✅ My Sister's Problem

138. Date Night

This bonus chapter is dedicated to Ddude. Thank you for all the support you have given me!

When I showed up for our date, Hugo took my arm like a real gentleman and led me into the back garden. It was a really touching gesture that showed how seriously he was taking this; but it was also a really silly thing to do, and by the time we got their neither of us could keep from laughing.

"Is this like a... first date?" I asked. "I mean, you kind of said you can see us as a couple, even if it's a bit unconventional. And we arranged to meet somewhere to do fun things, with nobody else around. It's probably the first time we've ticked all the boxes to count as a date."

"I guess so," he said. "It's unconventional, but we can call it whatever makes us happy. And I'm still nervous about saying it's a date, because that implies a whole load of etiquette stuff that I have absolutely no idea about. But if we just call it that and spend some time together doing whatever we feel like... Yeah, it feels nice to think this is a date."

I laughed again, this time seeing how awkward we both were. It was so natural to spend that time together, but we knew just how weird we were being, and that probably nobody else had ever had a first date quite like it.

He showed me the routes that he would run around the back garden, improving his fitness at busy times of day when he didn't want to risk a loose ball bouncing out into the road. It had been so long since I'd tried some of these exercises, and it didn't quite come naturally. I guessed that after a year, a couple of weeks break wouldn't be enough to clear my muscle memory; so it was just a reminder I was still new to this. But it meant Hugo could teach me again, and that had to be a good thing. Especially when he was standing right behind me, my whole body pressed against his, and his hands on top of mine as she showed me where and how they should move. The last few times I'd played, I'd just focused on getting the ball where I wanted it. And Hugo saw the inefficiency in my movements; an elbow sticking out to telegraph where I was aiming to my opponents, or a clumsy half-step that left me just marginally off balance. Those were the things that these drills were supposed to fix, drumming the right movements into me until I could do it purely on instinct.

We'd only been playing for two minutes when we heard engine noise, and Hugo looked up. I told him that Mum was taking Lindy to a friend's house, and that she might be out for the evening. I didn't know if Mum was planning to get something while she was out, or coming back for a one-person meal. That seemed a little sad, and I wondered if I should feel guilty. But she'd talked about making something for me until I told her about Hugo's offer, so I guessed that she already had plans for herself. Either this Mrs Green – I couldn't quite remember which of Lindy's friends shared that surname – had offered something, or she was driving far enough that she thought it made more sense to get fast food and hang around in the area until Lindy called for her.

We kept on playing for another twenty minutes, and this time the engine noise was clearly a bike rather than a car. Or, as we saw when we came around to the front of the house, a scooter. Hugo had ordered pizza, like he said. And he hadn't even needed to ask me what I wanted. I couldn't wait to find out; having the choice taken out of my hands made it just a little more exciting.

He took a large pizza box from the delivery man and thanked him. I looked over, and saw that Mum's car still wasn't back. I didn't have to worry about her, but it felt a little weird that I was spending the evening with a boy while both our parents were out of reach. It wasn't a danger; Hugo was sure to be a perfect gentleman. But it felt exciting. Forbidden, in some ill-defined way.

We walked into the house, and Hugo quickly found a pizza cutter. He decanted the pizza from the box onto a large plate, with convenient lines to ensure the slices were all equal. I could see then that it was one of those pizzas where they split it into a bunch of sections with different toppings, so even if he'd somehow misjudged my preferences, I was sure there'd be some part I could enjoy. It was the perfect choice really, and made me feel more confident in my boyfriend's ability to order food for me in the future.