Fighting Fate

2. Date

"Hey" I say to Nathan with a smile.

He flattens his hands by his side and then leans in to kiss my cheek. "Hailey, hi. You look smoking." He hugs me and I laugh as I put my arm around him to hug him back.

His hair is gelled back like it usually is and he is wearing a grey dress shirt tucked into his black pants. His pine scented cologne is quite strong.

I close the door behind me before I reply to him because I know Harry will be listening and I don't think it is fair for him to hear all of this. "Thank you, so do you." I check to see if the door is locked and it is. "Should we get going?"

Nathan nods. "Yeah. Where do you want to eat?"

"You haven't booked anything?" I ask. If you want to go to a decent restaurant here in LA, they're always super busy and it's best to book ahead. That's what Harry and I always did on our dates. Otherwise we would go somewhere spontaneous like a beach, lake or drive to the mountains and eat takeout in the car whilst looking at a beautiful view.

But he's not Harry. He's Nathan. And I shouldn't compare them.

"Na, I just figured I'd let you choose."

I press the down button to the elevator. "How about Thai?"

"Do you like Thai?"

Well I suggested it didn't I? I laugh internally to myself. 

"I do. Do you?"

"Yeah, if that's where you'd like to go then Thai it is."

"You're fine with that? If you don't like Thai that's fine we can go somewhere else."

The elevator doors open and I am about to step inside but Nathan does too so I stop. "Sorry" we both say at the same time. "You go" I say to him an he walks in and hits the ground floor button. 

I'm so used to Harry letting me walk inside first. I was never used to that before him, I would always let others in before me but Harry always insisted I go in first and he would hold the door open for me whether it be at a restaurant, car, house, etc. So I got used to it.

I want to punch myself in the face for once again comparing Nathan to Harry.

Silence fills the elevator so I decide to speak up. "What made you get into football?"

"My grandfather played, my father played and so it was only expected for me to play too. Football is in my blood and I know nothing else."

Nathan is a professional football player and he goes to my gym. I don't go as much as I used to, so I had only seen him a couple of times. But each time I seen him there he spoke to me. The last time we spoke is when he asked me out.

"That's cool." I say and I notice his eyes aren't on my face, they're gazing over my body. I hold the slit in my dress together so that it hides my leg that was poking through and Nathan looks back up to my face.

"Sorry, you just look so hot. I'm used to seeing you in gym clothes and you look great like that too but tonight, wow. My mates nudge me for actually scoring a date with you. So if they seen you like this they would have their jaw on the ground."

And at this moment sadness grew within me because I got a remainder as to why I'm so afraid to form relationships with people. Because they view you through your status, not who you are as a person.

"Well good thing they're not here then." I snap and Nathan notices my annoyance. We haven't even left the elevator yet and I'm already snapping. Give the guy another chance Hailey, I think to myself. "Sorry."