book when he looked up in surprise.
“Oh, loads! I could let you borrow one, if you’d like?”
“That’s very kind of you, but …” She bit her lip, she was too polite and she knew it. Manners, always worrying about manners. “Sure. Bring me one the next time I stop by.” She smiled at his brightened expression and took her coffee, handing him more than a generous amount of money for it. “See you next time!” She waved and started her walk back towards her car.
Just as she was about to take the first, glorious sip of her coffee, something hard whacked into her head making the cup instead share that delightful sip all down her beautiful white blouse. Momentary shock halted her step as she stared down open-mouthed at her ruined blouse. Her half empty coffee cup still raised in her hand, her other gripping her purse so tight her knuckles turned white, she could not believe her luck. Stupid jocks!
“I’m so sorry.” A giggling voice tried to calm down her growing rage. She turned her light brown eyes on the one who had approached her, dangerously so. He was trying, and failing, to bite back laughter. “I really am – please, let me buy you another coffee.”
“I do not want another cup of coffee.” She said lowly, dangerously, in her calmest voice possible. “I want there to be a time when stupid jocks weren’t mindlessly throwing pigskin in the air and hitting innocent passerby’s who have a very important meeting at their internship today!” She fumed, tossing her coffee in the closest wastebasket.
“Footballs are actually made of leather now.”
“I don’t care!”
Seeing her obvious distress, he straightened up immediately – the laughter dying on his lips. “I truly am sorry – you have to let me make it up to you. The least I can do is buy you a new coffee.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, noting that despite their size difference he shrunk back infinitesimally. “Despite what my manners and upbringing have shaped me into, I’m going to tell you that you can shove that coffee right up your ass!” She straightened her shoulders and stomped off towards her car leaving the muscled jock in her dust.
She stood at her white BMW, tossing her bag on the driver’s seat and marching around to the trunk. She had some old bags of shirts to donate that she sifted through quickly trying to find anything at all that would go with her outfit. She hated that, not only was her shirt ruined and her perfect coffee gone, but she was about to be late to her internship and she had behaved very out of character because she had been so angered. Her entire morning plan was out the window and that was not at all how Mason liked to start her days. Her days were regimented. Structured. She liked it that way. She needed it to be that way. Now, she would feel off the entire day and all because of that stupid jock with his stupid ball.
Seeing that the only shirts she was giving away either didn’t fit, were crop tops from her early sorority days, or printed tees with cartoon graphics on them, she realized she didn’t have much of a choice. She grabbed the Fred Flintstone shirt from the top of the pile and stormed around to her driver’s seat where she quickly changed into the ridiculous shirt and floored it out of the lot and towards her internship. She caught him watching her as she passed the field he was standing in, the damned football back in his hands, and pushed harder on the gas.
She caught some luck when she pulled up in front of the three-story white building in the main part of town, the home of HW Creative Marketing. A spot cleared just as she arrived, making it so she was only one minute and twelve seconds late. She rushed in – a weird pace between a jog and a prance – past the wooden circular welcome desk and two people already waiting on the small couch adjacent to it flipping through magazines.
She waved briefly to the receptionist and to the staircase made of reclaimed hardwood. It was one of her favorite aspects of the remodeled office building but she had no time to enjoy them as she raced to the second floor where the other interns were already moseying about with their jobs. She was too busy watching them she almost took out her boss on the way into the room. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.” Mason quickly apologized.
Rosa Castillo was a stunningly beautiful Latino woman with voluminous hair, a smile brighter than the sun, and perfect skin. She was curvy and sexy but also completely laid back despite her looks and had a decent sense of humor. The fact that she took one look at her shirt and laughed was further proof of that. “Hard to peddle the car in those heels this morning, Mason?”
“What?” She looked down and blushed. “Oh. This. I … long story.”
“Fair enough. Ready to work?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ew, don’t call me that. You know better.” She teased, walking with her to the intern set up and handing her a folder.
“Yes, I do, sorry.”
“You said that wrong, I think you meant to say ‘I yabba-dabba-do’.” She whispered the last part with a smile and walked off down the hall to her office.
