What If You Stay?

It was Monday night and I was trying to get ready for a dinner date with Paul. Paul had asked me earlier this morning before Jared and Jacob arrived at work. I agreed, rather quickly than I wanted to, and couldn’t control the smile on my face the whole day even though I had one ever since the yesterday when Paul and I were at the beach.

I was looking through my closet trying to find something nice to wear for Paul and I didn’t know if I should wear a dress or jeans for the date. Clothes were all over my bedroom that I’ve thrown trying to find something and I knew if dad saw the room right now, he would keep me from going out to dinner.

Sighing, I turned around to face my room and my eyes connected with the picture that sat on my night stand beside my bed. A picture of my mom and me when I was younger during one of her Glamour photo shoots that she always did every year at the nearby mall. She was wearing a white dress with a dark blue cardigan over it, blue heels and the locket that hung around my neck. I was eight when the picture was taken and I was wearing a black and white skort outfit that she picked out for me with white shoes.

Looking back in my closet, I saw something white toward the right side and I reached for it to pull it out to see that it was a white layered dress. Confused, I walked over toward my bed to lay it down to see my blue cardigan lying on the bed with a few other clothes. Looking back over at the picture, I smiled at how almost the clothes are similar and decided to where the dress and cardigan.

I placed the dress and cardigan together, aside and began to pick up the rest of the clothes to put them back into the closet before grabbing my blue sandals from the bottom of the closet. Having already taken a shower when I got home, I began to get dressed. After having the dress and cardigan on, I walked back into bathroom to look back in the mirror. I fixed my hair a little bit, making the curls look more tamed before applying a little eye shadow as eye liner and mascara. Applying chapstick lastly, there was knock on the door.

I rushed into my bedroom to slip my shoes on and grab my cell phone along with some money before making my way to the living room. I reached the door when it was knocked on again and pulled it open to see that it was Paul. Smiling, I looked over his clothes to see he was wearing a blue t-shirt, jeans, and black work boots. I opened my mouth to say something when he leaned down to press his lips against mine for a peak.

“You look beautiful.” he whispered against my lips and I mentally thanked God that dad had to work late tonight. “You ready?” he asked and I nodded grabbing my keys from the hook.

I stepped outside pulled the door close behind me and locking it before following Paul out toward his truck. He opened the passenger’s door and let me climbed in before closing the door and running to climb in the driver’s side. He started the car, cutting the air down a little before pulling out of the driveway to hit the road heading toward the interstate. Halfway down the interstate, Paul reached over to take my hand in his to intertwine our fingers.

Looking over at Paul with a soft smile, I saw him still smiling, glancing over at me. My stomach fluttered at the gesture along with my heart beat racing again. Paul was having a huge effect on me and I think he could easily tell just by looking at me or hear my heartbeat. Facing forward again, I saw Paul pull into a small parking lot to an Italian restaurant. Not even a minute later, Paul was at my door, opening it and helping me out before closing and locking the car.

He placed a hand on my lower back and guided me inside the restaurant. Inside, the lights were very dim making the place look a little dark. We didn’t have t wait long until a male waiter sat us down with a menu each. Before we could even open our menu to take a look to find something to eat, a waitress walked over her gaze focused mostly on Paul.

“Hello, I’m Lindsey and I’ll be your waitress. Can I get you anything to drink?” she said/asked mostly toward Paul.

“Pepsi.” I answered quickly getting her attention with a fake smile. She gave me the same smile back before looking back at Paul batting her eye lashes.

“Same.” Paul answered looking straight at me, not even taking a glance at the waitress.

The waitress shot me a scowl before walking off to retrieve our drinks from the back. I mentally smirked at her before looking back at Paul to see that he was still staring at me. My cheeks began to heat up and I quickly glanced back down at the menu to find something to order. My eyes quickly landed on cheese ziti and figured that I would get that since it what I would normally get whenever I went to Olive Garden back in Tennessee.

“Find anything you like?” Paul asked taking my attention.

“Yeah. You?” I asked in return. Paul nodded giving a duh look that I just chuckled at while closing my menu.

The waitress quickly came back over, taking the time to bump her hip against Paul, which didn’t even faze him. The placed the drinks down in front of us and pulled out her tablet asking if we were ready to order, mostly toward Paul, again.

“Cheese ziti.” I answered handing her the menu.

“Large lasagna.” Paul ordered handing her his menu.

The waitress smiled, seductively as she could, hoping to get Paul’s attention, but failed miserably. I cleared my throat getting her attention before waving her off to turn our order in. I watched until she was out of sight before I looked back at Paul to see that he was smirking at me.

“What?” I asked.

“You’re jealous.” Paul said.

“I’m not jealous.”

“Denial.”

I rolled my eyes playfully at him while crossing my arms on the table causing him a laugh. He then reached across the table to take one of my hands in his to pull across the table before lifting it up to kiss my knuckles. I couldn’t help but blush at the little affection as he held my hand on the table.

“You are the only one that I can see. Don’t worry about anyone else because they hold nothing for me.” Paul said receiving a nod from me.

We continued to sit there, with him holding my hand, as we waited for our food to arrive. When the food finally did arrive, the waitress didn’t bother to stay around like she had done and I was thankful for that. It meant that she got the hint that he wasn’t going to take a glance at her when I’m the one that he would be spending most of the time with.

This is the perfect date.