Fall Like Rain (Preview)

Chapter 5

"So, is there anything that we haven't tried yet?" Mark asked as I put my now-empty can of soda on down on the table between us.

I sighed happily as I rubbed my full stomach. "I think we got everything," I said, looking at the mass of paper plates, plastic containers, barbecue sticks, and utensils scattered on the pebble-washed table.

True to his word, Mark arrived at my place shortly after Meah had left for work the next morning. Mark had this bad habit of being late for all his casual appointments. He was always on time for his client meetings, thank goodness, but for his friends? He was always the last one to arrive. That was why I had learned to tell him that we were meeting at least thirty minutes before the real call time so at least he'd only be a few minutes late. But today he arrived on time, which made me just a little bit flustered as I was counting on the time I would wait for him to mentally prepare myself before seeing him again.

But I shouldn't have worried, because our conversations flowed just as easily as it did over the phone last night. I told him all about what happened at the wedding—except for the parts that led me to contact him again—and he told me, and he told me about the projects he had been working on. When we arrived at the school, our conversation shifted to our college memories, and soon we couldn't stop laughing all the way to the alumni office because we ran into one of our old professors who he had just finished impersonating.

We finished renewing our alumni cards in no time, and since it was still early, Mark and I decided to do what we had always planned on doing since we graduated: go on a food trip around school. We went through every canteen in the different buildings in campus—at least, the ones still there—and bought all our favorite food from our college years. Then we found an empty table, settled down, and split everything in half while we talked some more.

It was nice.

Really, really nice.

He didn't seem to have changed much physically. He still had the same dark hair, except that it was shorter than I remembered, cropped closer to his head. It was sort of sticking out in some places, like he had run his hands through it several times and forgot to pat it down. I resisted the urge to run my hands through them on the drive to school, and instead just handed him a comb, but it didn't seem to help much.

Mark was known for silly statement shirts plus jeans combo back in college, which he kept on wearing well until after we had graduated. (It drove me crazy when I found out he sometimes wore that ensemble to his client presentations.) But today he had on a plain, collared dark blue shirt and khaki pants, and it made him look like he had prepared just a bit more when he chose his clothes this morning. I saw that he was wearing the sneakers I gave him on his last birthday, and it made me smile when I saw that they were scruffier now, like he wore them often. He also seemed thinner—no, leaner. Not that he was ever fat, but he just seemed to be more fit this time, like he had been working out or something. But then don't all guys who go through break-ups have that tendency to go all crazy working out?

Mark didn't look too different from the last time we saw each other, but he also wasn't quite the same. I knew six months was enough time for someone to change, especially after a breakup, so I shouldn't think too much about this. I couldn't help but wish, though, that these changes—his punctuality, his outfit, and the way he moved and spoke—weren't just because his last serious relationship ended, but because of me. That he was so excited to see me that he really prepared for this, just like I did.

"Too bad the burritos at the college canteen are gone now," I said wistfully as I started piling the empty paper plates on top of each other. "I loved those."

"But if we had that, I don't think we'd have had room for the pesto rice," Mark said, nudging the empty carton that still smelled of olive oil and basil. It had been one of our favorite meals during college, and it was only available all the way on the other side of the campus.