With These Words

“Georgia,” Kyle breathed into the phone. “We’re going to do this right. So either you tell me the apartment number, or I’m going to start knocking on doors.”

“Kyle, I’m seriously like five feet from the door,” I slipped on the only pair of heels I owned. “I’m just going to head down---”

“Alright,” I heard him shove his car door open. “I’m going to start with 1A and work my way up. I hope you’re on the first floor.”

I laughed. “You’re serious about this, huh?”

“You best believe it.”

“Room 16B,” I told him checking my reflection in the bathroom mirror. It wasn’t easy, but I thought I cleaned up pretty nice.

“I’ll be there in a sec,” he said before hanging up.

I closed my phone and stuck it in my purse, all while telling myself to calm down. I touched the messy braid that hung over my shoulder. Tonight was going to be interesting, if anything.

Kyle knocked loudly on the door.

“Wow,” he smiled when I pulled open the creaky front door. “You look nice,” he studied my green dress.

“Ok,” I blushed and grabbed my black cardigan from the kitchen counter. “Let’s go.”

He laughed. “What? I don’t get a compliment?”

I smirked and looked at his usual camo shorts and striped sweatshirt. “You look like you do any other day.”

“Well I’m sorry,” He smiled and placed his hand on my back. “I wasn’t aware this was a black tie event.”

“I’m surprised you even know what a black tie event is,” I let him guide me out the door and down the hall.

“Come on, Georgia, I’m not a Neanderthal,” he squeezed my hip.

I jumped at his touch. “I suppose that’s a good thing.”

He pulled open the door to the parking lot and let me go through first.

“Thanks,” I mumbled as I headed towards his jeep.

“Did you even get it washed?” I asked touching the waxy exterior of the passenger door.

“Yes, I did,” he propped open the door and I climbed inside. “I told you,” he grinned. “I’m going to do this right. This is our first ‘official’ date.”

I laughed at his air quotes. “Official, huh?” I smoothed out my dress over my lap. “I wasn’t aware we were partaking in ‘unofficial’ dates.”

“No matter what you say,” he touched my hand, and his fingers brushed against my bare thigh. “I know you know what I’m talking about.”

“Yeah,” I swallowed and eyed his hand. It felt like it was burning. “Sure.”

He chuckled to himself and headed around the front of his car.

“So we’re going where?” I asked as he started the car.

“Putt-putting,” he stated backing out of the lot. “Any objections?” He glanced in his rear-view mirror.

“Nope,” I thought of Caleb’s empty promise to take me. “But I’m giving you a fair warning now, I’m ridiculously good.”

“Yeah?” He gave me a smile.

“Yeah,” I nodded proudly. “So I hope your ego is big enough to handle losing.”

“I guess we’ll just have to see,” He pulled into traffic and casually slipped his hand over mine. “’cause my ego is pretty big.”

I looked out the window and watched downtown rush by. My stomach was feeling crazy with all the butterflies, but there was nothing about this moment that I would want to change.

It was a short drive to our destination.

“What are you doing?” I asked as Kyle pulled into the parking spot farthest away from the building.

“What?” He looked around.

“We might as well park over there,” I pointed to the vacant lot across the street.

“Come on,” he smiled and squeezed my hand. “I’ve got a game to lose.”

“True that,” I told him hopping out of the car. My heels clicked against the asphalt. “I’m highly over dressed, aren’t I?” I stared at my carefully picked out outfit. I wasn’t expecting Kyle to whisk me away to some five-star French restaurant, but it never once crossed my mind that heels and a dress might be a little too dressy.

“Naw,” Kyle met at my door and shook his head. “I think it’s cute.”

I blushed and cleared my throat. “Uh, thanks.”

He grinned and laced his fingers with mine.

“So why are we parking ten light-years from the entrance?” I asked as we headed across the vast parking lot.

“Because,” he shrugged. “I like holding your hand,” he admitted openly. “And clearly I won’t be able to hold you hand while you’re killing me in mini golf…so I’m being efficient with my time.”

“Oh,” his answer surprised me.

