✅1️⃣ | Hypnosis Doesn't Work Like That!

69: You Need to be Smart to Really Understand Me

He was sitting at a table, towards the front of the coffee shop. Or the back, if you considered the door on the top level to be the front side. His broad shoulders were leaning back against a window which only gave a view of the main city street two levels below. There was nobody else around his table, which was a good thing because the whole available space was taken up by a haphazard spread of computer printouts that might have been some thought experiment in multidimensional geometry, or might just have been plans of a strategy for some sports team.

His eyes darted intelligently around the table as he tapped a pen thoughtfully against his teeth and his coffee mug. He looked like he was deep in thought, so Adi really wanted to believe that he was a mathematician, some award-winning student, maybe. She wanted to think that he was as smart as her, so they'd have something interesting to talk about. But then she saw the word 'Moistville' across the shoulders of his jacket, and a check shirt pulled tight around powerful biceps and well-toned pecs. He had to be a sportsman with a physique like that, and she'd be amazed if there weren't a dozen other girls staring at him already. Just his chin would be enough to make the heroine swoon if this had been some kind of pulp romance novel.

Adi caught her breath, and deliberately looked down at the drink in her hands.She didn't need to be thinking like this. She didn't want to be staring at a guy just based on his physical appearance. She didn't want to think that her thoughts might have been overruled by her hormones. But every time she glanced in his direction, she couldn't look away.

She wanted to sidle nonchalantly over to him, and comment on the probability of seeing the same person in Schwingford and in Moistville just a couple of days apart. But he hadn't seen her the other day, so that would be a dumb thing to say. She just couldn't think of anything better, and for someone who was supposed to be so skilled with words that was like a punch. She's always told herself that she knew the right thing to say, and her reviews and blog posts were the proof of that. Each time she'd been lost for words in the past, she'd been happy to dismiss it as a fluke and keep on knowing that she was sharp and witty, the kind of person that everyone would want to listen to if they only knew what they were missing. But today, when she couldn't pluck up the courage to talk to just one guy, it made her feel so small. Like she'd failed, like she wasn't as smart as she thought she should be.

"Is there something on my face?" Adi took a long couple of seconds to realise that the comment was directed at her, and then quickly glanced around to make sure she hadn't been mistaken. She told herself she hadn't been staring, her eyes had just remained pointing in the same direction while she was lost in thought. But this guy wouldn't believe that, would he?

"Oh, i'm sorry," she mumbled, not knowing what else she could say. "I didn't mean to...I mean, I was just thinking..."

"Thinking's good," he answered with a kind of half shrug that just seemed to show off the shape of his muscles under that check shirt. "Some people should do it more often. I mean, you can stare if you want to, it seems to be a thing that happens. And I really wouldn't mind if someone found me worth looking at, rather than focusing on my physique. You know, sometimes I feel jealous of the superstar basketball player on the college team. He gets so many more admiring glances, and all these girls staring at him with that smouldery look in their eyes. I guess that's a fame thing."

"I've never been interested in sportsmen," Adi said the first thing that came into her head, and immediately cursed herself for it. She didn't know what to say, and everything that crossed her mind sounded so dumb the second it came out of her mouth, but surely that was better than saying nothing? "I mean... Okay, you're cute. Probably cuter than this star player. But I really wasn't staring, I just had something on my mind, and there's no direction I could be looking in this place that doesn't have someone in it. I mean, if I was looking at anyone it would probably be you, but I don't even know you, and there's no way I could have those fantasies about someone I've hardly even–"

The stranger silenced her with a finger held up to her lips, not quite touching.

"Well, you got my attention, anyway. Are you always so antsy around people you've hardly even spoken to and certainly don't care about?"

"I'm sorry," Adi found herself repeating. "I'm... I'm not good at meeting new people, and I'm on this foundation day, and all my friends are on different courses, and I've not spoken to anyone, and I don't want to feel like the only person with no friends yet. I mean..."

"Shall I let you in on a secret?" He sounded so open and honest, someone who just wanted to talk. Maybe he had other things on his mind, like every other male teen, or maybe he was a year or two beyond that kind of childishness. But Adi found she could believe that he really wanted to help calm her nerves. "When I first came here, nobody even looked at me. I didn't get those admiring glances. I was supposed to be famous, the guy on a sports scholarship who's going to be the star of the team. But when the guys stared at me they were seeing a bunch of statistics and hype, and what I was going to do for their team, and when the girls stared they were seeing the shape of my body, and their preconceptions of what kind of guy a jock should be. They looked, but they didn't see me, and I felt so alone."

"Woah, that must be tough."

"Yeah. But I kept at it. Kept on smiling, and then I made some real friends. If I can do it, I'm sure you can. Just calm down and let it happen, and be kind to everyone whether you're hunting for a friend, or a boyfriend, or not. That's my top tips for starting college, and I sure wish somebody would give the same advice to my little sister before she rides the popularity train over a cliff."

"Thanks," Adi answered, not feeling a wave of excuses bursting to get out of her any longer. That last metaphor had conjured up a perfect image. If he could think of something like that on the spot, then anyone who thought of him as just an athlete was surely missing out. She took a long sip of her drink, enjoying the mix of different flavours as she proceeded through the rainbow. Then she felt like she had to speak again, just so she didn't miss out if there was her only chance to talk to the guy who'd surprisingly turned out to be as charming as she could hope for.

"Maybe I was staring a little," she admitted. "Not at the sports hero, though. I kind of saw all the papers, and I couldn't tell if you're a mathematician or a football coach. I mean, it looks like either the most complex playbook ever, or some kind of..."

"Both, actually. Decision and game theory is my major. I was into strategy long before I had the bod to make use of it. And I don't know if you'd have the background to understand it, coming straight from high school, but I'm always flattered when someone takes an interest in my work. Maybe I'll see you around some time, once you're studying here. I'm here most days."

"Thanks," Adi smiled nervously, not quite sure what to say next. She could hear Cherri gathering up all the people in their tour group, saying that a ten minute break was long enough. She hoped it would be so easy to talk to this guy when she was actually studying here, and that he wouldn't be disappointed after his implicit vote of confidence in her ability to get admitted here.

"Dean," he offered a hand to shake. "I didn't say, did I? Good to meet you, Adi. And I do mean that, you seem like an interesting young woman, and I look forward to finding out a little more about you when there isn't a campus tour dragging you away."

Did he wink? Adi couldn't be sure. Adi was going to say something really witty, to let him know she was smart enough to understand him. But then her phone rang, and the moment was lost. Who could be calling her now, of all times?