CHAPTER NINETY-THREE - A STEP TOO FAR

    As they shared the soufflé, Aiko regaled Nia with stories from their college days. "Did he ever tell you about the time he tried to impress the dean's daughter?" Aiko asked, her eyes twinkling mischievously. Leon groaned. "Oh god, not this story." "Now I have to hear it," Nia laughed. Aiko leaned in conspiratorially. "So, picture this: Leon, barely 20, thinking he's God's gift to women. He decides the best way to win over this girl is to serenade her. Outside her dorm. At midnight. In the middle of finals week." "I maintain it was a romantic gesture," Leon interjected. "It might have been," Aiko continued, "if he could actually sing. Or play guitar. Or if he hadn't mixed up her window with her very large, very angry roommate's." Nia burst out laughing, picturing a young Leon, guitar in hand, being chased away by an irate student. "Needless to say," Aiko finished, "he didn't get the girl. But he did get a reputation as 'that tone-deaf idiot' for the rest of the semester."