“What?” He studied my face as his long legs tried to match my pace.

“Your hands are calloused,” I observed.

“What?” He repeated. He lifted his free hand up to inspect. “Yeah,” he rubbed his thumb and fore finger together. “From drumming I guess.”

I nodded.

“Well yours are soft,” he moved his thumb along the length of my palm.

“Yeah,” I smiled. “From pastry making.”

“That’ll do it,” he laughed. He swung our hands back and forth between us. “Careful,” he moved so I sidestepped a rock.

“Wow, Mr. Burns,” I brushed my bangs out of my eyes. “Color me impressed.”

He smiled again and squeezed my hand.

::;::

“What did I tell you?” I laughed as he pulled open the door of his jeep for me.

“Yeah, yeah,” He waited for me to climb inside. “I guess next time I should focus more on the game.”

“Are you okay?” I winced. I pressed my thumb just above his eyebrow. “I’m sorry about that.”

He grinned and caught my hand in his. “I’m sure it’s just a bruise.”

“Well I told you I didn’t need your help…”

“Yeah,” he laughed. “And I didn’t think that you would hit me with your club when I came up behind you.”

“I’m sorry,” I repeated again with a small smile.

He brought my hand up to his lips and kissed it. “It’s cool,” he smirked before closing my door and jogging around to his side.

I smoothed out my dress over my lap. Mini golfing had been fun, and aside from hitting Kyle in the head with my club, I had no regrets.
“You want to grab something to eat?” I he asked shoving his keys into the ignition. He started the car and glanced over at me.

All I could stare at was the bump forming above his right eye. “Yeah…” I looked away. “That sounds great.”

“It doesn’t hurt at all,” He read my thoughts. “I promise.”

I looked over at him again and he gave me a playful smile. “I just can’t believe that happened!” I rubbed my eyes. “So not a good first date move.”

He laughed and put the jeep in reverse. “You’re lucky you’ve already won me over then.”

I felt my face flush slightly.

“So how about some coffee?” He asked pulling out of the parking lot.

“Sure,” I nodded and adjusted my braid over my shoulder.

“Or,” he thought for a moment. “We could stop over at Jonathan’s,” he eyed the clock on the dash. “It is Chuck Norris movie marathon night.”

“Oh?” I smirked. “How exciting.”

“Well is it Chuck Norris,” he cleared his throat.

“I thought you had this whole romantic evening planned out?” I turned to face him.

“Is that why you wore a dress?” He asked with a smile.

“Well I mean…” I looked down at the silky green material. “Kinda?”

He laughed. “How do you know I didn’t plan this?”

“Your huge plan was taking me to your friend’s house to watch old movies with the rest of your friends?” I questioned.

“Well if you must know,” he shifted in his seat. “My grand plan was to take you to some expensive restaurant and buy you whatever food you wanted, but then of course you would end up not liking what you ordered,” he glanced at me. “Even though it would be like fifteen dollars. So then we would---”

“What?” I cut him off. “First, I would never order something over ten dollars. And second, if I were to make you pay for something that was that expensive, I would definitely eat it.”

He smiled. “I wasn’t finished.”

“Ok, fine,” I held up my hand. “Continue.”

“So since you would still be dying of hunger, we would drive to some little grocery store and get a bunch of like Doritos and Poptarts and then eat them in the park or something.”

“The park?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. You would complain a bit at first because we would have to sit in the grass, but you would for sure appreciate the effort.”

“Oh?” I laughed.

“Yes,” he nodded. “So then after that you would want to go back to my house to just chill or whatever.”

“Kyle, it’s a first date,” I interrupted.

“Georgia, Marc would be there, which means Kent and Jonathan would probably be there too. But anyway, so we’d just chill out and watch some made for cable movies.”

“Made for cable?” I rested my chin on the hand. “I’m more of a pay-per-view type of person.”

He laughed. “We would watch whatever you wanted to watch.”

“So why’d you throw that plan away for mini-golfing and Chuck Norris?”

