Meeting a Woman 02: At College

Meeting a Woman 02: At College

Here is my second story attempt. I'm still looking for an Editor to work with. I've reached out to several here and assume that people are very busy. Please reach out if you would like to help me or would just like to give some advice without being an editor.

I failed to comment and thank Daddysgirlfl for helping me with my first story. Thank you, DG for your help and encouragement with my first one.

There shouldn't be any triggers in this story for anyone just wanting to enjoy a romance read. The only warning is that it is longer than my first. So if you don't want to invest the time to read a 47k+ word story, you might want to find another story to read.

Thanks for any votes and comments. I was bad in the early years of reading stories here and not rating or commenting. Now that I'm trying to write, I see more clearly the disservice I showed to other writers by not rating and commenting.

Please enjoy the second installment of Meeting a Woman series

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Joseph Domonic Mason - Recent graduate of Whitefish High School (Go Bulldogs!)

Joey had a hard time deciding what he might do with the rest of his life. He was pretty sure that he wanted to get to a larger city for school and work. It wasn't that he didn't like Whitefish, it was that he wanted to see what was out there. He loved to fish, hunt, and ski with his dad. It was something that they would do as far back as he could remember. But he wanted to spread his wings and be around more people than the 8,000 that lived in Whitefish. He thought a big college in a big city would do the trick.

His guidance counselor had him take several different tests to try to find different ideas for careers that he might be interested in. But the results proved to be less than exciting and really couldn't get motivated to keep searching.

A lot of his extended family had made the trip to Whitefish to help celebrate his high school graduation. Some of them he knew well and others he wasn't sure if he had ever met before. As the celebration moved into the late afternoon hour, one of his dad's brothers caught up with him and was talking about his school plans. Joey shared with him that he just couldn't find something that interested him. His folks had been getting on him about picking something so he could apply to colleges. He was very late in the process and he might even have to take a year off if he didn't get his act together.

His uncle asked if he had considered something in the field of Logistics. Joey wasn't even sure what kind of job that would be. He went on the explain that it wasn't something that a lot of people thought about because it never translated well to a brochure that colleges could she prospective students. Come spend 4 years of your life learning how to ship shit from point A to point B. It just wasn't sexy, at all. Joey laughed at his comment.

Then his uncle got serious and started explaining that it was a needed field that most people never considered. It could be mind-numbing when you started thinking about the complexity of shipping everything that is in your house through a complex shipping strategy of manufacturers, warehouses, distributors, and retail stores. People use their degrees to manage distribution centers, trucking companies, and analysts that find cheaper ways to ship the products through the web of options. The possibilities are almost limitless.

He said that the company that he works for had been hiring several new people from Ohio State that were getting their Bachelor degrees in Logistics Management or Masters in Supply Chain Management. If he was going to start over, he said that would be the degree that he would want to have.

Joey thanked him for the advice and was planning to check into it tonight after the party wound down. He kind of almost had a spark of excitement.

After he got ready for bed, he decided to look online at OSU and its programs, where it is located in Ohio, how many students attended there, etc. He liked what he was able to find online. This quick search had shown him that it met some of his requirements for what he wanted. Big college in a big town. Check and check.

He talked with his parents the next morning and they seemed to be excited for him. He filled out the online application and waited. It took several weeks, but soon enough an email arrived that said that Joey was now a Buckeye. He would always be Bulldog, but now he was going to The Ohio State University.

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Josephine Fiona Monk - Recent graduate of American Heritage Schools, Broward Campus (read that as Daddy has money to the tune of $36k/year for little Josephine to get the best education possible.)

Josephine's family was very wealthy. Her dad owned one of the largest 3PL (3rd Party Logistics) companies in the eastern half of the US. He had groomed his daughter from an early age to be able to one day take over the reins of his company. He couldn't figure out why she was so set on going to Ohio State. There were so many other better schools she could have picked.

It was hard for her dad to say no to his baby. Her mother had died from cancer when Josephine was only 10. She was a daddy's girl before that, and afterward, they only grew closer.

They were surprisingly down-to-earth folks. Her parents had both been raised by middle-class parents. It wasn't until her dad's small startup business had taken off that the money started coming in. About 5 years into his company's startup, he found some investors that wanted to help him grow. In the next 5 years, the company's profits continued to grow and doubled in size. Everything they touched was turning to gold. Their customers were very satisfied and retention rates were well above the industry standard. Over the next two decades, the company continued to grow and expand with acquisitions and internal growth.

Josephine finally convinced her dad that she chose OSU because it would give her a chance to go to her mom's alma mater and allow her to go to a school where everyone wasn't a stuck-up snob. She wanted to be a regular person where nobody knew her family was rich. She never got to grow up like a middle-class person and she wanted that experience. She asked him what the reason was that he was so successful. Was it all because of his education or was it the work ethic and character that his parents had instilled in him? She explained that she valued the way her parents had raised her and the character that they had each modeled for her, but she needed to experience the real world. She felt that that was the thing that she was missing in her life. Her father finally relented.

