Page 53 of For All It's Worth
Max: Sounds good. Can’t wait either!
A single heart emoji was the reply. My stomach swooped with nerves and excitement. Actually going on a date with Charlie was like all my Christmases and birthdays coming at once.
Charlie had said we might be walking a bit so I wanted to wear something that wasn’t too tight. I had a black pair of cargos that managed to look smart, ideal for eating out, but were stretchy for all-day wear.
I’d set out what I wanted to wear after considering my options. I liked to be prepared and the late April weather was unpredictable, so I’d settled on a dark blue button-down over a lighter blue tee. Charlie had once said that darker blues made my eyes pop, so it was perfect for our date.
My hair was a nightmare. I’d been distracted with Charlie so it needed cutting. Covering the top of my ears with small waves, it wouldn’t sit right, so I worked a little product into it to tease it into curls. It gave me a messy bedhead look that wasn’t too much with the smart casual clothing I’d picked.
Alice had bought me a really nice cologne that I spritzed on sparingly since it had clearly been expensive. It had a lovely honey and citrus scent that made me think of summer at the beach house with Charlie and the first time he took me there. Our first summer as friends, he’d taken me to their beach house for a week. I’d never seen the ocean before, and that week I practically lived on the sand. It was a piece of heaven that he never shared with anyone else. Just me.
The bell rang five minutes before Charlie was due to arrive and I smiled at the idea that he was as eager for this as I was.
When I opened the door, Charlie held out a bunch of tulips to me. They’d been my favorite flower since he’d taken me to Amsterdam on our post-graduation trip across Europe. The small bouquet was filled with reds, pinks, and purples and I felt tears welling at the thoughtfulness of the gesture. Not only was he the first person to ever buy me flowers, but he’d remembered such an obscure fact as my favorite type.
“Oh! They’re lovely! Thank you.” I reached up to kiss his cheek. “I’ll just put these in water and then we can go.”
Charlie followed me into the kitchen. His nerves were apparently stealing his words. I found a pitcher that would work since I didn’t have a vase and let him work through whatever he needed to.
Finally losing patience I broke the silence. “Charlie, it’s just you and me. There’s no need to make this a huge thing.” I was a total hypocrite but one of us needed to take charge or we were getting nowhere. “The only thing that has changed is instead of calling me your best friend, you’ll say boyfriend instead.”
“Boyfriend, huh?” He smirked and I smiled at him.
“Yes, boyfriend. I know we’re supposed to be taking it slow, but if we’re doing this, we are doing it properly. So where’s my boyfriend taking me on our first date?” I moved over to him and put my arms around his neck. He looked down at me with a private smile. It suggested feelings and intimacy, and I wanted to pinch myself that it was leveled at me.
He leaned down, pressing a kiss on my lips. “I would like to take my boyfriend to the botanical gardens, then to lunch. I thought we could shop for a gift for Andy’s birthday then.”
“Abby’s too,” I cut in.
“Shit, yeah. Abby, too. Then we’d maybe see a movie and go out for dinner?”
“Oh, so you want my whole day?”
“I want it all day every day. I can’t see me getting sick of you.”
I flushed with pleasure at his words and pulled him into a kiss.
“Sweet talker.”
“Probably not very romantic, getting the bus on a date,” Charlie muttered.
“Not having to drive and worry about parking is great. Traffic is crazy, so a bus is smart.”
Charlie squeezed my hand. I still couldn’t get over how easy it was to be openly affectionate with him. He’d held my hand on our walk to the bus stop and all the way around the botanical gardens.
As first dates went, it was amazing so far. He’d been so patient with me as I’d studied all the plants and flowers, reading over descriptions and asking questions of the workers. We’d wandered the grounds for a couple of hours until my stomach was trying to claw its way out of me and we’d decided to go and get some food.
Lunch was equally as good and easy. We talked in between bites of tasty food. Charlie seemed to have knowledge of all the best places that were safe for me to eat at. If I didn’t already think I loved him, it would have helped me fall in love with him for sure.
I leaned into Charlie, basking in his solid presence and easy affection as we waited for the bus to travel the busy streets to the mall we’d chosen to look for gifts at.
“Do you have any gift ideas?” I asked him.
“Not really. I thought we could look around a bit and see if anything catches our attention.”
Shrugging, I said, “sounds like a plan.”
We wandered the mall, stopping for a snack but not seeing anything until we left the mall and roamed the streets a little. It was then I spotted a craft store with a bright display with various knick-knacks.
