The Art of the Hustle (Complete)

Chapter Six

When I turned eighteen, I started going to the bars with my roommates nearly every night. I was so used to approaching people and trying to sell them things at my job that meeting girls came naturally to me. I would walk up to a group of girls by myself and within minutes, I would have them completely engaged. The next step was to introduce them to my friends and hope everyone could find one they liked. If everything flowed smoothly, we would all leave together and party back at our place. This sequence happened routinely, which immediately increased my popularity with my roommates - my only friends. At this point in my life, hooking up with girls was everything to me. It was my only focus.  

One morning, after a late night of partying, I strolled into work hung-over. I submerged myself in a stack of clothes and folded them for the first few hours to avoid contact with any other life forms.  

"Excuse me," a sweet and innocent looking girl approached me. By my estimation, she was about seventeen. "Do you have any more of these in the back?" she asked. As girls remained my only known weakness, I happily obliged. 

"I can check for you, what size are you looking for?" 

"A small please," she said with a flirtatious smile. 

A few moments later, I appeared from the back. "You're in luck, last one left," I said, as I proudly presented the size small shirt to her. 

As she continued to browse, I continued to check her out. I couldn't help it, she was so beautiful. She was about five foot five with light brown hair. It was slightly wavy and a little past shoulder length.  

"So are you from out of town?" I asked. 

"Yeah. I'm here on vacation with my family." 

"Cool. How do you like it here so far?" 

"It's really nice, but I'm always with my parents. I haven't had the chance to see everything I wanted to see." 

"That's too bad," I said. Before I even had a chance to think, I instinctually blurted out, "Why don't you come out with me tonight?" My heart started pounding as soon as the words left my lips. I could feel the blood rush to my face, but I just ignored it. I pretended she couldn't see me blushing. There it was, I laid it all out on the line. "I can take you to all the places you didn't get to see," I continued to sell her on the idea. 

"Sure," she said casually. 

"Okay, great," I said. "I'm off at five o'clock. Can you come back here... preferably without your parents?" 

She laughed. "Don't worry, I won't bring them." 

"I'm Trevor, by the way," I extended my hand. 

"Hi, nice to meet you, I'm Ashley." 

*** 

For the next few hours, time seemed to slow down. I kept checking the time every few minutes, hoping it would be five o'clock. The anticipation was killing me. I paced around the store and caught glimpses of the people walking down the street. I wasn't exactly looking for her, but I figured she still might be out shopping. I had a huge knot in my stomach. I wanted to be outside, but I felt trapped in this crumby little snowboard shop, listening to the same music that played over and over. My mind was completely occupied with all the crazy scenarios that could possibly unfold that night. Going out with girls was nothing new to me, but something felt different about this one; I was actually nervous. 

The funny feeling in my stomach never really went away, but I was reminded of it when she walked into the shop for the second time. My heart started to pound the moment I saw her again. She looked amazing. Her tight jeans showed off her petite frame perfectly.