“FOR YOUR FIRST ASSIGNMENT, YOU will be required to team up with a partner and create a space using only green materials,” Professor Kitchener tells the class.
It’s the beginning of my junior year at UC San Diego and I’m sitting in Special Topics of Design, ready to embrace all this year has to offer. I love everything about this program. The last two years have been amazing and I’m excited to learn more.
I grew up in San Diego and stayed for my mom. My dad died in a terrible car crash when I was twelve years old. My parents each called the other “The love of my life.” They were soulmates, always kissing and touching one another whenever they were together. My mom was always giggling and my dad could never wipe off the silly grin he always wore whenever she was around.
My dad, Simon Egan, was a very handsome man, and a force to be reckoned with. Both women and men were always tripping over themselves in his presence, but he only had eyes for my mom. They were high school sweethearts. Each other’s firsts. Each other’s always, and, as they always said, each other’s last.
Dad taught music at my high school. He was incredibly creative and knew how to play several instruments. We always had music filling our home. My dad was my hero. I wanted to be exactly like him. I can play the piano well, as I’ve been playing since I was six years old, and I’m fairly decent on the guitar, but my passion is art and design. My dad was always encouraging me; he was my greatest supporter and my biggest fan. The day my dad died my mom died too, inside. Alcohol replaced him as the love of her life. I raised myself and took care of my mother. When the time came to go off to college, I didn’t have the heart to leave her alone.
“Do you want to be my partner?” the gorgeous guy who’s seated next to me asks.
I actually look around since he couldn’t possibly want to be my partner. When he smiles and nods, I become completely tongue-tied and am probably wearing a look that screams, “What?”
At my silence, he continues. “My name’s Scott, Scott Adams.”
“Danielle…” I reply. Why would someone so stunning want to talk to me?
I clear my now incredibly dry throat and continue. “Danielle Egan…Dani…m-my friends call me Dani.” My stutter has me blushing from the top of my head to the tips of my toes.
Great! On top of stuttering, I’m also bright red.
At my bumbling, Scott’s face lights up with the most spectacular smile I’ve ever seen. It extends to his eyes, causing them to crinkle in the corners and dance with glee. My breath hitches and I turn into an even brighter tomato, ratcheting up my level of embarrassment to DEFCON 10, even though there are only five levels.
Don’t think I haven’t noticed Scott. I have, many, many times in the past two years. Scott’s beautiful! And don’t say a guy can’t be called beautiful because Scott Adams puts Chris Hemsworth to shame. He has a thick head of dirty blond hair that skims his collar, and blue eyes that shine brighter than the California sun. And when he smiles? Kill me now. His smile shows off a dimple on his right cheek, one dimple! Could he be any sexier? And his body? All I can say about his body is just…WOW!
Since I’m still a mute, Scott asks once again, “Do you want to be my partner?”
“Y-Yes,” I stutter out in all but a whisper.
Oh my God, he wants to be my partner!
“Your phone?” he asks, holding out his hand.
“Wh-What?” I squeak out, blushing yet again.
“Pass me your cell phone so I can program in my number.” He keeps his hand extended, waiting for me to give it to him.
“Oh, s-sure…” Wide-eyed and still red-faced, I hand it over.
Scott just shakes his head, laughing, as he takes it from me. After a couple of minutes of him typing into his device and mine, he hands it back.
I turn and slip it into my bag, using the time to calm my breathing and collect myself. I turn back to him and just as I’m about to ask about the project, I hear a text come through.
“Excuse me,” I say holding up one finger to indicate I need a minute. I check my screen but don’t recognize the sender. Who’s Blush Lover?
And when I read the text, I actually do die, right smack dab in the middle of the lecture hall.
You’re cute.
I hear another chuckle but before I get a chance to look up, it pings again with another text from the stunning man to my right.
When you blush.
And now my skin tone is perma red.
We make plans to meet up. Or I should say, Scott makes plans to meet up because, yep! still a mute.
I learn that Scott’s originally from Manhattan Beach but has always loved San Diego and knew, from a young age, he was going to attend college down here.
Fate sure knew what it was doing, keeping me here instead of sending me to UCLA, where I was also accepted.
Scott quickly becomes my everything and we become inseparable.
My roommate and best friend, Sandi, loves him and is only slightly upset when I move into his apartment only weeks after the fall quarter ends. He proposes to me the beginning of our senior year and I quickly accept.
Scott and I both graduate with a BA in speculative design and a minor in interdisciplinary computing in the arts. After college, we move to Hermosa Beach, get married and begin doing consultant work together with a focus on environmental design. Our business becomes so wildly popular, that after the birth of our beautiful daughter, Chloe, we decide to open our own store.
From the minute we met, we were an “us.” He’s the love of my life and I never want to be without him.