“Your chariot awaits, my dear.” Luke grabbed the polished door handle and opened up the passenger side for me. He then handed the bouquet of sunflowers to me and gently shut the door, then sliding over the hood of the truck and swinging the driver’s side door open, finding his seat next to me.
He leaned in and pecked me on the lips. The aroma of sweet mint and cologne surrounded me. “Wow Luke. You didn’t have to do all this.” I pleaded.
“Pshhht,” he replied. “Looks like a lot huh? Got this suit at the thrift store downtown, twenty bucks. This truck is my Uncle’s and it just sits in our garage, only took a little bit of convincing to let me take it out for a spin. The sunflowers are a secret for now but you’ll find out about those later and my slick moves opening doors for you and sliding across the hood of the truck - priceless,” he said with a smirk.
We drove for about 15 minutes leaving Coopersville behind us. We pulled up to a nice looking restaurant called “Bella Italiano”. Luke hopped out of the car and pulled the door open for me once again. We walked inside and were seated at a small table by a picture window. A man dressed in a full tuxedo with a handlebar mustache came and filled our glasses with iced water and took our orders. This wasn’t just an ordinary dinner; it was a five course meal. First came soup, salad, then bruschetta, our main courses: chicken parmesan with linguine, and cannolis for dessert.
For the entirety of the dinner Luke and I just talked. I had never experienced conversation flowing so easily with anyone before. When we finished eating we found our way back to the truck. It had just started to get dark. We sat in silence for a few seconds.
“Thank you so much for this Luke. Honestly, this was the best night I could have ever asked for. I am so lucky that I met you.”
Luke grabbed my hand and kissed it. “It’s not over yet.”
He started up the truck and we went down the road back towards Coopersville. We were right on the edge of town when we pulled up to a dirt parking lot. Luke shut off his headlights before we pulled in. He parked the truck but left it running.
“You told me you liked sunflowers during one of our random conversations on the boardwalk. You told me you liked them because they make you think of summer, warmth and happiness and it’s funny, that’s why you like them so much. I like you because all of those things remind me of you. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as happy as I have since I met you and I know you are going to make this the best Summer I have ever had. So this is for you my sunflower queen.” Luke flicked on his head lights and in front of us was a huge field of sunflowers. I grabbed him and embraced him. “You wanna go explore?”
Luke and I ran out of the truck, hand in hand, straight into the sunflower field. The sunflowers were taller than we were. We ran straight into the middle of the field and Luke grabbed my cheeks and kissed me. He kissed me so gently but at the same time, so deeply. He ran his hands through my hair and I wrapped my arms around him. We stopped kissing and I rested my head on his chest and he just held me. My head on his chest was the closest feeling to home I’ve ever felt.
We strolled back to the truck and Luke opened up the door and reached inside. He pulled out two enormous down blankets and pillows. He led me over to the bed of the truck and set the blankets up inside. He pushed the top blanket aside and invited me in. I hopped in the truck and laid down. Luke cuddled up next to me.
“Let’s play a game,” I said, “to get to know each other better.”
Luke grabbed my hand and said “Let’s do it.”
“Okay so we take turns asking each other questions. We start out simple and get more complex as we go.”
I found out a lot of things about Luke in the next half hour. His favorite color was red. His favorite food was pizza, of course. He had been working at the pizza shop since he was 12. He had hung out with a few girls around Coopersville but nothing was ever serious. One of those girls was Bianca. She had just moved to Coopersville permanently at the end of April. She graduated early in hopes of getting to Coopersville before prom season ended. Luke really didn’t even want to go to prom but everyone encouraged him to invite Bianca so he went along with it. They had gone to prom together “as friends”. She tried to kiss him that night and he rejected her. She still hadn't given up. He kept to himself a lot and he liked it that way. His dream had always been to be a paramedic, but it was expected that he would take over the family business.
“Okay are you ready for a more serious question?” I asked. Luke gulped.
“How about I just tell you a few things so you don’t have to ask.”
“Okay Luke. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.” I said caressing his arm.
Luke sighed. “So. I’ve lived here in Coopersville my whole life. My grandpa
