The Moment I Knew

Nerves continued to bundle in the pit of her stomach as she nervously glanced at the plethora of clothes that she discarded for her date tonight. She never thought she was this nervous for her first date, well not as nervous as she usually is.

Being a shy girl all her life, she was excellent at being a wallflower. Something that blended in with the crowd and no one took notice. She never thought a set of eyes darted at her direction every now and again. In the nineteen years that she lived it was rare that a guy would approach her with a sudden interest in her. The girl knew she wasn’t all that attractive with her beak shaped nose, her wide bug eyes and small plump lips made her look like a circus freak.

Then her dark brown eyes peeled itself away from the painting she was observing to see another set of eyes on her. The shy smiles were exchanged before she turned around again with her heart pounding in her chest. Maybe after a few hours of playing eye tag, the boy finally had the courage to go up to her and talked.

The rest was history.

She didn’t think their conversation would be more than a few minutes, but it turned into a couple of hours. The comfort level was still low and yet she pushed herself to walk around the museum with him, giving her views on certain paintings.

And now she was going on a date with him.

She almost declined when he suddenly asked her out. Her shy nature almost bit her in the ass, but she reminded herself that she needed to branch out a bit and accepted.

That was why she was a little shocked how nervous she was.

“I don’t like this.” The gruff voice from behind her made her jump. The man behind her muttered an apology before she turned around asking why. Her father crossed his beefy arms across his chest, “Because you don’t need a boy Tahlia. You are beautiful and wonderful all on your own.”

Tahlia laughed as she hugged her father, “You are the number one man in my life. Te quiero, papi.”

“Yo tambien.” Tahlia gave him a look as her father started to laugh, bringing his only daughter into his arms. “Te quiero, mijita.”

The door suddenly rang making the butterflies reappear, biting her lower lip she silently begged for her father to behave himself. Walking through the small hallway, she stumbled across the door exhaling some of her nerves before opening the door.

“Hey.” She breathed out.

The crystal blue eyes met hers as he gave her a small smile, “Hey.” When his eyes shifted to the large man behind her, they were filled with uncertainty. Tahlia tried to make him as comfortable as possible as she stepped aside telling him he could come in. She could see that he was a bit nervous as her father glared down at the younger boy.

“Papi, this is Logan. Logan this is my father Diego Morales.”

Logan shifted on his legs as he stuck out his hand with a proper greeting, “Nice to meet your sir.” Tahlia pleaded mentally that her father would actually be kind to her date and not take the intimidating route. It seems that he has decided to do it anyways.

Diego refused his hand as he muttered a small greeting of his own.

Diego knew that any boy was capable of anything no matter how innocent they looked. Logan did look like one of the good ones, but teenagers can be devious when they want to be. Staring him down, he could see the teen fidget under his gaze. Tahlia instantly went to Logan’s side with a stiff smile before her dark brown eyes looked up at her father.

“We’re going to get going-”

She was cut off as Diego lectured Logan, “I want my daughter back here safe and sound at ten o’ clock. No later. I do not take lightly to excuses. Also no touching, no kissing and no sexual encounters.” Tahlia blushed furiously as she hid her face behind her hand. This wasn’t happening. “You cannot stare at her for no longer than five seconds and if I see any marks or dents on my little girl, you are going to pay. Comprende?”

“Yes sir.” Logan felt like prolonging his sentence to reassure the father that he wasn’t going to harm Tahlia in any way, but the way he was looking at him…it was best to keep his answer short and sweet.

Diego nodded before embracing his little girl almost refusing to let go. Tahlia had to pry his hands off of her as she flew to Logan’s side and shyly smiled at him. He watched the two walk out of the apartment complex and he couldn’t help, but peek over the railing to see Logan opening the car door for Tahlia to a BMW. His eyes widened a bit before they narrowed into slits as he grumbled, “Sneaky little bastard.” A few colorful Spanish words flew from his mouth before entering the apartment again.

Tahlia couldn’t believe the type of luxury Logan had. She already knew that he was an actor; she has seen his face in a few posters and has admittedly told him that she hasn’t watched any of his films. Instead of watching disappointment run through his face like she would have thought, he just laughed saying it was okay.

Going through the carnival, hand in hand, Tahlia felt her heart dancing around in her chest as he pulled her to the first ride. Stopping at the entrance, he turned and asked if she was okay with rides. Tahlia gave him a shaky smile, not because of the ride, but the way he was giving her so much attention. “Sure. I love rides.” She almost whispered.

