The Right Time For Love

Chapter 4

"I'll catch up with you all later." I tell Julie and Keisha after the meeting. I hang back as Isaiah packs up his bookbag and ask him if he wants to meet up at The Lion's Den for a little debrief about the meeting. After a short walk downstairs, we're sitting across from each other with giant croissants and hot chocolate. I think back to our last meeting over the summer. Isaiah had come back into town for soccer camp and asked if we could meet up for a pre-semester strategy session. Looking for a break from my monotonous days at the store and excited to start my co-captain duties, I agreed. We met up at a small coffee shop not far from campus and went over the just released book list, talking about what books we'd read or authors we'd heard of. We went over how we wanted to lead the team. How lax was too lax? Were deadlines too much? How could we make meetings fun but efficient? It was all so hypothetical then, now we were actually leading people. I tell all this to Isaiah. He nods.

"I know. It's pretty crazy if we tell anyone else this, they'd be like 'really? It's just a book competition.' But for us it's so much more than that." He takes his croissant and dips it into his hot chocolate. He doesn't even break off a piece, he just dips the entire thing into his cup. I watch him take a drippy, hot bite.

" How do you think the meeting went?" he asks. I take a second considering my response.

"I'm sorry I can't...did you just dip your whole croissant into your hot chocolate? It's not that I don't think it would be good, it's just... different." I ask incredulously. He laughs.

"Try it, I promise it's gonna change your life. The buttery croissant with the sweet richness of the chocolate..." He shakes his head trailing off. He watches as I dip my croissant into my hot chocolate. I take a hesitant bite. He was right. The subtle salty, sweet combo was delicious. After talking about what possessed him to try the combo in the first place, we begin discussing the meeting. I take out my notebook, going through the meeting minutes. We agree that the group should be finished with their first book in two weeks and that we should have at least 100 questions written by then. Eventually, we start talking about the cash prize.

" I can't believe that when we win we can get $100,000. That's insane! We better not let word get out or people are gonna be flocking to join the team" He says seriously. I laugh.

" I don't think we'll have that problem. Half the school doesn't know we exist and the other half thinks books are lame. Which frankly is ridiculous." I say. Isaiah nods vigorously.

"What are you gonna do with your share of the money, don't you have a full scholarship?" He asks.

"Yea, I'm gonna use it to save my mom's store."

"What do you mean?" He asks.

" Some people are buying the building that my parent's store is in and they're raising the rent to an amount that my family can't really swing. So, I'm hoping that this money could cushion them a bit while they figure out what to do."

"I'm sorry. I know that store means a lot to you. All the more reason to win." Isaiah responds, his gaze serious. He takes a sip of his hot chocolate, deep in thought.

"What if we had more meetings? Isaiah asks. "The stakes are higher now with the money and your mom's store."

"Maybe...but I feel like it'd be a bit difficult for the rest of the team to meet twice a week with their busy schedules." I say.

"But we could send out a Google polls just in case. If the group can't meet up, how would you feel if just you and I met once a week? We could make it really casual like we could meet here or in my room or wherever. " I continue. His eyebrows raise.

"Just me and you?" He asks, suddenly hesitant.

" Yea., we'll just be two co-captains leading their team to victory and $100,000, nothing more."