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Joey and Josephine both arrived on campus on dorm move-in day. Both of their fathers had driven them to Columbus and helped navigate them to their dorm. Joey had read somewhere that this year's freshmen class was the largest ever with over 10,000. They were both on the 4th floor of Morrill Tower on the west side of campus. It looked like it would be a neat place to live. It was right next to the football stadium which would be great on game days.

Their dads helped get them situated in their rooms, met their new roommates, said their goodbyes, and then got on the road for their long drives back home. All of the freshmen had a list of things they had to attend to help get acclimated to life on a large campus. There were tours, a meet and greet with the President, ID cards, signups for recreation and sports clubs, etc. They had yet to run into each other. But it would happen soon.

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It turned out that they were in three of their four classes together. However, they still hadn't met each other yet. The general education classes can be quite large at OSU. Lecture halls can easily hold 150 students or more.

Their first meeting happened by sheer luck. They met outside their advisor's office on the third day of classes. Joey had a 2:30 appointment and Josephine had a 2:45. Things were running a little behind schedule so they had a few minutes to talk. Joey introduced himself and asked her where she was from. This was her first test at being a "regular person" so she just said she was from a small town in Florida. He said he was from a small town also but from Montana.

They found out that they had the same major and then chatted about how neat the campus was so far. They were both surprised by how decent and sometimes good the meal plans were and that it was nice that some of the local restaurants would accept their meal plan as well. They each complained that they couldn't believe how far they had to walk to get to some of their classes. Joey said it was a bear to walk from the west side of the campus over to Bricker Hall first thing in the morning for an 8:00 am class. He wasn't liking the idea of when it rained or started snowing later in the semester.

She said she had a similar walk for her 8:00 am class in Bricker. That led them to figure out that they were in 3 of the same classes and the fourth was just at different times but with the same class and professor.

Before they could get to their next topic, Joey was called in for his meeting with his advisor. It didn't take a long time once they got started. When he came out he told her she was next. He was about halfway down the hallway and he decided to go back. He hadn't made any friends yet and thought maybe she hadn't either. He waited about 10 minutes before she came out.

She was surprised to see him sitting there. He smiled and explained the thing about no friends yet and wondered if she might want to grab something to eat. He assured her wasn't trying to ask her out or anything it was only to grab something to eat and get to know each other better since they had so many classes together. Maybe even become friends.

She decided he seemed nice enough to give it a shot. They were close enough they decided to go to the Union Hall location for their food. It was set up like a food court with all kinds of different types of food. They each got their food and met back at a table. They had a pleasant conversation sharing stories from their high school and funny stories from childhood.

Joey asked if she always went by Josephine and said that she did. She just never liked any of the versions people tried to shorten either her first or middle name. Of course that prompted him to ask her full name. She laughed just a little and then told him. He asked why she laughed. She just sort of shook her head and said it was her dad's fault.

She went on to explain that her dad and mom were huge fans of the USA network when they were younger. Her dad was such a fan he even picked out her name from some of his favorite shows. He said that he was familiar with some of their shows because living out in the country they didn't have good TV reception and certainly no cable. So they would go to the library and check out DVDs of TV shows. He was sure that some of them had been from the USA network.

She said Josephine was from a show called La Femme Nakita. It was about a young lady that was a trained assassin for some type of government organization. Her name was Nakita, but when she was being called into service her code name was Josephine.

Her middle name is Fiona from one of the female leads in a show titled Burn Notice. And her last name being Monk just sort of worked itself out from the show called Monk.

He told he thought that was so neat. He would have never guessed her name came from something like that. He thought her name matched her very well. He had heard of La Femme but he had watched a few seasons of Burn Notice and liked it. And he didn't make it through a full season of Monk. He just couldn't get over all of the hand wipes. She laughed and said she understood completely.

She looked at her phone and said she should probably should be getting back to her dorm to read over some of her notes from today's classes. He said that was probably a good idea for him too. They said their goodbyes as they took their trash to the garbage cans. They walked out the door together and then kept walking near each other and then she stopped and looked at him. She smiled and said something about it being awkward. He agreed since they had already said goodbye and still walking together.

One thing they hadn't discussed yet was what dorm they were in. So he said he was walking toward Morrill Tower. She laughed and said that was just too funny. They are in the same dorm, nearly all of the same classes, and are in the same major. What are the chances of that with nearly 50,000 students on campus? He joked and said at least they weren't roommates. She just had to giggle at that one. He took off walking and turned back to her and said that she should try and keep up. She jogged a little to catch up to him.

They didn't have a whole lot to say during their walk back. They went into the tower and got into the elevator and he asked her what floor. She said four. It was his turn to laugh. She said it can't be. But he just shook his head and smiled. It turned out that they were just across the hall and down one door from each other. He stopped at his door and smiled at her and said it was very nice to meet you, Josephine. She said it what nice to meet you as well.

