A Chance for Sunny Skies (15 page)

"Oh." I froze. His comment made me remember that I
had
met someone else who ate pizza that way. The image of Braidy Bags pushed all logical thoughts out of my mind. I definitely didn't want to talk about the crazy old woman I thought could be me someday on a first date. It was better if I just kept my mouth shut.

We ate silently for the first few minutes. Looking up at each other periodically. At first, it felt okay, because of the eating, but the silence started to feel big and unwelcome. Ever since I so-awkwardly responded to his we-eat-pizza-the-same comment, he'd looked slightly dejected and had polished his glasses twice, so I hit him with my last conversation topic.

"If you had to pick your favorite place, where would it be?" I asked between bites.

Brian chewed and closed his eyes. "My grandparent's farm, up-state." He opened his eyes and tiny lines formed at the corners as he narrowed them in reminiscence. "It's quiet and peaceful and any other synonym you can think of for those words. How about you?"

I wanted to answer, I did, but the mention of grandparents had me suddenly nervous about family coming up. I fidgeted with my napkin. I hadn't even thought of that question going wrong. "My favorite place?" I stalled. Just make sure you don't say anything about family, I reminded myself. "I like the water." Was I sweating? I think I was sweating.

He clicked his tongue at me. "That's right, the whole fishing hobby."

I laughed awkwardly. "Yep."

"So did you grow up by the water?"

I blinked and swiped at my perspiring forehead. Talk of growing up might lead to talk of family. This was not good. "Not really." Could I just leave it at that? I gave him a close-lipped smile and turned back to my pizza. I could feel him watching me for a few seconds before he went back to eating, too. Relief flooded through me, but it quickly turned to hot dread as I realized that I had used my last discussion topic and we weren't even through our first pieces of pizza. What the hell was I going to do now? Panicking, I looked up to reassure myself with Rainy's presence.

My stomach dropped. She was gone. My lungs clenched together and I started to breathe in and out too fast. I couldn't do this without Rainy. I dropped my fork and knife with a clatter. Brian looked up.

"Everything okay?" he asked, leaning forward, then turning to look where I stared, wide eyed and scared.

I broke my stare to make eye contact with him. I blinked. "Fine. Yeah. Super. Great."

My palms felt clammy and hot. I rubbed them up and down the dress to dry them off, but it didn't seem to work. I was out of topics, my back up was gone, and the idea that maybe I couldn't do this closed in on me, making me sweat even more. My eyes darted, jumping around the restaurant to look for her.

I picked my napkin up off my lap and stood up. "I'll be right back."

There poor Brian was, looking dumbstruck, again. I jogged to the bathroom and threw open the door. A poor lady exited as I entered too fast, like the cops in a bad crime show. She yelped as I almost hit her with the door.

"Sorry," I said and moved around her, heading for the stalls. "Rainbow?" I whispered, not really wanting to add crazy-lady-yelling-in-the-bathroom to the list of things that could describe me tonight. I did, however, bend down so I could see if there were any Rainy feet visible. "Rainbow. Rainy? Rai--"

"Sunny, is that you?" she said just as I spotted her sandaled feet under the last stall.

"Yes. Rainy! I'm out of discussion topics. Then you were gone and I..." I think I might've started hyperventilating at that point, so I curled my arms up and over my head and tried to focus on breathing. A toilet flushed and Rainy strode out and started washing her hands.

"Sun, you're doing great. You two were laughing together. What was that about?"

"Movies..." My voice was strangled.

"Talk about that more. Does he seem nervous?"

My forehead wrinkled and I nodded.

"And are you liking him less for being nervous?"

"No! That's --" I cut myself off.

Rainy raised her eyebrows at me.

I lowered my arms. "I see."

She walked over to me, turned me around, and hit my butt. "Now get out there."

A yip escaped my mouth and I walked out of the bathroom and back toward my date. Even the back of his head was cute. His dark hair curled a little bit where it was longer at the bottom. I pictured myself twisting those little pieces around my fingers as we laid in bed or kissed. Yeesh, Sunny. Moving a little fast? I berated myself. First you have to get through this date.

I sat back down and scooted so I was in front of my pizza again. Brian leaned forward. "You okay?"

"Fine." I waved my hand. "Just needed to use the bathroom," I said, but his eyebrows knit together in question. I'd just "used the bathroom" like twenty minutes ago when I had talked to Rainy the first time. He must think I have a bladder problem, or worse, diarrhea. "Drank a lot of water earlier," I added.

Brian nodded. "No problem."

