Jia was rather surprised at his initial reaction. She hadn’t thought he had been so absorbed in his thoughts that he would jerk at the sound of her voice. The dryad was quite glad she had had the foresight to speak softly because his surprise at hearing her may have been enough to cause his coffee to spill. That would have made her feel bad about having interrupted, but he didn’t spill his coffee, so she felt all right. Perhaps she even felt a touch of amusement?
When he accepted her request to join him, she wasn’t sure whether he was sincere or just being polite. It could be either one or even some combination of the two. While she silently wondered whether or not this had been a bad idea, he had stood and grabbed pulled a chair away from the table for her. It surprised her a lot, but it wasn’t a terrible surprise.
Her first impression was that he was quite tall, and her second was that he could be a model. His physique seemed toned and perfect for the cover of a magazine or perhaps for an underwear advertisement. Jia was attracted to beauty naturally. Her father joked that it was a mark of their race, but the jest had a ring of truth in it. However, the dryad had learned the hard way that beauty wasn’t everything. Beneath a beautiful exterior, a hideous interior could lie, a psychotic or just plain cruel mind. Only time would tell for this one.
A smile moved over her lips, and she sat upon the chair, placing her cup and plate on the table top. “Thank you.” Perhaps there was a bit of awe in her voice because the only person who had ever done this for her had been her father. Even holding doors open for someone wasn’t as uncommon as this action. It had been a rather archaic practice in her mind, but it wasn’t one that made her think badly of a person. She liked to be treated like a lady, and in this day and age, that was practically non-existent.
Then he spoke his name and proffered his hand to her in greeting. “It’s nice to meet you, Xan. My name is Jia.” She lifted her own slender, long fingered hand to slip it into his larger one. After a brief squeeze that resembled a handshake, she withdrew it.
After taking a sip of her hot cocoa, she replaced the drink and lifted her eyes to his face again. He was rather attractive, almost flawless. She wondered about his race. Could he be human? Most humans had some sort of flaw that made them less appealing. Perhaps he did have a flaw, but his natural aura hid that? That would likely mean he wasn’t human, but he couldn’t be a vampire because of the daylight.
She wondered what he was, but she wasn’t sure she should ask. Jia’s making the first inquiry about race would likely have him asking about hers, and if he answered, she would have to answer in order to be polite. Ever since the incident when she was sixteen, she had become so cautious that even revealing her species was something she did only reluctantly.
After all, if he knew she was a dryad, he would know that her life was linked to a tree. Of course, there were so many trees in the world that it would be difficult to find hers, but it was a simple task of narrowing the playing field. If he ended up finding out where she lived when she wasn’t in school, he could deduce that her tree must be nearby. That could lead him to rationalize that her tree would likely be in the only Dryad Tree Reserve in the area, and what if he could weasel his way into finding the location by checking the private folders on the trees and their owners? She didn’t know what his abilities were, and she didn’t know how intelligent he was. Jia didn’t know if she could trust him at all.
Instead of asking about race, she asked, “Are you a junior this year? I haven’t seen you around, but I’ve only been here for a year. It’s a big university…”