September

23: Second First Date

She got in my car around eleven-fifteen. I was in her driveway for a maximum of five minutes. Once I saw her I got out of my seat and opened her door. She chuckled and got in. "Thanks."

I didn't know how to reply so I gave a quick nod and walked back to the driver's seat. I had a mix cd in the cd player and it was on low. "You can turn the radio off if you want," I said once I got in.

"It's all good, I like this song." she buckled her seatbelt and then sat back. "How was your night?"

As I backed out of her driveway, I looked behind me, "It was okay, assuming you mean after the party, and yours?"

"Same, and yeah I meant after."

"Do you have a place you like to go to?" I began. "I don't know many restaurants honestly, and if I ask Dylan he'll say Dunkin donuts."

"Hey, Dunkin is great." Tatiana laughed. "I don't really go out for food much either. We could just drive until something catches our attention if you want."

"Sounds good, and if nothing comes up we'll go to Dunkin," I replied, laughing at the last part.

She had a huge grin on her face, "perfect." She smoothed her navy dress out and readjusted her feet. She wore a pair of black boots. She left her hair down in her natural curls.

The song changed and she began to sing along to it. "You have the same music taste," she commented during the solo.

"Yeah, I haven't seen a need to change it yet."

She turned her head sharply, "Don't."

I laughed while shrugging, "Wasn't planning on it."

She wiped pretend sweat from her brows," that's a relief," we both giggled again like children.

I pulled onto the main street and drove west, there wasn't much anywhere else so I knew it would be the best bet. After one or two minutes buildings came into view, "If you wanted to, only if you want, we could get some takeout and we could go to the park or something?"

"I'd love that, there's actually a really good place coming up, it's after Taco Bell," she adjusted herself so she was sitting up straighter.

I turned into the parking lot of the place she mentioned. "Sorry I didn't plan it out better," I pulled into a space. "This place looks nice."

"Wait till you try the food, it's heavenly. Don't worry about it, You only said lunch, and personally, I love the park. They've recently added a pond and usually, there are ducks." she said with more excitement as she went.

"Ducks huh?" I teased.

"Yes, I love them okay. Black panthers are still my number one." she started to play with her hair. "And I've totally never tried to take one home."

"You've tried to take one?" I exclaimed while laughing. I think I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard.

"I said I totally didn't," she argued playfully slapping my arm.

"Which means you did."

"Okay fine, but for the record, I actually got it in my car, I just decided to let it go."

I tried to stifle my laughter, "I wish I could've seen that."

She mumbled something that sounded like 'careful' but it didn't quite catch it and I didn't ask what she said. "So what do you usually get?"

"The Thai fried rice, sometimes egg rolls, the chicken is pretty good too."

"Sounds amazing," I said unbuckling. "I'll go ahead and put in the order, do you want to go in too or stay here?"

She unbuckled, "I'll go with."

I turned off the car and hooked the keys on a belt loop. We both got out of the car, I locked the doors then we walked to the building. She reached the door before me so she opened it and told me to go ahead. I waited till she let the door close before we walked to the counter.

"What can I get for you?" the lady asked.

"Uh, could we get the Thai fried rice, and an order of egg rolls?" I turned to Tatiana, "Anything else?" she shook her head. "I guess that'll be it."

"Is this to go?"

"Yes, ma'am," I took out my wallet and waited for the total. I paid for the food and added a tip. She asked for a name and I gave her mine so then we found an empty table to sit at until the food was ready.

It took about twenty or twenty-five minutes before my name was called. I finished my sentence before getting up. Tatiana followed me and I grabbed it. We thanked them and then we walked back outside.

She got in while I put the food in the backseat, then I got into my seat and started the car. "The park is on Apollo still?"

She nodded before replying, "yep it's still there. They remodeled so now there's like three ways in but Apollo is the main entrance."

"Oh, that's convenient," I replied. Then pulled out of the space and onto the main road. Apollo was about five minutes from the restaurant and then it was about five more minutes on that road. We were stopped at the light, after that I turned into the road leading to the park.

"Which section?"

"We can go to the lake so maybe near there?" she suggested, as she picked her purse up off of the floor.

I drove a little further then I found a spot. We got out of the car, I grabbed the food from the back and we walked to the path. "It's been a while since I've been here," I said, looking up at the sky. It was blue, and there were plenty of clouds. I've always loved cloudy days, I used to love to watch them roll by.

"It's really peaceful," she replied. She looked up to the sky too.

"They always are."

She took my hand and we walked to the lake. We found a place underneath an old oak tree. It towered over us and the shade reached over quite a bit of the water. There were a bunch of ducks swimming in it, and a few that were on the other side waddling on the land.

We took the food out of the bag. "Well, I should've brought a blanket or something," I said, after realizing that ants would probably end up in the food if we placed the containers on the ground.

"I have an idea," she grabbed the containers and balanced the one with the egg rolls on her legs. She grabbed half of the egg rolls and placed them on top of the rice on the right side. Then she grabbed a spoon and scooped half of the rice into the egg roll dish. "There. One for each of us."

She handed me the one she was holding, and I took it. "Smart. I should've thought of it."

"It's what I'll do with Emily sometimes when we do last minute plans."

We talked while we ate, we laughed and had a good time. After we finished eating I suggested that we could walk. She agreed and so we walked on the trail talking more. With every word it began to feel like the first time all over again.