Then there was a problem. Now, I actually had to pee. Both times I had said I was going, I hadn't. There was absolutely no way I could use it again without looking crazy and becoming a weird dating story he would tell his friends for years to come. Resigned to holding it, I squirmed in the booth and tried to cross my legs, but my foot shot out and kicked him instead.

"Oof." His eyes shot up from his plate in surprise.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I was trying to --"

He stuck his hand out like a stop sign and shook his head. "No problem. Nothing a man can't handle," he said in a deep-manly voice, cleared his throat, and smiled.

I giggled and played with my hair a little as I watched him. "Good." My cheeks felt hot and pink. But I still had to pee. I tried crossing my legs the other way, but walloped him again.

"Ouch." Brian reached down to cradle his knee, laughing a bit.

"I guess I'm not very good at that." I cringed and looked down.

"Here," Brian said, picking up his plate and his glass of water. He stood up and joined me on my side of the booth. I went stiff, my shoulders scrunched up toward my ears and heat climbed up my neck. "This okay?" he asked, looking sideways at me.

My toes curled inside my red flats and I nodded, looking up at him for a second. Of course it was okay. It was amazing. I patted at my hair, worried it might frizz into his space, now that we were sharing my side of the booth. I glanced over at Rainy to see what she thought of it all, but as I looked at her, my heart stopped. Oh, crap. Now that he was on this side, he had a direct view of Rainy.

She jumped up and down in her seat and gave me an across-the-room high five. I smiled weakly and tried to motion with my head that she needed to leave. He couldn't see her. He couldn't know that I--

"Hey," Brian said. "Isn't that--?" He pointed at Rainy.

I wanted to die.

I folded my arms in front of me and looked past where he pointed. "What? Where?"

"Right there. The blonde with the headscarf. She's your friend, right?"

I dug my nails into my arms. "Um?" I squinted, acting as if I couldn't see her clearly. "Oh. Yeah. It
is
Rainy." I gave her a small wave. She waved back, and her smile had a cringe-y quality to it. I could see the "oops" written on her face and I hoped Brian couldn't. "Weird." I laughed, then turned to face him. "So this pizza's good, huh?" I said, stuffing a bite in my mouth.

Brian dropped his chin and looked at me. "Sunny," he said quietly. "Would you like to ask your friend to join us?" His blue eyes, looking at me so focused-like through those glasses, had an I-know-what's-going-on-here quality deep inside them.

My shoulders dropped and I slumped forward, my hands wringing in my lap. "I -- she -- we..." I didn't know what to say. I winced and waited for him to get mad and leave.

Instead of leaving, he started to laugh. Like really laugh. The sound of it made me happy. It was that wonderful, deep, let-your-head-fall-back laughter. After a second of pure bliss, I got confused. He was laughing about me bringing a friend on our date? I watched him, my forehead sporting more ridges than a freaking mountain range. I narrowed my eyes at him for a second, but then I felt the laughter catch me, too, catch in my throat and travel up to my face which peeled into a smile, then a chuckle, and a full-on laugh.

"I'm sorry, I--"

"Really, Sunny, it's okay. You were just being cautious," he said, wiping his eyes.

"No, no, it was nothing like that." I shook my head and leaned over, touching his arm softly. "I'm not good at this stuff." I hoped my eyes got wide and puppy-like as I looked up at him. "I just needed back up... in case I started screwing everything up again like I did at the smoothie place." I held my breath as I waited for him to take it all in and please, please accept it.

Brian turned his body toward me and reached his hand out, asking for mine instead of just taking it, so I placed my hand in his. They were soft, his hands. Not freakishly, but so much that I never wanted my hand to leave his.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly great at this whole dating thing, either." His face scrunched up.

"What?" I said. "You are so much calmer than me. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing! I did a drug-style money exchange just so you wouldn't know I was late with my rent, for Pete's sake." I pulled my hand from his and slapped it on my forehead, kept it there for a moment, then let it slide down to cover my face. "And just told you about it, anyway."

Brian laughed again. "I was wondering what was going on there." He leaned forward and whispered, "You're not as sneaky as you think. Plus, it's only the tenth day of the month. That's not that embarrassingly late, if you ask me."

I bobbed my head in agreement and rolled my eyes. He was right, but I still felt pretty hot and flustered from him leaning in so close and hadn't caught my breath enough to talk quite yet. I looked up at Rainy. She opened her hands and raised her eyebrows in question. I gave her a quick nod to tell her it was okay.