The next day he found himself trying to find her in each of their classes. He spotted her in the first class in Bicken and gave her a little wave which she returned.

Over the next several weeks it appeared that she was developing a small group of friends that she was hanging out with between classes and he was kind of doing the same. He thought maybe she had a boyfriend back home and didn't want to get too close to anyone on campus.

The semester was flying by and there was a meeting coming up with one of the clubs he signed up for the day they moved into the dorms. He thought it would be nice to still be able to get out into nature so he joined the Hiking Club. He somehow had missed the first meeting they had a few weeks ago but was not on the email list and wasn't getting regular updates. There were about 10 or so people at the meeting and they were talking about a hike and campout that was being planned for the weekend after next. He was excited about it and was so glad that there was room in his dad's SUV to bring along the backpack and camping gear. He would have to review the list, but he didn't think he would need to buy anything for the trip except getting some food and snacks.

The meeting hadn't been going on long when the door opened and guess who walked in? It was her again. He just lowered his head and laughed to himself. She didn't notice him because she quickly came in the door and sat down in the front row. The meeting continued and the leader went over what the plan was, their gear list, what food to bring and what clothing they would need based on the forecasted temperatures. He said they would also be using the buddy system for this hike and campout. This not only allowed you to get to know the group better, but it also made sure that nobody got lost out in the woods. That made perfect sense to everyone.

He then continued and started naming the pairings for the buddy system for the campout. He tried to come up with a funny name for each pairing, but it didn't come off as funny as he thought. He got to the end of his printed list and then said that they did have two folks that missed the last meeting and that they would be paired up. He looked up from his clipboard and said that the last group would be buddy group Joe-Joe. He was the only one laughing again. He said it was the team of Josephine Monk and Joseph Mason. Everyone looked around to see who the new faces they could put with the names.

She quickly turned her head around the room scanning for him. When their eyes met, he sort of gave her a half-hearted wave and smiled. She smiled back. That was pretty much the end of the meeting and she waited for him by the door. When he got to her he asked how long she had been stalking him. She just slapped him on the arm. He took that as a good sign.

They decided to walk back to the dorm together and he was asking about her gear. She said she didn't have anything on the list. He offered to help her if she wanted any. He told her he and his dad were avid campers and he would be glad to help her get the right gear. She thought that might not be a bad idea. She certainly didn't want the team leader with the bad jokes trying to help her. They decided to go get her stuff on Saturday. The Football team had an away game so campus wouldn't be any worse than it normally was for getting around.

They decided to go around 9 am so that they could get everything and then have the rest of the day to do their own thing. They met up in the hallway and then grabbed an uber to a local Gander Mountain. He tried his best to explain things to her without "mansplaining". She seemed to take it all in and wasn't offended by anything. They ended up getting everything from a tent, sleeping bag, and backpack to a water bottle, filter, and a cooking/eating kit. She also needed some rain gear, hiking boots, and a couple of pairs of good socks. There was quite a bit of other miscellaneous stuff she needed also since she didn't have anything to start with. It turned out to be much more than she thought she would need, so she was glad that Joey had helped her pick out the right stuff and helped her carry it all.

They got back to her room and they unboxed everything and he showed her how to put everything into her backpack. He suggested that she wear her new boots around the room a lot or find a way to wear them for a few days to help break them in so that she wouldn't develop blisters on their hike.

He thought he had given her all the help she probably wanted for the day and told her he was going to take off. She thanked him again for the help and advice. She thought he seemed like a nice guy and not bad looking either. She had committed to herself that she wouldn't get involved with anyone during her first year. She wanted to make sure she got started on the right track for school.

They saw each other several times during the week but didn't talk but said hi a few times. He stopped by her dorm Friday night to see if there was anything she needed before they took off early Saturday morning. She felt pretty confident that she had everything that she would need.

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They met in one of the parking lots at about 6 am Saturday and the group pilled all of the stuff into two university vans and took off for the country. They arrived at one of the Zaleski State Forrest trail heads around 9 am after making fuel and restroom stops. The plan was to hike until about 3 pm and then make camp, stay overnight and then hike out after a late breakfast the next day.

The leader reminded them about staying with their buddy and trying to stay together as a larger group as well. They took a lot of breaks because several of the group weren't in the best shape and the hills of Southeast Ohio were causing some tired legs. They got to their designated camping spot a little after 4 pm, later than they had planned. They still had time to put up their tents, collect some firewood and get their meal ready. Joey get his tent up first and was probably one of the more experienced people in the group. His tent was probably a little bit larger than what he needed for just overnight like this trip, but he liked the extra room. He then turned to Josephine and asked her if she wanted any help. She was having a moment but said she would like to try and do it on her own if she could. He only made one suggestion to her and that was to move her tent closer to his because she was putting it under a tree that had a few dead branches in it.

She moved it a little bit closer but was probably not fully out of the danger zone. He wished she would listen but didn't want to push too hard since they didn't know each other well.