One weird look from the interns and Mason sighed. It’s going to be a very long day, she thought to herself, sitting down and opening up the file. She straightened her back and got to work. She would not let the other interns throw her day off even more. A brave face was something Mason was good at putting on and she could make it until three and then immediately change before class tonight. She didn’t like the other interns anyway so ignoring them almost came naturally to her. She had been working there the longest out of all of them so she felt no guilt over the fact she oozed superiority.
When it was nearing lunch, Rosa paged for Mason to meet her at the office. She ignored the jealous looks of the other interns and gathered her stuff to walk to her office. HW Creative Marketing was really Rosa’s brainchild and it was just as chic as she was. The offices were made of patterned glass with large white desks and high back chairs to match them. Rosa’s was the biggest in the corner with a view of the main street of Athens behind her. It was a short distance from the wood table where the interns sat at behind a wall of patterned slabs to provide some sense of privacy. Mason felt very welcome there and, having been there since last spring, she almost felt like part of the team and more than an intern. Even more because Rosa really seemed to like her.
“Lunch?” She asked, as soon as Mason opened the door to see bags from one of her favorite restaurants in the city. “I ordered for you.” She smiled at her and motioned for her to sit down. “I need to hear the story behind Fred Flintstone.”
Mason laughed and sat down in the chair opposite of her boss and started to pull out containers of food that were pushed towards her. “Fine – but no more Flintstone jokes today.” Rosa had been making little funny references to the show all day and it made Mason blush every time.
“Oh all right – you have to admit that I have been pretty quick on my feet, though.”
“I will give you that – it was always my favorite growing up.”
“Mine too. Now spill it.”
“Funny you put it that way …” Mason went on to tell her story of the awful start to her day, Rosa laughing wildly when she told her she got hit in the head and, harder still, when she told her what she said to the guy who had done it. “It’s not funny! I hate when people agitate me to the point I lose my poise.”
“I happen to think you still kept it – coffee shirt and swear words and all.” Rose put her container on the table and folded her arms on top of it to lean forward on them. “Was he cute?”
“Excuse me?”
“Was he cute?”
Mason thought back to the incident. At the time, she hadn’t really given his looks any thought. Now that she actually processed the image, she realized she knew who he was. She had never spoken with him before today, she had never even met him, but everyone was aware of Tyler Seguin on campus. After all, he was the quarterback for their team – an elite position. There was no mistaking it – the boy that had hit her was the star of campus. “He was … obnoxious.”
“That’s not a ‘no’.”
“He’s not my type at all. He’s covered in tattoos, no real manners to speak of – he kept laughing like it was some kind of joke he ruined my shirt.”
“He offered to buy you a new one.”
“That’s … he’s not my type. His arms are literally covered in tattoos and he just spells trouble.” She could recall vividly both of his muscled arms twined with tattoos since they were proudly on display in a tank top. His athletic shorts showed his toned legs and he had rather large hands that she didn’t even realize she had noticed until her boss asked her about his looks. He was tall and built, had a very endearing Bostonian accent that she was vaguely familiar with having been from the east coast herself. She was often told her New Yorker accent was adorable and she couldn’t help but think the Bostonian one might be just a little better. Despite all of that, and his cheeky grin and puppy dog eyes, he was simply nowhere near her type. “Not my type. I date more … refined men.”
Rosa chuckled, picking up her fork again.
“What?”
“You need to step out of your safety zone a bit, girl.”
Just when would she ever be over there?
She couldn’t even remember why she had been there the first time. She didn’t have much need for the science library being a double major in management and marketing. In fact, she was never even on that side of campus let alone at that library except now, for her morning coffees. It was nearly on the opposing side from all of her classes but she did not underestimate the power of a good cup of coffee. She would make the trek because to her coffee would always be worth it.
Just like it was that bright Tuesday morning on her way to her internship. Senior year at UGA was full of responsibilities for her. She had landed an internship at the prestigious HW Creative Marketing, the presidency of her sorority, Kappa Phi Nu, and on the PanHellenic Board for the schools sororities and fraternities. Her future was most definitely looking bright, and brighter still once she gets a hot coffee in her hands. She hurried from the lot next to the Science Library, her heels clacking on the concrete as her paced quickened. The cart was in sight. Jonah, the geeky marine biologist who she was on a first name basis with, was reading a science fiction novel no doubt while he manned it.