"So you're not mad?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Very the opposite, actually." His mouth pulled up on one side. "Are you sure you don't want your friend to join us?"

I took in a deep breath, let it out, and settled back into the booth. "Nope," I said, reaching for another bite of pizza. "I think I'm okay. Except I really need to use the bathroom."

Brian bit off a piece of crust, chewed, put the rest of it down, and sat back. He rubbed his stomach and sighed. "Whew. I'm stuffed!"

I nodded from where I sat next to him, having already stopped eating from stuffed-ness a few minutes before him. SteveZ had come by to drop off the check already and Brian had grabbed it (after another bout of laughter from the two of us), even asking for Rainy's check, too. I protested, but he just said, "What good is raking in the dough talking to people about cat puke if I can't spend it on a great night with a great girl?" and my cheeks were too warm to protest, so I let him pay.

Once he'd paid, he turned back toward me and narrowed his eyes as he watched me. "We're done eating."

"Yes," I said, nodding. I couldn't fit more food in me and still fit in that dress, so yes.

"But are we done done?" He tipped his head in question.

I looked at him from under my eyelashes, trying to read if he was or not. I didn't want to be the only one who wanted to keep going. The truth was, we actually
had
been having a great time and I really didn't want to stop.

"What did you have in mind?" I asked. And hoped.

Brian flashed his straight, white teeth and he ran a hand through his hair. "Well, I saw that
The Royal Tenenbaums
is playing at the Lyndon Theatre downtown. Would you be up for that?"

I'm pretty sure I started nodding before he even finished. He chuckled and held out his hand. "Then let's go." I let him help me out of the booth and he kept hold of my hand. We walked over to Rainy, who was still there even though I had told her she could leave once Brian had seen her.

"Okay, but this book you gave me is really good and I kinda want to stay and read," she had said, so she'd stayed, eating and reading. She still had her nose in
The Princess Bride
and held a piece of pizza in the other hand as we walked up.

"Hey," I said, trying to pull her attention from the book.

Rainy looked up, startled. "Oh, hey! This book is amazing." She gestured with her pizza-holding-hand and toppings went flying from the piece she was working on.

I nodded and widened my eyes. "I know." Brian squeezed my hand (yes, he still held it). "We're going to take off, okay?"

Rainy's whole face lit up. "Have fun!" She waved her pizza at us, more toppings flew off. Just as quickly, her nose was back in that book.

Brian and I arrived a few minutes after the movie started, but it was okay since we'd both already seen it. In fact, we spent most of the showing annoying the three other people in the old theater with us by reciting the lines and laughing.

That didn't end as we walked out after.

"Um, can the boy tell time?" I asked, stopping and putting my hand to my chin.

"Oh, goodness no!" Brian filled in the second part of the line and we cracked up all over again.

The laughter and lines continued in the car and it was perfect. But that perfect feeling was pushed aside by nerves when he pulled into my apartment parking lot, stopped, and the car doors slammed as we got out. I wrapped my arm through his and we made our way to my door. I didn't lean as close as I wanted to in fear that he might feel how rapidly my heart beat in my chest or how staggered my breath was.

I hadn't kissed anyone since Andy Phillips in the sixth grade at boarding school, and I'm pretty sure that had only happened because of a dare. Had I completely forgotten how to do it? Was it one of those things that changed every decade or so? I slowed my pace. Maybe if I had just a little more time to prepare I wouldn't --

Nope, there was my apartment and there we were.

Brian stopped and turned toward me, polishing his glasses once more. By then, I had figured out that was a dead give away that he was nervous, plus the way he kept clearing his throat. Part of his face remained in the shadow of the building lights, but I could see those eyes clearly enough. And his lips. "I had a great time." His words felt thick, like they held so much more inside them.

I nodded.

"I'd really like to do this again." His voice shook slightly.

I nodded.

"Can I call you tomorrow?"

More nodding.

Brian laughed. "Is there anything you won't nod to right now?"

I shook my head and smiled. My palms started to sweat. I'd seen enough movies to know that if he was going to kiss me, this was the moment. My heart raced. I wasn't ready. Brian leaned down. I needed more time. He closed his eyes. I --

His lips landed lightly on my forehead, soft and warm. My eyes instinctively shut and my body relaxed. A smile pulled at the corners of my mouth and I leaned into him. After a few moments he pulled back, I opened my eyes, and he gave me a crooked smile.

"Goodnight, Sunny Skies," he said and walked back toward his car.

I waved and stood there until I saw his car pull away. And then my knees turned to Jello and I collapsed.