Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,227

who shrugged helplessly. “I think he’s working tonight.”

“Oh, great,” Marco said. He motioned for the guy at the door. “Come on in and join us. You can partner up with Taylor tonight. She’s one of our best students.”

“Oh,” the guy said as he looked over at her, decided, and then came on in. “Okay, great.”

At first when he got to her, Taylor wanted to disappear. He was only a little taller than her with sandy blond hair and a medium build, but he did have nice eyes and a nice smile. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad.

He stuck his hand out. “Zachary Yosten.”

“Taylor Grayson.”

“Nice to meet you, Taylor.”

“You too.”

“I’m so sorry,” Zachary said as Taylor came around to catch his hand that wasn’t there. “I’m not… I’m not very good at this.”

Well, that was an understatement.

“It’s okay,” Taylor said, remembering her earlier thoughts about sizing guys up too quickly. “Here. Put this hand…” She started again and caught his hand, but in two seconds they were tangled up again because he didn’t step past her.

“Sorry. Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Taylor said again as she dropped his hands and came back in front of him. “Let’s try this again.”

By the time dance class was over, Taylor was completely exhausted. Zach was nice, but dancing was definitely not his thing.

“Well, thanks for trying,” he said.

“It really does take a lot of practice.” Strange, she had somehow come to the conclusion that everyone could do what Greg did when they danced, but dancing with Zach, she realized that wasn’t the case.

“Are you coming to the mixer on Saturday?” Zach asked, not leaving like she thought he would.

“The Alpha Chi Valentine’s thing?”

“Alpha Chi and Kappa Delta,” he said as if he was proud of it.

“Oh, so you’re Kappa Delta?”

He smiled broadly. “All the way. So will you be there?”

Taylor heard the question he was really asking, and although he seemed like a nice guy, she just didn’t want to pursue anything or to be pursued, which always seemed to wind up happening. “Oh, uh. Yeah. Me and my boyfriend.”

Zach raised his chin. “Boyfriend.” He smiled as if she’d just broken up with him but had done it in the nicest way possible. “Cool. Okay, then. Well, maybe I’ll see you and your boyfriend there.”

There was a part of Taylor that hated to lie like that, but she was so tired of the drama and trying to figure out who they wanted her to be all the time she had no desire to start something like that. Not now. Not yet anyway.

“I’ll see ya,” Zach said, and he strode out past LaChelle.

“Man, girl, you never cease to amaze me,” LaChelle said, coming over for a hug. “Taylor Taylor Taylor. Wow. Once an Alpha Chi girl, always Alpha Chi girl. Am I right?” She watched Zach vacate the room. “Ooo, girl, he is fiiine.”

Taylor shrugged. “He was nice.”

That brought a knowing smile to LaChelle’s face. “Okay, but let’s face it, he’s no Greg.”

All of it was starting to give Taylor an immense headache. “Yeah, well, I’d better get home. I’ve got some stats to get done.”

“Okay, but we will see you Saturday night, right?”

“Yes.” Taylor nodded. “We’ll be there.” At least she hoped they would. Suddenly things weren’t adding up the way they normally did.

The others had already left, so she was glad she had driven over. It would have been a good two-mile walk to get home. Driving was definitely the better plan. One thing about the Tech campus was, they’d had plenty of real estate to work with, and they had used every square inch of it.

Turning into the dorm parking lot later, she thought again about why Greg hadn’t come. Work. But he didn’t work on Thursdays. Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. He didn’t work on Thursdays.

A bad feeling began to twinge in her gut. The memory of him walking off started to worry her. What if he really was upset? What had she said again? Something about being in love with Nelson. Okay, so she had morphed into Drama Queen Taylor again, but surely Greg was used to that by now.

In her room, she tried to brush the thoughts away, but they kept slithering back into her head and winding their way down into her heart. What if he really was mad? What if…?

Unable to take it any longer, she pulled out her phone and sent him a text.

Hey missed you at dance class tonight

She waited, watching the phone in her hands as she sat