Not far away, she could nearly smell the coffee and it put a smile on her pink lips. A slip of hair fell out of her elegant updo as the wind gently blew. Some boys were playing football nearby and she could hear them laughing but they meant very little to her. Jonah looked up just as she neared, closing his book and standing up from his stool. “Mornin’, Mason.”
“Good morning, Jonah. The usual, please. Extra large – I’m heading to my internship today.”
“Coming right up. How was your first day of classes?”
“Not too shabby – how about you?”
“Pretty great, thanks!”
“What’s new in the world of science fiction?” She pointed to his book when he looked up in surprise.
“Oh, loads! I could let you borrow one, if you’d like?”
“That’s very kind of you, but …” She bit her lip, she was too polite and she knew it. Manners, always worrying about manners. “Sure. Bring me one the next time I stop by.” She smiled at his brightened expression and took her coffee, handing him more than a generous amount of money for it. “See you next time!” She waved and started her walk back towards her car.
Just as she was about to take the first, glorious sip of her coffee, something hard whacked into her head making the cup instead share that delightful sip all down her beautiful white blouse. Momentary shock halted her step as she stared down open-mouthed at her ruined blouse. Her half empty coffee cup still raised in her hand, her other gripping her purse so tight her knuckles turned white, she could not believe her luck. Stupid jocks!
“I’m so sorry.” A giggling voice tried to calm down her growing rage. She turned her light brown eyes on the one who had approached her, dangerously so. He was trying, and failing, to bite back laughter. “I really am – please, let me buy you another coffee.”
“I do not want another cup of coffee.” She said lowly, dangerously, in her calmest voice possible. “I want there to be a time when stupid jocks weren’t mindlessly throwing pigskin in the air and hitting innocent passerby’s who have a very important meeting at their internship today!” She fumed, tossing her coffee in the closest wastebasket.
“Footballs are actually made of leather now.”
“I don’t care!”
Seeing her obvious distress, he straightened up immediately – the laughter dying on his lips. “I truly am sorry – you have to let me make it up to you. The least I can do is buy you a new coffee.”
She narrowed her eyes at him, noting that despite their size difference he shrunk back infinitesimally. “Despite what my manners and upbringing have shaped me into, I’m going to tell you that you can shove that coffee right up your ass!” She straightened her shoulders and stomped off towards her car leaving the muscled jock in her dust.
She stood at her white BMW, tossing her bag on the driver’s seat and marching around to the trunk. She had some old bags of shirts to donate that she sifted through quickly trying to find anything at all that would go with her outfit. She hated that, not only was her shirt ruined and her perfect coffee gone, but she was about to be late to her internship and she had behaved very out of character because she had been so angered. Her entire morning plan was out the window and that was not at all how Mason liked to start her days. Her days were regimented. Structured. She liked it that way. She needed it to be that way. Now, she would feel off the entire day and all because of that stupid jock with his stupid ball.
Seeing that the only shirts she was giving away either didn’t fit, were crop tops from her early sorority days, or printed tees with cartoon graphics on them, she realized she didn’t have much of a choice. She grabbed the Fred Flintstone shirt from the top of the pile and stormed around to her driver’s seat where she quickly changed into the ridiculous shirt and floored it out of the lot and towards her internship. She caught him watching her as she passed the field he was standing in, the damned football back in his hands, and pushed harder on the gas.
She caught some luck when she pulled up in front of the three-story white building in the main part of town, the home of HW Creative Marketing. A spot cleared just as she arrived, making it so she was only one minute and twelve seconds late. She rushed in – a weird pace between a jog and a prance – past the wooden circular welcome desk and two people already waiting on the small couch adjacent to it flipping through magazines.
She waved briefly to the receptionist and to the staircase made of reclaimed hardwood. It was one of her favorite aspects of the remodeled office building but she had no time to enjoy them as she raced to the second floor where the other interns were already moseying about with their jobs. She was too busy watching them she almost took out her boss on the way into the room. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.” Mason quickly apologized.
