Getting to Third Date by Kelly McClymer

order to find a way to invite Blaine to the football game.
    Sophia obliged with a smile, just before she disappeared with some cute hockey player. “You look like a woman who can invite a guy to a football game and leave him helpless to say no, Katelyn.”
    I was a little put out when I finally approached Blaine at the milk machine in the dining hall (which, I’ve learned, is a happening place when it comes to guys who take care of their bods…not that those guys don’t go to the soda machine, just that the less health conscious don’t bother with the milk).
    I’d had to get six glasses of milk and hang out for an hour for that nonchalant, “Hi, how are you doing?” But I think I did it well, no sign of a milk mustache on my upper lip.
    He said hi back. But there was no spark there. He was definitely sending air-conditioned vibes my way. I guess he still hadn’t forgiven me for ditching the frat party. Of course, if it weren’t for this stupid Mother Hubbard thing, I wouldn’t be looking for another date either.
    I backed off and considered giving up. But the thought of doing this again was a worse alternative than going through with the girl-asking-guy-out-on-a-date mission I’d accepted for the good of Mother Hubbard, Tyler, and the entire campus.
    Since he’d been very standoffish on my first greeting, I made sure to have the tickets visible when I approached again—filling my glass for the seventh time—“Hey, I have some box seat tickets for the homecoming game, and I was looking for someone to come with. You like football?”
    The frost was receding as he took a sip of his chocolate milk, his eyes on the tickets, not on me. Sophia would not be pleased at the fashion fairy failure. “Who doesn’t?”
    Me. But I managed to keep that to myself because I knew instinctively that a guy who felt so strongly about his fraternity letters wasn’t going to love my candid feelings on the silliness of a game where men wear skintight uniforms and run into one another in the pursuit of an oval of pigskin with no inherent value.
    â€œSo. Want to come?”
    Like a WALK light that turns on when someone gets near, he lit up. “Wow. Football. A sunny day. A beautiful girl. How could I possibly resist?” Sudden. Abrupt, even. But, just like that, the magnet factor was as strong as the buzz factor. I was a little relieved I hadn’t imagined the attraction between us last time. Don’t get me wrong, I had a good idea it was the box at the football game that had won him over. Which didn’t mean I wasn’t glowing from the sudden attention from a very interested Blaine.
    There was even a little relief underneath the glow. It never feels good to know you’ve alienated someone you thought you were clicking with. Who doesn’t hate that nasty moment when the sparks start dying instead of flying? I had had no idea that a girl who wasn’t appropriately reverential to the fraternity system was such a loser in his eyes.
    Another part of me realized that it wasn’t actually all that flattering that he’d turned on his magnetic charm after I’d flashed the tickets. Oh, well. There wasn’t anything I could do about it.
    Â 
    When I finally was face-to-face—or should I say femme fatale to hot guy—with Blaine again for the official Third Date #2, I was surprised at the way his eyes got a little bigger and his smile lanterned on with no tickets in sight. “Katelyn, you’re hot today.” His focus, needless to say, was not on my face. Sophia, unhappy at my report of the fashion fairy failure at the milk machine, had convinced me to wear two garments that I am not normally in at the same time. A push-up bra and a low-cut top. Clearly, her magic had worked this time.
    I doubt he had forgotten the football game, but there was no question that I (or my modest, but rather exposed, cleavage) had his