One Day at a Time

As we began driving to wherever we were going, I was feeling a little awkward. Would anyone consider me to be…cheating? And what if we ran into Erik? I didn’t know where Erik had disappeared to in the past week since he had come back from his trip. It was like someone snapped their fingers, and he was suddenly a totally different person.

“You okay?” Joe asked, shaking me lightly and bringing me out of my rambling thoughts.

“I’m fine,” I answered simply. I was hoping he wouldn’t ask anymore questions, but he seemed curious.

“You’re worried, aren’t you? I shouldn’t have asked you out, right?”

He seemed disappointed when he asked me that and that wasn’t actually the reason. It was more like if I got caught by Erik, I was toast; or maybe a vegetable.

“Joe, don’t think that. I wanted to go out with you.” It was hard saying that last part because I felt bad for going out with him, but I felt safe with him, too.

The awkward silence continued for the rest of the ride to a local restaurant. Nothing too fancy, but it was a hot spot for the people in my town to get engaged. Seriously; it wasn’t even that great of a place to eat. The service was great and the people were really nice there, but the food wasn’t all that fabulous after they fired a good friend of my mom’s. He was a cook there, and he was amazing. The place hasn’t been the same without him.

“So, is this place okay?” Joe asked after pulling into a parking spot and putting the car in park.

“Yeah, I love this place,” I lied. He stared at me for a moment before doing anything else.

“Nah, you’re right. We’ll go somewhere else,” he assured me and put the car in reverse. “This place just hasn’t been the same since Orlando got fired.” He looked back over to me again as he began driving, and this time, I couldn’t help but stare at him. “What?”

“Sorry. It’s just, I was thinking the same thing and I was hoping you would change your mind. Orlando was the man,” I smiled. “And, I’m not really all that hungry anyway.”

“Oh, then, we could always just go for a drive somewhere. Or we could just go catch a movie; whatever you’d like to do is cool with me.”

I thought about it. To be honest, I didn’t get all dressed up in a nice outfit just to go for a ride. One of the theatres in my town was showing old movies all the time. Maybe they had something good playing tonight.

“Okay. Take a right at the light and follow it down to the next light and make another right. There’s a theatre here in town that plays really good old movies all the time. So maybe we’ll be able to catch a good one.”

He followed my instructions and we got to the theatre in no time. For a Friday night, I was expecting the place to be packed, but there were only a few cars lined up in the small parking lot. We walked up to the ticket counter and I stared at the sign of movies that was set up behind the head a girl who seemed disappointed with her life; or maybe she just didn’t want to be there. I don’t know.

“Can I help you?” The girl asked, popping the gum in her mouth.

“Mind if I choose something?” I asked.

“Go for it,” Joe answered.

I stared at the sign for a little bit longer, trying to pick the perfect movie. It was going on 8:30, and the only movie that was starting soon was a romantic-type movie, but also a comedy. I wasn’t sure how Joe would feel about it, but it was one of my favorites and he let me pick the movie.

“Can we have two tickets for Sleepless in Seattle?” I leaned in closer to the window. “It’s my favorite,” I smiled and started to pull out my wallet from my purse, but Joe stopped me.

“I got this,” he insisted and pulled out his wallet, too.

“My wallet is bigger than yours. I win, so I’ll pay,” I said and quickly regretted it. My wallet is bigger than yours? I thought to myself. I shook my head out of shame towards myself. He laughed and pulled out a twenty dollar bill and slid it through the hole at the bottom of the window. The girl behind the window took the money and produced two tickets and four dollars in change for Joe.

“Thanks,” he said as he grabbed the money and tickets, and handing one ticket to me. “I asked you out. That beats a big wallet any day,” he raised both his eyebrows and revealed his beautiful smile. I melted.

“Deal,” I agreed and grabbed the ticket from his hand. We walked inside to the snack stand and I nudged him lightly. “Okay, now I’m hungry.”

I could feel his body shake as he laughed at my comment, making me laugh, too.

“What do you wanna get?”

“Hmm,” I thought. “I’m really feelin’ those nachos. And a small Coke,” I replied. “And I’ll treat. I feel bad.”

“No, no, no,” he pulled my hand out of my purse. “I told you I’ve got this.” He was next in line and he looked up at the sign real quick to choose his own snacks as well. “Can I have a small Coke, nachos, a large Coke, and a large popcorn with extra butter.”

I was slightly shocked when he ordered what he wanted. But, what ever floats his boat. We grabbed our snacks and walked over to our theatre, taking a seat in the very back of the small room. As soon as we sat down, the movie started, so there was no awkward small talk. What a relief!

We didn’t say one word to each other throughout the whole movie. I didn’t like talking during movies anyway, but it was a very awkward silence. We didn’t look at each other and nudge each others arm when there was a funny part; nothing.

When the movie had finished, I followed him back out to his car and got in. It seemed like it took forever for him to start the car and drive, but it was mostly because we didn’t say anything to on another until I said something.

“That’s definitely one of my favorite movies,” I blurted out.

“Yeah. My mom loves that movie. I always avoided watching it with her because she cries every time. I don’t even know why.”

Now the ride back was awkward. We didn’t say anything else to each other until we were at my front door.

“Thanks for tonight,” I said. “I really needed to get out of my apartment for a bit.”

“Yeah; glad you could hang out. And the movie was pretty good.”

I could tell he was lying. He didn’t seem like he liked chick flicks. I turned to face my door and unlocked it. Without the chance to open it, he turned me around quickly and he was just inches from my face. He leaned in and kissed my cheek.

“Good night, Alexa,” he whispered before walking down the hall and back to his car. I sighed, hoping that my lips would get more action than my face itself.

“Lucky cheek,” I mumbled before going inside. “But what a night,” I grinned and sat on the couch, still taken aback from his simple kiss on my cheek.