Rosa Castillo was a stunningly beautiful Latino woman with voluminous hair, a smile brighter than the sun, and perfect skin. She was curvy and sexy but also completely laid back despite her looks and had a decent sense of humor. The fact that she took one look at her shirt and laughed was further proof of that. “Hard to peddle the car in those heels this morning, Mason?”
“What?” She looked down and blushed. “Oh. This. I … long story.”
“Fair enough. Ready to work?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Ew, don’t call me that. You know better.” She teased, walking with her to the intern set up and handing her a folder.
“Yes, I do, sorry.”
“You said that wrong, I think you meant to say ‘I yabba-dabba-do’.” She whispered the last part with a smile and walked off down the hall to her office.
One weird look from the interns and Mason sighed. It’s going to be a very long day, she thought to herself, sitting down and opening up the file. She straightened her back and got to work. She would not let the other interns throw her day off even more. A brave face was something Mason was good at putting on and she could make it until three and then immediately change before class tonight. She didn’t like the other interns anyway so ignoring them almost came naturally to her. She had been working there the longest out of all of them so she felt no guilt over the fact she oozed superiority.
When it was nearing lunch, Rosa paged for Mason to meet her at the office. She ignored the jealous looks of the other interns and gathered her stuff to walk to her office. HW Creative Marketing was really Rosa’s brainchild and it was just as chic as she was. The offices were made of patterned glass with large white desks and high back chairs to match them. Rosa’s was the biggest in the corner with a view of the main street of Athens behind her. It was a short distance from the wood table where the interns sat at behind a wall of patterned slabs to provide some sense of privacy. Mason felt very welcome there and, having been there since last spring, she almost felt like part of the team and more than an intern. Even more because Rosa really seemed to like her.
“Lunch?” She asked, as soon as Mason opened the door to see bags from one of her favorite restaurants in the city. “I ordered for you.” She smiled at her and motioned for her to sit down. “I need to hear the story behind Fred Flintstone.”
Mason laughed and sat down in the chair opposite of her boss and started to pull out containers of food that were pushed towards her. “Fine – but no more Flintstone jokes today.” Rosa had been making little funny references to the show all day and it made Mason blush every time.
“Oh all right – you have to admit that I have been pretty quick on my feet, though.”
“I will give you that – it was always my favorite growing up.”
“Mine too. Now spill it.”
“Funny you put it that way …” Mason went on to tell her story of the awful start to her day, Rosa laughing wildly when she told her she got hit in the head and, harder still, when she told her what she said to the guy who had done it. “It’s not funny! I hate when people agitate me to the point I lose my poise.”
“I happen to think you still kept it – coffee shirt and swear words and all.” Rose put her container on the table and folded her arms on top of it to lean forward on them. “Was he cute?”
“Excuse me?”
“Was he cute?”
Mason thought back to the incident. At the time, she hadn’t really given his looks any thought. Now that she actually processed the image, she realized she knew who he was. She had never spoken with him before today, she had never even met him, but everyone was aware of Tyler Seguin on campus. After all, he was the quarterback for their team – an elite position. There was no mistaking it – the boy that had hit her was the star of campus. “He was … obnoxious.”
“That’s not a ‘no’.”
“He’s not my type at all. He’s covered in tattoos, no real manners to speak of – he kept laughing like it was some kind of joke he ruined my shirt.”
“He offered to buy you a new one.”
“That’s … he’s not my type. His arms are literally covered in tattoos and he just spells trouble.” She could recall vividly both of his muscled arms twined with tattoos since they were proudly on display in a tank top. His athletic shorts showed his toned legs and he had rather large hands that she didn’t even realize she had noticed until her boss asked her about his looks. He was tall and built, had a very endearing Bostonian accent that she was vaguely familiar with having been from the east coast herself. She was often told her New Yorker accent was adorable and she couldn’t help but think the Bostonian one might be just a little better. Despite all of that, and his cheeky grin and puppy dog eyes, he was simply nowhere near her type. “Not my type. I date more … refined men.”
Rosa chuckled, picking up her fork again.
“What?”
“You need to step out of your safety zone a bit, girl.”