The childlike grin plastered on his face, “Great. You’re going to love this place.”

Tahlia laughed as she was dragged on the few rides that were in the carnival. She soon started to relax as she stood beside Logan as he tried to shoot a ball through a distorted hoop. “Logan. It’s okay; you don’t have to get me the monkey.”

Her comforting voice did nothing as his determination sparkled in his eyes; shaking his head he gripped the ball with both hands. “I do. I want to get it for you.” Tahlia smiled as he turned his attention to the hoop that he has been going at for the past half hour. Taking the next shot, it sunk into the net and she glimmered with glee as the monkey was handed to him.

“This is for you.” Cuddling the monkey close to her chest, she muttered a thank you. “You’re welcome.” Lacing his fingers with hers, they walked around again to the Ferris wheel. She pursed her lips into a nervous smile as she glanced up. She wasn’t too fond of heights in general. When she was on a rollercoaster, the speed overtook her sense of fear of heights as adrenaline pumped through her veins.

When Logan glanced at the nervous girl beside him, he gave her a firm squeeze. “We don’t have to go on if you don’t want to.”

“No, I want to get on.” Her dark eyes wandered around as she inched forward to the line. Her heart was racing with each inch closer to the ride. Logan stayed by her side giving her that sense of comfort, his blue eyes watched as she hugged the monkey tighter to her side as they finally were up next.

Climbing onto the car, Logan helped her in before getting in himself. Seeing the fear flicker in her eyes, he hesitantly wrapped an arm around her. His tense arm was awkward around her short frame; Tahlia shot him a smile as she cuddled closer to him as she focused on his shirt instead of how much they were ascending. His hot breath fanned on the crown of her head as he muttered to her, “It’s not bad. You should look.”

Shaking her head, she declined the offer. Tahlia only wanted to get on to prove to herself that she could get on every single ride without complaining. She could do this, she kept telling herself. Taking slow and even breaths or as much as she could without hyperventilating. The soothing motion of Logan’s hand on her back as took some effect and sooner rather than later they finally went full circle.

“It wasn’t so bad, was it?”

“No…I just—didn’t want to avoid any rides because of my fear.” Tahlia meekly darted her eyes towards him watching his face being full of understanding.

His thumb smoothly rubbed in small circles around her hand. His touch was beyond soothing to her, it was a bit odd how her body relaxed under his touch. Logan had an aura about him, one of understanding and comfort. Tahlia didn’t feel like she needed to impress him or be someone else, he fully accepted her the way she is. Maybe that was why he had the courage to go up to her even if he was awkward himself.

That was another reason why she liked him so much after the date. He proved himself time after time that he was human just like she was, making mistakes and being clumsy.

Arriving at her house, their hands molded together once again as they climbed up the steps to her apartment. Turning her body towards him, she tilted her head up towards him with a smile of gratitude. “Thank you for the wonderful date. I had a great time.”

His dazzling smile appeared on his lips as he brightly looked at her, “Me too. I, uh…hope we can do it again sometime?”

The confidence dwindled as he asked for another date. Logan knew how these things went, he would ask for another chance to see a girl and the girl would give him a fake smile and accept only to ignore him day after day. He hoped that Tahlia wasn’t like any of those girls, yes she was a sweetheart, but he wasn’t a mind reader.

“I love to.” Tahlia felt herself inching forward to him. Her eyes darted towards his lips almost begging to have her lips touch his. Logan saw the action as he brushed some of her curls away from her face, heat rushed to her cheeks as her lips trembled in anticipation and nerves. The boy slowly took a cautious step towards her, his deep blue eyes boring into her dark brown irises.

She could feel her heart pounding in her chest as she observed him coming closer. His lips were only centimeters away when she saw the lights flickering. Her natural reaction was to look up in curiosity and then turned towards the window that was being tapped. Embarrassment coursed through her as she saw her father glaring through the window.

Logan stepped back, the warmth that she once felt disappeared. “Um, I’ll see you later?” Tahlia watched as he battled with himself if it would be too much to embrace the girl in front of him. It was too big of a risk so he did a safe wave to her and her father. She waved back before unlocking the door, once she opened it she gave him another wave as she watched his retreating figure walk down the stairs.

He gave her another smile before jogging the rest of the way down.

“How was your date?”

Tahlia glanced at her father as she closed the door, the soft sincere smile crossed her lips as she mumbled, “It was wonderful.”