Kai and I walked down the sidewalk in the direction of the campus art museum. It was a nice late September afternoon with a bit of a chill in the air, both of us dressed in hoodies and jeans. Kai had that sort of disaffected, yet uncertain slacker vibe about him, slinking along with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders slightly slumped. I knew that he was an English major like me, a wannabe writer, so I felt comfortable that we had that in common.

Looking off a bit down the sidewalk, I suddenly felt a rush as I saw Lisa jogging our way, dressed in a tank and running shorts, puffing a bit with a slight redness in her cheeks. As Kai and I saw her approach, we stopped in our tracks, and Lisa slowed down and then came to a stop in front of us.

“ALOHAers,” she said, nodding her head, trying to catch her breath. She offered a smile to us. Lisa was generally good at pretending like there wasn’t anything going on between us when in the company of other people involved with the program. But I could sense a little bit of, I don’t know, caution as she considered me out for a walk with Kai. “Where are we off to on this lovely autumn afternoon?”

“The museum,” said Kai in a lazy voice. “There’s this art thing going up outside of it.”

“I ran past it,” said Lisa matter-of-factly. “It’s cool… weird.”

I looked Lisa up and down, finding her incredibly attractive in her little workout outfit. I loved seeing the sweat through her tank top, a circle of it between her chest and belly, and her bare smooth legs reminded me of our hotel room tryst, when she came around that corner wearing only her . My eyes moved up her body and suddenly met her eyes. We smiled together.

“Hey Jennie,” continued Lisa. “I want to talk to you later about your ALOHA project,” she said. “Want to stop by my room?”

“Sure,” I said, trying to hide my grin, looking off toward a stand of tress that had begun turning colors with the season.

“Great,” said Lisa. She stepped forward and lightly slapped me on the arm. “You two have fun. See you later!” And with that, Lisa resumed her run, moving past us, making her way back toward Leopold Hall.

“You and Lisa are close, huh?” said Kai as we returned to our walk toward the museum.

“What?” I said, trying to play dumb. “I mean, I don’t know. I guess.”

“She’s a cool girl,” said Kai. “She’s in this writing group I want to try to join.”

“What writing group is that?” I said.

“It’s a group run by this professor,” he said. “Um, Professor Bernard. It’s a small fiction group.”

“Huh,” I said. “I didn’t know about that.”

“You have to have Bernard as a teacher,” said Kai. “If you click with him, he might ask you to join. It’s really only for people who are talented and driven.”

“You should talk to Lisa about it,” I said with a smile. “Maybe she could give you some pointers.”

“Maybe,” said Kai.

We walked in silence for a few moments. I really wasn’t sure what to say to him. But I did feel pretty good about being there with him. It was nice to be talking with someone, to feel like someone was interested in your company. I had spent so much time dwelling o