She invites him again

Maya stands beside the table, shifting the books in her arms. She gives me a small, knowing smile.

“Hey,” she says. “I was starting to think you were avoiding me.”

“I’ve just been busy,” I say.

“Right.” She sits across from me and lowers her voice. “I just wanted to say… I had fun the other day. Studying with you was great, but I meant what happened afterward, too.”

I immediately know what she’s referring to. My stomach tightens as I glance around the library.

Maya gives me a faint smile. “I’m not pretending it didn’t happen, Ethan. I enjoyed being with you, and I was wondering if you did too.”

Maya studies me for a moment before giving me a small smile. “You know… if you wanted to come by again sometime, you could.”

I hesitate. My girlfriend immediately comes to mind. So does the promise I made to myself when I arrived on campus: keep my head down, graduate, and don’t let anything derail the life I’ve been building. A month ago, I would have walked away without thinking.

But something has changed.

The guilt is still there, but it isn’t controlling me anymore. What keeps coming back instead are the memories of being with Maya—the excitement, the attention, the feeling of doing something completely outside the routine I’d planned for myself. I hate admitting it, but those feelings are starting to matter more to me than they should.

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I say, though my voice lacks conviction.

Maya smiles. “I didn’t say it was. I just said you could.”

I look down at my notebook, knowing I should shut the conversation down. Instead, I find myself wondering when I’ll see her again.

“Maybe,” I finally say.

Maya nods. “I’ll take that as a maybe.”

As she walks away, I sit there staring at my work. My priorities haven’t completely changed—but they’re shifting, one small decision at a time. And I’m beginning to realize that the person I thought I’d be when I arrived on campus might not be the person I become by the time I leave.