Nick looked slightly taken aback, but I found myself putting my hand on his to comfort him. My entire arm both grew goosebumps and felt a warm tingle shoot through it. My body didn’t even know how to handle this man.
He stood, offered his arm, and I took it. He led me down the stairs and stopped at the entrance.
“So, I will see you again, is that right?” he said.
“I think so,” I said with a smile that finally, genuinely signaled that I felt fully relaxed. “You have my number, strangely enough, for professional reasons.”
“But consider it now personal.”
I smiled, and a silence fell that could only mean one thing.
We were about to kiss.
But…
For all of the warming up that we had done…
He leaned forward…
For all of the wonderful parts of the date that had happened…
He closed his eyes…
I still wanted to take things slow.
I could smell him…
I had to take things slow.
I brushed my cheek to the side just as his lips would have touched mine. He instead wound up planting a kiss on my cheek as I gave him a hug.
“I’ll see you around, Nick Ferrari,” I said with a smile that I hoped didn’t disappoint him too badly.
I didn’t think I needed to worry. He looked like he saw it more as a challenge than a rejection. If anything, maybe I’d done something good for us—he was probably too used to girls just accepting whatever he did. He could use a little chase.
I started to walk away, got to the street, and looked back.
“Where are you going?” Nick said, still standing in the same spot.
“To the parking deck?” I said as if there was no reason for Nick to not also be in the deck.
“Oh,” he said as if something obvious had just dawned on him.
And then a Tesla pulled around, the valet got out, and Nick made his way to the driver’s seat.
“You want a ride?”
Did I? Yes.
“I’m good.”
But just because I wanted it didn’t mean that I thought it was smart. I knew if I got in that car, I wasn’t leaving without a kiss. And for everything going on in my life and for all my baggage, I had to make Nick wait; I had to make sure I wasn’t setting myself up for a downfall again.
But you know what?
As far as first dates went, it was really hard to surpass what had just happened.
Even if it had started with the most middle-school move ever.
Chapter 7: Nick
“She’s everything I thought she would be, and then some.”
“Ohhh! Tell me more.”
I literally could not wipe the grin off of my face. The entire drive back to my home, I felt like the kid that had woken up on Christmas day, won the lottery, and won over the crush of his dreams all in the span of a couple of hours. And now, recounting it to my sister Layla over the phone, it really did feel like a dream come true.
“Well, she’s sweet but tough, just like I thought she was. She was engaging and charming and funny but pushed back on me at a couple of spots.”
“Does she have any sisters? We need to get Brett someone that’ll push back on him a little bit.”
I laughed, feeling only the slightest bit awkward that I hadn’t learned that fact about her. But she’d already agreed to a second date; such information would come to light in due time.
“Not that I’m aware of. She’s beautiful, just my type. Hard working, works at a marketing firm here—”
“Oh, I bet that’s how you met her,” Layla said, sounding like she had just cracked the code on some great mystery. “You probably got invited to some gig, you sweet-talked her, and now you’re head over heels. Are you sure marketing firm isn’t code for some sideline reporter for ESPN that I’m going to learn about on TMZ?”
“Hah, no,” I said. I valued my privacy too much to engage in something like that. “She works for a regular firm that does event planning. Not national sports broadcasts.”
There was a brief silence at the other end of the line.
“Layla?”
“I just…huh, you must really be serious,” she said. “Well, I’m happy for you, Nick, I really am. Don’t forget that tomorrow night, we have dinner with the whole family at the estate.”
“I haven’t forgotten.”
“Well, you better not, considering they tried to schedule this event around the fact that you’re probably leaving for spring training soon. So, if you forget, you’re going to have a bunch of very angry old Italian men.”
I think I would rather have created a public relations controversy with a bad tweet than I would have had to face that.
“I won’t, don’t worry. I’ll see you then, Layla.”
I hung up seconds later, still with a smile of disbelief on my face. And I didn’t even kiss her, that’s the craziest part. Like she didn’t want to be kissed so quickly. But I’m sure next date…
Why did she not want to be kissed so quickly, though?
Ah, who cared? It made it more fun. It was nice having a little bit of a chase; I hadn’t had one like that since probably high school. And maybe she did have legitimate reasons beyond some young woman’s idea of playing hard to get; maybe, with her being a single mother, she had to exercise extreme caution.
And speaking of extreme caution, tomorrow’s dinner was going to be interesting. I knew Layla wouldn’t keep her mouth shut about my date, but in some ways, I wanted to leverage that to my advantage; I wanted Brett and Leo—if he showed up—to see I was doing