He slipped his free hand underneath mine. “I just wanted you to have a good time, and I thought you would have more fun playing some golf and watching movies with the guys then sitting down in some stuffy expensive restaurant.” He looked at me. “But, if you don’t want to watch movies with the guys it’s not too late to grab some ridiculously expensive food.”

“I want to watch movies.” I told him. “But there’s one condition.”

“You get the seat next to me so that you can quietly fall asleep on my shoulder?”

“I was going to ask if we could stop for milkshakes on the way…but sure,” I laughed. “That too.”

He squeezed my hand. “Milkshakes are not a problem, my lady.”

::;::

Kyle pushed open Jonathan’s door with his foot and let me walk in first.

“This is delicious,” I told him taking another sip of my milkshake.

“I told you,” his hand found my shoulder. “Chocolate banana is highly underrated.”

“Kyle?” Marc poked his head around the corner. “Is that you?”

“Yep,” Kyle guided me into the living room. “And Georgia’s here too.”

“Whoa,” Austin looked away from the flat screen. “Dang Georgia,” he elbowed Caleb who looked up at me too. The corners of his lips turned up into a smile.

“Uh, hey,” I blushed.

“Why are you so dolled up?” Jonathan asked shoving a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

“This old thing?” I looked down at my dress. “I wear this every time I go mini-golfing.”

“You went putt-putting?” Caleb asked. He looked confused. “I thought that was our thing?”

Kyle made a face. “How could it be your ‘thing’ if you two have never done it?”

“He has a point, bro,” Austin took the bowl of popcorn out of Caleb’s lap.

Caleb ignored them both. “I guess we’ll have to find a new thing,” he smiled.

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “Sure.”

“I’ve got some basketball shorts in the jeep,” Kyle touched my bare shoulder again. “You want to change?”

“Um,” I wrapped my arms around my waist. “Yes.”

He pulled his keys out of his pocket. “I’ll get them. I’ve got a sweatshirt in there too I think.”

“I got it,” I took the keys from him.

“You sure?”

“Yeah,” my heels clicked against the hardwood as I headed towards the door. “Be right back.” I pulled open the door and quickly hurried out to Kyle’s jeep. I unlocked the back and looked inside. The shorts and the sweatshirt were both balled up right where he said they would be. I snatched them up and headed back inside. I pushed open the front door and ran right into Caleb.

“I’m sorry,” I placed my hand on his shoulder to keep form falling backwards.

“Hey,” he laughed and grabbed my hips. “You ok?”

“Yeah,” I dropped my hand and waited for him to drop his. He didn’t.

“You look great,” he looked down at my dress. “I like it.”

“Well I’m um, I’m about to go change,” I held Kyle’s clothes up between us.

“Right,” He let go of me and stepped out of my path. “I’ll try to get Austin to save you some popcorn.”

“Thanks,” I smiled. “That’d be great.”

He winked and headed back towards the living room as I headed towards the bathroom.

I quickly shimmied out of the dress and pulled on Kyle’s clothes.

“Georgia?” There was a knock on the door. It was Kyle.

“Yeah?” I adjusted the shorts and pulled open the door. I flicked off the light and the darkness surrounded us.

He smiled. “I thought you got lost or something.”

“Your car’s like ten feet away,” I pointed towards the door.

“Yeah, but you were taking like two hours to get there.”

I smiled. “I guess I’m just a slow walker.”

“Yeah, seriously,” he took a step closer. The light coming down the hall from the living room barely illuminated his face.

I played with the strings of the sweatshirt I was wearing. “And your sweatshirt kind of smells.”

He laughed, and in the darkness he lightly kissed the tip of my nose.

I looked up at him and his lips found mine. It was a simple kiss, lasting barely a second.

“Is this what you had planned on this date in your head?” I asked when he pulled away.

He laughed again. “Not exactly,” he looked at our surroundings. “Kissing you outside my best friend’s bathroom definitely wasn’t in the plan.”

I smiled. “I didn’t think so.”

He bent down and gave me one more quick peck on the lips. “Let’s go check out some Chuck Norris.”