Love By Another Name

First Dates & Awkward Mistakes

Oliver held out the chair for Finn, causing her to blush slightly as she sat down and reached for her menu. He then quickly moved to his own chair and sat, looking down at his, though he nervously glanced up at Finn here and there.

He had been excited and felt perfectly fine about his first date with Finn all day. Though it had been awhile and he had never dated a muggle before, he had spent a fair amount of time preparing - his muggleborn teammates had been teaching him the ins and outs of football. Katie had spent a fair amount of time going over muggle terms as well as everyday muggle items that might pop up either while they were out or in conversation.

Not to mention, everything had been going rather well. He had shown up at her flat on time and like any good gentleman, escorted her to the restaurant. But then, of course, disaster would strike as they were getting out of the cab. The driver gruffly informed him that he hadn't given him enough to cover the fare.

He supposed in the scheme of things it wasn't that big of a mistake. Surely loads of people accidentally handed over the wrong amount because they were in a rush or not paying attention. But it was his first time taking a cab and he wanted to impress Finn (even though she couldn't know it was his first time taking a cab). Not to mention, he was convinced that he had handed over the correct amount and proceeded to tell the driver so.

That is until Finn quietly tapped his arm and whispered that the cabbie was actually right. Oliver then apologized profusely - to both the driver and then Finn when they got out - and tried to blame it on being tired from training, worried she now thought he was the world's biggest prat.

As they sat in the restaurant, he worried about whatever else that could go wrong. Would he get into an argument with the server over a misunderstanding? Not pay enough for dinner? Misunderstand some muggle term and completely embarrass himself?

Glancing up again, he noticed that Finn was casually looking over the menu still. If she were upset, she certainly wasn't showing it. Looking back down at his own, he made a quick decision on what to order, not really paying attention to the prices or converting them to galleons. Not that it mattered - Katie had told him how much to get exchanged at the bank and assured him it would be more than enough for where they were going for the evening. Thank Merlin she had helped him choose the place and then made the reservation for him. With his luck so far, he'd likely have ruined that too.

"So... how was training?" Finn asked, looking up at him as she put down her menu.

"Good. Had a good session," Oliver said, trying to keep from tapping his foot under the table.

For Merlin's sake, he was a grown man. A top quidditch player. Just why was he letting one little mistake ebb away at his confidence like this?

Ah, right. The beautiful woman seated across from him who couldn't know about magic.

A server stepped up and looked at him expectantly about that time. Oliver picked up his menu and for a moment froze as his mind went blank on how this was supposed to work. Did he order first? Or let her? Was he supposed to order for her? He hadn't even asked what she wanted. Had it really been so long ago that he had been on a date that he would forget something like this? Surely not.

What was wrong with him tonight?

For her part, if she thought his behavior odd, Finn didn't react. She looked at the server and put in her order, then waited on Oliver. He swallowed and then quickly put in his before also ordering a bottle of red wine. At the very least he had remembered the type of wine she liked - or at least he hoped she liked it, he had seen a bottle of it at her flat the other night. A small smile came over Finn's face, so he hoped he had made up for the moment with the cabbie earlier. As well as treating the wait staff extra nice - though he was usually rather polite and kind to them.