Welcome to the A to Z Challenge! I am excited to share with you some meet cutes (and maybe some sexy scenes) throughout the month of April! Richard is going to be chiming in with a few of his characters from his Hallmark story, too! Here is the first installment, but stay tuned every day (except Sundays) this month for a short scene! Like and comment, and maybe I’ll continue the more popular stories in May!
– Jayden

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“Welcome to the Academy!” a cheery voice burst out over the crowd, crackling over the loudspeaker. “The Academy” was short for the Academy of the Fine Arts, a prestigious arts college. Today was orientation, and I was a freshman. Nervous as hell, I looked around at the other artists who had been accepted into the program and tried to guess what type of art each person practiced. The Academy catered to all different types of art: pottery, pastels, acrylics, charcoal… The list went on and on.

“Please take your seats!” the same voice hollered out over the crowd.

Seats weren’t assigned (I had checked), but there were probably more people in the room than chairs, so I needed to get a seat quickly, or I was going to be stuck standing for the duration of the presentation. I was already tired, and overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people in the room.

I spied an empty seat and went to sit down, but the person in the next chair said, “Sorry, this seat is taken.”

“Oh, sorry,” I mumbled and scooted back along the chairs, looking for another empty seat. Embarrassment burned my cheeks.

“This seat is available,” a voice said. It was a quiet voice but confident. The volume in the room was buzzing in the background, but his voice took all of my attention. I was so relieved to have someone tell me I could sit down that I didn’t even question it.

“Thanks,” I said, sitting down gratefully.

“I’m Aaron,” he said, offering his hand to shake.

“I’m Aileen,” I said, taking his hand.

The rest of the room faded away as I felt his warm hand envelop mine. It was all I could do not to hold on tight when he went to let go.

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Check out what’s going on with other A to Z Bloggers on the Master List, sign up yourself here, and come back all month long! Leave us a comment if you’re participating, and I promise to visit your blogs, too!