Do You Remember

You were the one that came up with the term ‘real date’.
I always thought that every little outing was a date, but obviously not.

We were sitting in my living room watching a movie.
My parents weren’t home so you were sitting in my lap and my arms were wrapped around your waist.
We were watching ‘The Notebook’.
I’d never seen it before, but it was one of your favourite movies; it still is.

You were watching intently while I was kindasortamaybe falling asleep… but that’s cause I was up all night thinking of you (Ooh, that was smooth, if I do say so myself. Points to Josh? No?), not because the movie was boring.

Anyway, it was about 6:30pm when the movie finished and we decided at pretty much exactly the same time that we were hungry.
I knew that, from looking in the pantry earlier, that there wasn’t a lot of food in the house, cause mom had last gone food shopping more than a week ago, so I suggested that we go out for dinner.

Your eyes lit up and you jumped out of my lap so enthusiastically that you were very close to stepping on something of mine that is very important to me… a certain body part that I’d become very attached to over the years…

Now, enough talking about mylittle big friend (hehe) and I’m gonna get on with the story.

So you jumped up with your eyes bright and you bounced on the balls of your feet and began talking about all sorts of things so fast that I couldn’t keep up.
I shook my head and stood up and you grabbed my shoulders and shook me slightly.
“So are we finally going on a real date, Joshy?”
“A real one?” I replied, “We’ve been on plenty of dates before, Ad.”
“Yeah, but not a real one. You know, like all planned out and shit? So… are we going on a real date?”
“Uh… sure Addy. We’re going on a real date… Now, get your jacket okay?”

You squealed and ran out of the living room and were back within five seconds with your jacket and mine in hand (well, actually they were both mine, but you always stole my clothes, and of course, I didn’t mind in the slightest).
Chucking mine at me, you ran out to the front door and stood there waiting impatiently for me to join you.

“Jo-osh, hurry up!” you whined and I laughed under my breath.
I slowly put my jacket and opened the front door for you because you could never quite figure out how it worked.

As soon as we got to the end of my driveway, you dived under my arm and hugged me around the stomach.
It made it very difficult to walk, but I didn’t mind.
You were babbling about how long you’ve wanted to go on a proper date (since even before you started going out with me) and about what kind of thing I could possibly have planned for that night.

“Joshy, what are we doing tonight?” you asked.
Shit. “Uhh, we’re going to… a restaurant… and then…um, the movies and…ice cream! And then we’re going home,” I told you, completely making it up on the spot, but it seemed to satisfy you because you squealed with delight.

I sighed in relief and led you into a small, intimate Chinese restaurant with a name I couldn’t read (because it was written in Chinese).
Walking up to the counter, I was greeted by a short man with greying black hair who smiled up at me.

“Um, hi, could I have a table for two, please?”
“Do you have a booking?”
“No, it was kinda… last minute.”
“That is okay. Follow me,” the man said and I breathed out loudly before motioning to you to follow.

The man led us to a red-leather-seated booth and smiled as we sat down opposite each other.
He handed us both menus and left us alone to decide what we wanted.
We murmured to each other about what meals we were considering and before long, the man came back with a notepad and pen.
We told the man our selections and he left us alone again.
By this time, the restaurant was filling up and we spent our time talking about what each person or couple’s ‘stories’ were, like Steve Carell and Tina Fey do on that movie ‘Date Night’.

We were laughing so hard by the time our meals came that the waitress was looking at us like we were insane (which, of course, we were – well, I was at least).

We began eating and I could tell that you were completely and utterly in love with your meal.
I swear you looked like you wanted to have sex with it or something, which would’ve been totally unfair, because it would’ve meant that a plate of Chinese food would’ve gotten your virginity instead of me and that would just be totally weird. Uh, yeah…moving on.

“Joshy?” you asked, holding your fork in the air with some of your food on it, “You wanna try?”
I shrugged and you pushed the fork closer to my mouth, forcing me to open up and let you feed me, with you giggling loudly when sauce got all over my face. I wiped it off with a napkin and noticed you staring at me while I chewed.

“S’good,” I said with a full mouth, and you smiled widely. When I finally swallowed I got some of my meal on my fork. “You want some?”
“Yes!”

I laughed and fed you the same way that you fed me, minus the sauce on the face.

When we finished our meal and got the bill you tried to pay but I wouldn’t let you, telling you that I was the one taking you on the date and that you were not paying for anything tonight.
You pouted, but allowed me to pay, and we left the restaurant to find the cinema.
I didn’t have a clue what was on but you were talking about some romantic comedy (of course) that you wanted to see.

Arriving at the cinema, we immediately got in the queue to buy the tickets and popcorn.
I spotted the movie you were talking about and bought two tickets and a medium sized popcorn to share (because we were quite full from the dinner).

We found seats up the back in the middle and settled down in the comfy chairs.
I was glad to see that the armrests moved, so I immediately pulled the one between us up so that I could hold you.
You chattered away all through the advertisements and movie trailers but as soon as the movie came on you were dead silent.

We sat watching the movie for about half an hour or so, before I got bored of the annoying girl trying to get the ugly (but according to all the characters, really hot) guy.
So I started kissing your neck and you shivered before turning towards me in the dark.

“This movie is shit,” I breathed in your ear and I felt you nod.
Taking that as my cue, I found your lips and captured them in a heated kiss.
We spent most of the movie making out in our seats, having competitions to see who would pull away first due to lack of breath.
The movie was over in no time and we came out of the cinema looking like love-drunk teenagers (which, of course, we were).

“Ice cream or home?” I asked you and you pondered for a few seconds.

“Home,” you decided and I raised my eyebrows dramatically. You elaborated, “I’m so fucking full from the Chinese and the popcorn, I couldn’t possibly fit in ice cream now… but I know that we have ice cream in the freezer so if we feel like it when we get home, we can have some!”

“Home it is, then,” I said, taking your hand and entwining our fingers.
We walked slowly back to our houses and, after you decided that you didn’t want any ice cream, we entered mine and pretty much collapsed on my bed as soon as we made it up to my room.

I was just about to fall asleep when you whispered to me, half asleep, “Joshy? Thank you for tonight. You’re the best boyfriend ever…”

“You’re welcome, baby,” I replied quietly. I don’t know if you heard me or not because you never answered back and I assumed you fell asleep as soon as you finished your sentence.

I was so glad that that night had happened.
It was incredible.
And it was definitely the first of many dinner/movie dates that we went on after that.
We became regulars at the small Chinese restaurant and soon all the staff knew our names.

I’m going to miss those dates.