Caught in the Middle

Chapter 10

"On a scale of one to ten, how nervous are you over this date?" Teddy is waiting for me on the other side of the fitting room curtain, while I try on dresses for my first date with Maya tonight. After she insisted on planning the date, we both decided to take the day off and go out as soon as possible. Probably because neither of us had the patience of being apart for more than a few hours after feeling closer to each other than we've ever had. I smile when I think of the way Maya beamed at me while she rattled of her conditions for our first date.

"My stomach is fluttering with the butterflies from the anticipation of the date. Sono emozionato. We never actually had a first date before. Eravamo solo amanti." We had drinks the night we met but didn't even kiss, then we talked on the phone for a few days, to get to know one another. We met once for coffee at the hospital during my lunch break and while we were both on shift, where we shared our bittersweet first kiss in the ambulance bay.

Then one morning, out of the blue, I received a call from Maya as she was heading home following a grueling shift. She told me that she'll leave her door unlocked and that it was up to me whether or not I take her up on her offer. The cocky arrogance of her knowing that I wouldn't be able to resist the invitation was one of the many things that led to us hooking up for the first time. And after we started getting intimate, her carefully constructed life began to fall apart, and she leaned on me to get through it. There was no build-up period.

I tried to make it romantic the first time I actually spent the night, but she pushed me away the morning after, apparently scared half to death over the magnitude of feelings she already had for me, even if it was only the second time we slept together. And then hanging out with her didn't feel relevant to a first date anymore. We got thrown into something serious with everything that happened with her and her dad, and with me and Andrea. One moment we were friends with benefits and the next we were declaring our love for each other at the coffee cart.

I open the curtain to show my friend the first on three choices of dresses I picked out for the momentous evening. Rosso, bianco o nero. Teddy pulls her face and tilts her palm in the air. "Meh. No cleavage, yet way to short." I don't have a lot of time to ponder over my choices, so I'm going to have to place my faith in my boss and dearest friend. I walk over to her so she can help me unzip the back before running through the curtain again to try on the next dress. "Where are you going anyway?" That my friend is a very good question. One I've been trying to wrangle the answers out of Maya, since we agreed on a date.

"Non ne ho idea. Maya was adamant that she gets to plan the whole thing. She just called me this morning and told me to dress up and to make sure I'm hungry when she picks me up." After I hung up on her, I flew into my room to check for appropriate outfits but didn't feel like any of my normal clothes were good enough for the special occasion, so I ordered Teddy over to help me find the perfect dress. She phoned around and told me to meet her at this exclusive and expensive boutique, if the price tags were anything to go by, but Maya deserved nothing but the best.

I pull the white dress over my head but it's so tight that I bump my head and shoulder against the wall. "Ow. Mamma Mia." I hear Teddy laugh at my Italian profanities and grunt in frustration when the hem of the dress rolls up in the back. I fight with the material for a few seconds until the dress feels comfortable and in place. I turn to look at myself in the mirror and gasp in surprise at how well it fits. "I really like this one, but I think it's too business like for a date. I might buy it for work though."

I open the curtain again and stand with my arms outstretched while Teddy looks me up and down. I try to brush off the tiny wrinkles that I can see and turn to look at my butt in the mirror behind me. I turn back to Teddy to hear her final judgement. "I know you've waited for this date forever, but I think white is a little presumptuous. Go for something bold." I roll my eyes at her but can't help agreeing with her observation as I walk back into the fitting room.