Pleasant, and not so Pleasant, Surprises

"Hey, I'm Tina"

"I'm Andy"

"Nice to meet you, Andy. So, I'm actually in the third year and lead the sports social club. I wondered if you might be interested in signing up for something? We have football, cricket, rugby, tennis and even rounders. Just about everything really"

"Sure, I love pretty much all sports. Why don't you sign me up for it all?"

Andy could say anything he liked here, since he was only hours away from being sent back to the start of the week, and didn't have time for a whirlwind romance with the athletics ace before his drink with Gemma, even if that were possible. This was purely an affection raising exercise for future runs, and about the only thing he had picked up from his first encounter with Tina was that she really liked sport.

"Wow, I love your enthusiasm, but I'm not sure that's going to work logistically" she laughed "Which sport is your favourite?"

"What's yours?"

"Um, well football. But don't let that influence you" Tina told him "I'm actually the goalie for the University women's team. We play every Wednesday afternoon. We could always use the support if you ever feel like coming along"

That could clash a little with Andy's smoking session with Aurora, but he ought to be able to make it work.

"Sure, football is actually my favourite sport too" he lied.

"Oh, awesome!" Tina perked up even more "What's your team?"

"Bristol Rovers"

Andy couldn't name a single one of their players, but his Dad was a fan and he had been made to sit through the occasional match as a child.

"Nice!" Tina approved "I love when people support their local side rather than glory hunting with some Premier League giant. I'm a Leyton Orient fan myself"

"Oh, cool" Andy pretended to enthuse.

"So I can sign you up for football, right?"

"Sure" Andy nodded "And if I can help the sports club with anything, like setting up events or coaching or whatever, put me down for that too"

Again, he wasn't actually going to have to do anything he volunteered for, so Andy figured he may as well take the brownie points.

"Thanks so much, I'll keep that in mind!" Tina beamed "I'd better go now, but I'm sure I'll see you around soon enough. I'm very happy I ran into you, Andy!"

Tina concluded her business with Andy just in time for him to be available for an approach by Tamara. His decision to show up in the reception a little earlier, so his extended interaction with the sports enthusiast would have more time to run its course, had paid off. He was actually getting quite good at the time management aspect of this.

"Excuse me, do you know where the medical room is here?"

"Yes, it's on the right, but it's actually very easy to miss" Andy told her, with the confidence of someone who actually knew the answer this time "I can walk you there, if you would like?"

"Oh, that would be wonderful, thank you" she smiled gratefully "I'm Tamara"

"Andrew"

Weirdly, Tamara's abundant poshness had caused Andy to instinctively revert to the proper. long form version of his name that neither he or anyone else ever used for him, unless he had done something to seriously piss his mother off.

"I'm so glad to find someone who has their bearings already. I've mostly stayed in my room up until now, waiting for things to calm down a little"

"Why? Because you're famous?" Andy blurted out, tactlessly.

"Oh, goodness no. I didn't mean that at all. I don't even consider that I am" Tamara responded, quite defensively "I'm just a very private person, I suppose, and probably rather dull"

As the pair rounded the corner, Andy pointed to the unmarked door to the room his upper class acquaintance required.

"That's it, they haven't exactly signposted it well"

"My goodness they haven't have they?" Tamara agreed "I could have been walking around here in circles all day if I hadn't approached you"

To Andy's surprise, she placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Maybe that was just what aristocratic people did?

"Thank you, Andrew. You're a lifesaver. I mean, not literally, this is just a routine query. But still, I'm grateful for your help. Hopefully we'll run into each other again. It's about time I made a friend here"

As Tamara entered the medical room, Andy realised how challenging making any kind of progress with her was going to be. She had all kinds of guards up, would be difficult to run into, and he was going to have to do a lot more than walk her to the medical room every Friday to win her affection any time soon. Still, she was much nicer and more down to Earth than he had expected, and that had gone about as well as it possibly could have. He would have to find a way to get to know her better on his next run.

For now though, he had a date to prepare for.

---

Andy walked into the bar, past a strikingly beautiful woman he'd not seen before and had to go out of his way not to stare at, while scanning the place for Gemma. It seemed she was at best arriving late, while there was a very real possibility he was going to be stood up again. That would hurt, as she hadn't seemed the type to do that, and he felt like they had genuinely connected on some level by now.

"Hey, Andy!" the strikingly beautiful woman called out in a voice he recognised.

No. Fucking. Way.

That was Gemma?

It had been obvious to Andy that she was probably very pretty under all of the geeky gear she usually had on, but he hadn't expected the girl he was going for a drink with to be this secretly hot. Why would she not want to always look like she did now?

