At the end of a long, hard day at work, the last thing I wanted to do was come home and start primping for a date.
A few weeks earlier, my best friend was invited to go get ice cream at Friendly's with a guy she had become friends with, and I was dragged along with her. Immediately I found the guy, Adam, to be charming and attractive. Although college was just a few months away, every inch of my body knew that nothing could come of it. But, after talking to him for weeks, he had convinced me that dinner and a movie was the perfect way to get to know each other better.
Immediately, as I got home from work, I complained to my mom about how I was going to cancel and that I really didn't want anything to do with him. I did not want a relationship, and I knew I would not be the most pleasant date for the evening, being very tired and grumpy from my long shift.
But, I quickly threw on some jeans and a nice shirt, straightened my hair, brushed my teeth, and touched up on my makeup. I tore through the house looking for our souvenir popcorn bowl, so we could get a discount on movie theatre popcorn and bring home the extras for my mom, and a warm blanket, because I cannot watch a movie without one.
My friend texted me asking, "He wants to know if you want him to come to the door or not?"
I was very flattered by the suggestion, but different thoughts started coming to my mind. I really did not want him to come into my house and meet my dog and my family, all on the first date. Nothing was to come of this date anyways, it was just a spontaneous adventure in my eyes.
Even though it was supposed to mean barely anything to me, my heart began to pound and I became very anxious, waiting for him to pull into my driveway. I stood, staring out into the dark street, petting my dog and hoping it would slow my heart rate down. He finally arrived, pulling cautiously into the driveway, and I slowly opened the door and made my way down to his car.
I took a deep breath before opening the door, climbed into the passenger seat and said as perkily as I could, "Hey Adam, how are you?"
I could immediately tell that he was nervous too, and he responded like anyone would, "I'm good, how about you?".
He was wearing jeans and his varsity lacrosse captain jacket, which was almost the exact same thing he wore the first time I had met him. I thought about making a joke about it, but I decided he did not need to see the joking and mocking side of me quite yet.
After that tiny conversation, if you can even call it one, we pulled out of the driveway and made our way to Chipotle.
The entire 7 minute car ride was completely silent. Not a word was spoken between either of us, both our eyes fixed on the road ahead. We got out of the car at the restaurant, and he kindly held the door open for me. We had a light conversation in line to order, asking each other about lacrosse, hockey, and dance, trying desperately to find something to talk about. We ordered, and he paid for my meal, and found a place to sit and talk while we ate.
Compellingly, we found absolutely nothing to talk about. He asked me about work and I responded with a small anecdote about my long day decorating cupcakes. Then I found myself on my phone the rest of the time, talking to my friends about anything, and trying to think of things that Adam and I could talk about. Soon, it was time we had to leave for the movie theatre, and I knew we were both relieved to have a change in scenery. Trying desperately now, I asked him if I could play some music from the movie we were about to see, Black Panther, and he reluctantly agreed.
I didn't mean to go absolutely crazy around him, but I was very tired that night and was starting to get very slap happy.
Once the music starting playing I put on a huge smile and got extremely energetic, which thankfully turned the night around. I serenaded him with my beautiful, not really, singing voice and he laughed and made fun of me the entire ride to the movie theatre. So naturally, I dished it out right back to him. By the time we arrived at the movies, we had both warmed up to each other and there were no more awkward conversations. We got out of the car, and I made sure I did not forget my popcorn bucket, purse, or blanket.
As soon as we got into the theatre, we sat down next to each other in big reclining lazy-boy chairs, and got comfortable. As the lights went down and the previews began, I realized that I did not want to sit with him in silence. I wanted to chat with him and laugh with him and learn more about him. I laughed to myself because of how much that one car ride changed everything about our relationship.
Throughout the movie, we silently came up with a compromise.
We adlibbed the entire movie to each other, pointing out funny things the actors said and commenting on different aspects of the film. We did the same hand gestures they did in the movie to each other, and repeated certain phrases. The couple sitting beside us kept on shooting us dirty looks, but we just shushed each other and carried on having fun.
We sat all the way through the end of the credits, just wanting to spend more time with each other before we had to go home.
We began our slow walk out of the theatre, stopping at the concession stand to buy my mom another bucket full of popcorn, and slowly made our way to the car. On the car ride back to my house, we talked about school and how unfortunate it was that we had to go back in the next day. Once we got to my house, he got out and walked me to the door, and gave me a huge hug. We both smiled as I watched him climb back into his car and drive away.
