Page 1 of Demure
Chapter One
Sierra Lopez rarely went on Tinder dates, but whenever she did, they always went horribly wrong.
That is how she met Aodhan and, like every Tinder date, it ended with Sierra wishing she hadn’t gone in the first place.
Well, to be fair, she wished she hadn’t gone from the moment Aodhan waltzed up to the coffee shop 30 minutes late, after Sierra had already finished her coffee and was just preparing to call it quits.
“You’re late,” she said as he stopped by her table, resting his large hands on the smooth surface and shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Sierra didn’t even bother looking up from her laptop screen where she was currently making notes for her thesis.
“Yes I am.” His deep voice replied in an even tone that conveyed no notes of regret.
Sierra waited for an “I’m sorry” or a “My apologies”—but it never came. Instead, Aodhan silently folded his tall frame into the chair in front of her, looking at her expectantly as he crossed his arms over his broad chest.
The good news was that Aodhan looked just like his picture.With sandy brown, curly hair that fell to his shoulders and pale, almost translucent skin that gave him away as an Irish native, he looked just as his profile had portrayed. Even down to the black woolen beanie he wore, which covered the top of his hair and most of his ears. Sierra didn’t usually go for men who followed the ‘skater’ style, but while he wore beanies in all his photos, he was dressed in fitted jeans and a long sleeve polo shirt, giving Sierra mixed signals on his true aesthetic.
She had only agreed to go on a date with him because of the way his style in his Tinder photos had intrigued her. They had spoken briefly over the past few days on the app, but he hadn’t seemed to be much of a conversationalist. He kept his answers short and to the point, which Sierra also liked, to an extent. She had always been drawn to direct men who didn’t play games with women’s feelings by trying to impress them by showering them with empty compliments.
“Sierra, obviously.” She stated her name, not bothering with pleasantries since he hadn’t either. She tugged down the sleeves of her sweater as she swept her messenger bag from the floor.
“Aodhan.” He replied, just as deadpan.
Well, this is going great, Sierra thought to herself. She tried to get the conversation going. “Aodhan, is that a family name?”
He shrugged, keeping his arms crossed, his eyes pinned on her messenger bag where she was fiddling with the zipper on one of the pockets.
What a date this was turning out to be.
“So, are you from around here?” She tried again. This was his last chance to try and salvage their date before she called it quits.
“No. Are you?” He raised one sandy brown eyebrow.
The corner of Sierra’s mouth quirked up in annoyance. “What, my accent didn’t give me away?”
As an expat in Ireland, all the natives knew immediately that she was American. With her dark brown, almost black hair and light skin, Sierra could technically be Irish, but the moment she opened her mouth, they knew. Though, now that she thoughtabout it, Aodhan didn’t have the typical Irish accent either. Before she could ask about it, he answered her rhetorical question.
“I didn’t know you had an accent.”
Sierra rolled her eyes and checked the time on her phone. “Well, this has been great, but I didn’t have a lot of time to begin with. You were late, sooo…” She stood, sweeping her notebook and laptop into her book bag. “See you around.”
Sierra remembered from Aodhan’s profile that he was also a student at Trinity College, just as she was, but she really hoped she wouldn’t actually see him around. She was a master’s student, studying Aging and Fragility. It was a smaller program marketed to those who had already completed their pre-med studies but didn’t want to become full-fledged doctors and preferred to go into medical research. Sierra had chosen pre-med for her undergrad, hoping to one day help support her family, who had always struggled financially. Her parents weren’t poor, by any means, but as blue-collar workers with five children, they had always had to use ‘creative methods’ to make ends meet.
Sierra exited the coffee shop without looking back and began her trudge to the dull and dreary room she called an apartment, pulling her coat closed against the fall wind. She had moved to Dublin on a whim, needing a fresh start, free from her argumentative parents and their radical American lifestyle.
When she had first brought up going to college far away, her parents had assumed she meant in New York or maybe LA (pretty far from her hometown of Dallas, Texas), but they had been beyond shocked when she announced she had been accepted into Trinity College in Dublin. They were more sad than anything because they knew they couldn’t afford to visit her during her 1-year graduate program abroad.
Truthfully, that was one of the reasons Sierra had enrolled in the Trinity College program; not seeing her parents for a whole year was a blessing in her eyes and just the break she needed. Although Sierra loved her parents and her siblings, she also felt a little lost. One of the reasons she came to Dublin was to find outwho she was, and what she wanted from life, without her parents breathing down her neck and trying to influence her decisions.
Even though she had completed her undergrad in Pre-Med, Sierra wasn’t sure what she wanted in life. At home, she had felt forced to continue on the path to becoming a doctor, but somewhere along the way she had lost the passion and drive she had once felt. Now, she felt like she wanted to do anything other than what she had just devoted the past four years of her life studying.
Sierra stopped her brisk walk at the intersection, waiting for the walk signal, only to feel a hand at her elbow. She spun around to tell off the stranger, to find Aodhan standing there.
Trying to suppress her annoyance, Sierra raised her brown eyes to meet his green ones. He was taller than her by at least a foot. At 5’5”, Sierra wasn’t short for a woman, but she certainly wasn’t tall either.
“You’re leaving?” Aodhan asked, his eyebrow raised, an unreadable look occupying his face.
Sierra looked around at the sidewalk and the other people making their way across the crosswalk, which had just started flashing the walk signal. “Seems like it, doesn’t it.” She said, matter of factly. She was just so sick of the terrible Tinder dates that she constantly found herself escaping. At least with Aodhan, she had brought her computer and had accomplished some homework while he was late.
“But…” He started, trailing off as he searched for the words he wanted to say.
