Say Hello For Me

b o n u s || first date

Stars dance in the sky as Liam opens the passenger door for Nessa, his heart hammering against the bones of his chest. The night sparkles with unspoken expectations. She climbs out of his car wearing her favorite dress, the one that's responsible for taking his breath away. In his mind, he has the entire night planned out like a map of the constellations above. If asked, he could name each one without thinking twice.

When he sees Nessa, his blue eyes smile before the curve of his lips do. She feels her heart flutter in a completely foreign way as his fingers latch around hers. Skin to skin, a certain warmth sparks between them and illuminates the night. Like two puzzle pieces made to fit, they walk into the restaurant hand-in-hand.

"How'd you manage to get this reservation?" Nessa asks as the waiter leads them to a window-side booth in the back, tealight candles sitting on the window sill. The sun has just disappeared, leaving streaks of magenta and orange in the sky.

"I have my connections, Nessa," Liam replies with a devilishly handsome grin, knowing all too well that it's her sole weakness.

She covers her face with the leather bounded menu as a desperate attempt to hide her reciprocated smile. Even through the soft chatter diffusing in the air and the ice cubes clinking against glasses, she hears his laughter above it all. It sounds almost like a lullaby.

"How'd you know my favorite is Italian?" she wonders subconsciously, eyes skimming the italicized font on the page.

"Who doesn't like breadsticks, pasta, and pizza?"

"It's so embarrassing," she confesses, "I normally end up filling myself with the bread basket-"

"Before your meal even gets here, right?" he finishes the sentence for her, their thoughts on the same wavelength.

Dropping the menu below so that it rests flat on her hands, she nods slowly. Her teeth sink into her bottom lip, fingers nervously twisting around the material of her dress. She's never done anything like this before -- been on a first date with someone she already knows inside out.

"This is the part where it's supposed to be awkward." Nessa laughs after the waiter walks away with their orders. "When we have nothing to do but wait for the food to come."

Liam glances down at his watch, watching the hour hand shift from the six to the seven. "Isn't this the part where we ask each other a thousand questions about what we want in the other person?"

"It's a shame we already played twenty questions," she teases him lightly.

"Then I was cheated out of seventeen of them! I would hardly call that twenty questions."

"If you ask me seventeen more questions, we're going to be here all night."

"Do you have a problem with that, Nessa?" Liam asks. "What more could you want? We have a beautiful view of the city, Italian food, all the bread we could eat, and each other."

"The food sounds great," she agrees wholeheartedly. "I'm just not so sure I could put up with you for more than three hours."

"Ouch." He places a hand on his heart, feigning hurt. "That really hurts me. I think you're going to need to call an ambulance."

"I guess you can say I'm just really here for the expensive food. You can get a girl to do almost anything if you buy her food."

He shakes his head, a grin spreading across his lips that's triggered by her sarcasm. "It's a really good thing you're cute."

"You're kind of cute, too."

"What do you mean kind of? I'm adorable."

"More like tolerable," she teases. Nessa moves her glass of wine to the right as the waiter comes out with both of their dishes. Steam rises from the plates as their orders are placed before them. "This pasta is adorable."

"You're the only person in this world that would call pasta adorable."

"You're the only person who would date someone who calls pasta adorable."

The night goes perfectly as planned until Nessa and Liam slide out from their seats and start heading toward the door. As they leave the Italian restaurant, they run into another couple at the door. A girl with dark but beautiful eyes and lilac hair stares at Liam for longer than she should before her eyes fall on Nessa's slightly rosy complexion, a symptom of the wine. The boy standing next to her has blonde hair the shade of Liam's, their resemblance uncanny.

"Liam," the dark-eyed beauty addresses Liam with a cautious smile and weary eyes. Nessa realizes that she recognizes that voice from somewhere else, but she can't put her finger on it. "It's been a while since we've talked. I-I hope you're doing well."

Instead of addressing her directly, he grabs Nessa's hand and leads her out the door. The only he says to the couple is, "We're heading out. Have a good night."

He doesn't mean any of the words he's said.

"Who was that?" Nessa asks even though she thinks she knows the answer. Her head turns back to the girl with lilac hair staring out the window. Liam continues to pull on her arm, leading her to his car.

"I'm so glad you got to meet Delilah on our first date," Liam mutters, clearly disappointed in the turn of events. "Everything was so well too."

"Delilah? As in the Delilah?"

"I-I wanted this to be perfect," he stammers, an apology resting on the corner of his lips. "I was supposed to take you out to a nice restaurant and we were supposed to have a nice dinner."

"We did have a nice dinner, Liam. The food was amazing. You are amazing." Nessa squeezes his hand tightly with an encouraging smile on her face, truth hidden in her brown eyes. "I won't even remember this little bump in the road ten years from now. Do you know what I will remember, though?"

"What?" he replies. "The bread basket we finished in less than five minutes?"

She laughs. "No, silly. The bread was good, but there's something much more important."

"What?"

"I'll remember the part where you kiss me."

And before she knows it, he cups her chin with the palms of his hand and presses his lips against hers.