Seven Dates

Chapter Twenty-Six

"What do you want to do after you graduate?" Alex asks me. I wonder if Leah told him I was in my senior year of high school. "I'm in my senior year." Ah, so he's probably about the same age as me. I smile.

"I think I'd like to go to school to be a humanities teacher," I tell him. "I really like all the old art, sculptures, texts, and histories. I think it would be really cool to teach people that kind of stuff."

"Ah, I see exactly why you'd like to travel to places like Italy and France, then. So much culture blossomed out of those areas. It would be amazing to see some of it in person," he replies. "Are you going to go to college locally?" I nod.

I start to relax. For some reason, talking to Alex is just really comfortable. I feel like we've known each other for a really long time and conversation seems to just flow naturally. We talk about everything from our worst fears to our most embarrassing stories to our happiest moments.

After a while, I notice my bowl of food is getting empty. I consider asking if there is more chicken and rice but I'm sure if there was that he would have offered it to me. I'm sure he also sees me poking at an empty bowl with my chopsticks. It's yet another one of my embarrassing blindfolded moments.

"Oh, sorry. I'll be right back. I made some dessert for us, too," he tells me. I hear his chair scoot back and his footsteps move off into the kitchen. If the dessert is anywhere near as good as the main course was, I'll be in heaven. I hear him enter the room again and set two dishes down on the table.

I guess maybe he was waiting for me to finish my meal before he mentioned the final course. Or perhaps he'd gotten distracted by talking and forgot about the dessert. I know I got distracted from eating a few times. I don't know how much time has passed, but I'm sure we've been talking for a couple of hours.

"What is it?" I ask. I feel him slip a metal utensil into my hand. I run my fingers along the utensil. A spoon. "Mochi ice cream?" I take a wild guess. Alex chuckles.

"It actually doesn't fit in with the Asian theme. It's just something I like to eat. It's molten lava cake," he explains.

"It's chocolate cake with fudge on the inside, caramel and chocolate sauce on the outside, and vanilla ice cream with mini chocolate chips and cookie pieces on top." I raise my eyebrows. That sounds really good.

I eagerly bring my spoon down into the dessert and raise it back to my lips. The ice cream feels like it melts down over the chocolate cake in my mouth. It's cold at first, then the warm fudgey middle spills out over my tongue. It's beyond heavenly. The cookie pieces, caramel, and mini chocolate chips just elevate it even more.

"If we had been dating for a while and you fed me this I think I'd want to marry you," I joke. Alex laughs. It's a cute, high pitched laugh. "You really just work at an animal shelter? You're honestly not a chef?" I ask.

"Honestly. Cooking is just a hobby," he says, still laughing. His laughing cuts off kind of abruptly and I hear him set down his spoon.

"So, um, Leah told me you're struggling with your sexuality," Alex says. It sounds like he's a little nervous to broach the topic, and maybe it's because he's been having a nice time and doesn't want to ruin it. I know I am. I raise my eyebrows. I'm not sure my other dates knew too much about that and I'm sure some of them had no idea at all.