"Sorry, I feel like I've overdressed a little for our drink. I'm heading straight from here to the big social, though. Actually, I figured the two of us could make our way there together. I assume you're going as well - it seems like you would have to be a social leper not to be"

Ouch. That stung. Not to worry though - Andy reminded himself he could take Cinderella to the ball next Friday, even if he would only have a few hours with her before the clock struck midnight.

"I wanted to, but I couldn't manage to get a ticket" Andy lied.

"Dammit, me and my big mouth" Gemma cursed herself "Those things are always stupidly over-hyped, I doubt you'll be missing much. Anyway, why don't I get you that drink I owe you?"

As Andy sat and talked with Gemma, he wished there was some way he could get to spend time with her before Friday evening. She seemed so perfect for him - beautiful, pleasant, effortless to talk to and, for some reason, she seemed to genuinely like Andy. The problem was, unless he could find a way around Gemma's early week emergencies, he had a grand total of four hours to woo her each week, even if he had a ticket to the social event. He did try and ask some subtle questions about what had kept her preoccupied up until now, but it was obvious she didn't want to talk about it, and he wasn't going to push too hard.

Andy left his drink with Gemma thoroughly frustrated. That had been by far the most enjoyable hour of any of his Freshers weeks so far, and yet he really wasn't sure where he could go with it. He would take her to the big social event next week for sure, but that was only an additional three hours to work his magic on her, all of it in a very public setting and right before the reset. If only he had been given the weekend for this as well.

As much as he didn't like the idea of doing any snooping to try and determine what had waylaid Gemma for eighty per cent of the week, Andy felt he might have to. It didn't seem like it was anything life-alteringly serious, judging by her demeanour that evening, and if she did turn out to be his perfect girl, he might need to sleep with her to get out of this cycle.

---

With the clock approaching midnight, and everyone else having by now made their way to the big social gathering in the student Union, which he would also be attending from now on, this was a rare opportunity for Andy to do some more information gathering. He settled on Leah's room this time - it was crazy that he had already made more progress with several women he had never met before than one he had grown up with. He needed to do something proactive, as there seemed to be no way of breaking through with her otherwise.

His old classmates' room was surprisingly nondescript, even by the standards of the Halls of Residence, and offered very few clues about Leah beyond things he already knew - she dressed well, was neat and tidy, and had plenty of friends, most of whom Andy recognised, to fill her pinboard with photos of.

Leah was studying geography, judging by the books on her shelf, though that information was of barely any use to Andy. She had no posters on her walls to give any indication of her interests, no quirky aesthetic touches to show her personality, and certainly no diary containing her innermost thoughts. It almost seemed like being hot was her entire persona, and It annoyed Andy how easily Leah seemed to be able to cruise through life on nothing but looks.

In frustration, he decided to at least get something of interest to him out of an otherwise wasted visit by rifling through her underwear drawer. He imagined how excited thirteen year old Andy would have been at having unrestrained access to Leah's panties. Heck, eighteen year old Andy was still pretty turned on by the idea.

The first thing he noticed was that all of her underwear was black. Some of it was plain but, happily, there were some very sexy items in there as well, including a couple of thongs. Andy picked one up - it was tiny! No way was this ever being worn for comfort, it was what Leah would put on when she was planning to fuck some lucky bastard or other. Holding it was kind of thrilling - an intimate link to a girl who hadn't even considered Andy worthy of having his name remembered in the thirteen years they had known each other. It was exciting to think where it had been, where it would be going again, and what she would look like in it.

Or at least it was, until there was a beeping sound and the door swung open. Before he had time to move, Leah was facing Andy as he stood, banged to rights, intruding in her room with her underwear draw open and her thong between his fingers.

"What are you doing?"

The question was asked calmly but with authority. Andy was still trying to find an answer when the clock struck midnight.

Monday, September 3rd

Leah's car pulled up to the curb. She got out, and said goodbye to her mother before making eye contact with Andy. Wanting to be sure what had just happened had already been forgotten, he called out to her.

"Hey Leah"

"Hey"

Rather than immediately trying to escape him. she stood in place, as if waiting to hear what Andy had to say next.

"I'm Andy. We went to the same school, you were in my class"

"I know, I recognise you"

Again, she was waiting for him to respond rather than trying to rush off. This felt strangely different to before. Andy decided to try and press home the advantage he unexpectedly seemed to have.

"Maybe we should explore this place together? I could meet you at the cafeteria at six once we've both settled into our rooms?"

"I have stuff to do then" Leah told him "I'm in room 417. Come and call for me at seven if you like, we can go to dinner together"

What the fuck? That sounded genuine. So being polite and friendly hadn't worked, the thing that had made Leah subconsciously interested in Andy, at least a little bit, was her catching him rifling through her underwear drawer after breaking into her room. The extent to which he didn't understand women was truly terrifying. Still, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Cool. I'll see you then"