Day 5 of 30: Bread

Gwen smelled like bread still.

Never mind all the showers, and these clothes never having been worn down to the sandwich shop. Somehow, the smell permeated her still.

She sat at the bar of the agreed-upon restaurant, nursing a coffee and trying to look 1: older than she was while 2: still adorable.

He wasn't late. He just wasn't early. She stirred more cream into her coffee. She'd acquired a taste for it black and sweet, but she needed something to do besides biting at her nails.

"Hey, there," he said from behind her.

She nearly knocked over her coffee. "Hi!"

"Hope you haven't been here long."

"Nope, just got here myself. Got a coffee to warm up." She wanted to say hi again. She wanted to hug him. She was just so relieved he'd shown up.

They were ushered off to a table now that both parties had arrived.

They lingered over the menu, trading middle names and random anecdotes.

"What do you do?" Gwen asked.

"I sell phones. And you?"

"I make sandwiches. We should work out a trade sometime." Gwen laughed at her joke. Jeremy didn't.

"So, what are you majoring in?" he said. Topic switch.

"Nothing yet. I want to do something to help people. I just don't know how. I volunteer different places. Mostly feeding people. Kinda ties in with the sandwiches that way."

He smiled.

She smiled back. The situation was slipping away from her. There was still something between them, but it wasn't quite sparking.

"I'm really glad I looked you up," Gwen heard herself saying. "I kinda...had a crush on you in class, and at the end of it I realized I didn't even know your last name so... you were gonna be gone. But I found you." He didn't say anything, just looked at her strangely. She bit her lip and looked back to her menu. "I...I'll have the chicken alfredo I think. I like chicken. Maybe the..." His hand was on hers. She looked up. "What're you going to have?" she asked.

"Chicken alfredo sounds great." He let go.

She smiled widely. "I'm usually...more articulate. I just...I want to...I wanted...I don't know."

He smiled again, and passed her the basket of bread. "Let's eat."

They ordered dual orders of chicken alfredo.

"How old are you?" she asked.

"Just turned twenty. You?"

"Eighteen until June."

"Plenty of time to decide how to help people."

"That's what I'm hoping. My whole life I've been precocious and full of potential. I just want to be sure I actually do something with all of that, instead of just waiting for life to happen at me."