“He’ll be old news soon. Once the summer is over, I’m sure they’ll find something else to talk about.”
At least that’s what I hoped.
When I got home later that evening, I was mentally and physically wrung out from the day. As usual, though, Derek was still up, laying across the couch casually scrolling through his phone. He looked up at me with a smile that made some of the exhaustion melt away.
“Hey,” I leaned over to press a soft kiss to his lips.
“Hi,” He greeted back. “Did you know there’s going to be a meteor shower a few nights from now?”
I made my way into the kitchen, perusing for some leftovers inside the refrigerator, and popped my head over the door at that. “Oh, I think I remember hearing about it. Do you want to watch it?”
Derek turned around on the couch, nodding enthusiastically. “That would be really awesome. You don’t get to see stuff like that in the city considering all the light pollution.”
I stifled a grin around a bite of sandwich I’d found at how excited he sounded. While Westwend was a small town, it still produced enough light that you couldn’t see much in the sky in or around Main. But, there was somewhere we could go that’d be perfect.
“Why don’t we go to Darby’s Wish? We can pack a picnic or something. I think that meteor shower starts real late, like midnight, so I can come pick you up after my shift and we can go out there.”
“Really? I’d love that!” Derek sounded like a kid on Christmas, sending a pulse of warmth through me. I had no idea he was so into star gazing, but if he wanted to see shooting stars, I’d take him to the ends of the Earth to give him the best view.
“It’s a date, then.” I responded with a soft laugh.
It was such an innocent phrase, but the moment my brain registered the words, I froze. I practically held my breath while the silence hung in the air. Was that a step too far? Would a date be too much? But, hadn’t we already gone on something like dates? Since the barbecue joint, Derek and I had made it somewhat of a regular occurrence to go out somewhere together. We’d kept it to local places and had traded off who paid each time, but did those count as dates?
“I’d like that.” Derek’s voice was small, like he was just as unsure.
The air whooshed from my lungs.
“Yeah?”
Derek nodded, sending a shy smile my way. My chest expanded again, heat creeping up my neck. I wanted to scream from excitement.
“Okay, it’s a date.” I concluded, biting into my sandwich again so I wouldn’t make an even bigger fool of myself.
The night of the meteor shower, Chris practically shoved me out the door about an hour before closing. The cafe had been dead most of our shift, so I’d been able to sneak into the employee bathroom to freshen up beforehand. There was an embarrassing amount of clothes on the floor of my bedroom back home from how many outfits I’d gone through trying to pick what I’d wear tonight. But I’d ultimately decided on a forest green button up that was on the looser side, a well worn pair of khaki shorts that fit my ass well, and my grey hightop chucks. Paired with my backward cap, it gave the impression I’d tried, but wasn’t trying too hard—or at least that was what I was going for. When I’d come back out of the bathroom changed and spruced up, Chris had one of our nicer to-go containers packed with a series of sandwiches, pastries, and snacks from our stock.
“Give him a big ole smooch for me!” She called, waving like a mom seeing their child off from the entrance of Bikini Beans.
God, I should have applied more deodorant. My stomach rolled with a mix of nerves and excitement, but now I was worried I’d sweat through my shirt. The last thing I needed was to reek of anxiety B.O. and scare off Derek on our first official date.
Walking out to my truck, I mentally went through my checklist. Chris helped me secure the food for the picnic, and I’d already packed a blanket with a portable speaker, alongwith some bug spray, in my truck this afternoon before my shift. While I’d considered getting some of those fake electric candles to decorate the space, I’d ultimately decided against it. Romance was great, but I didn’t want to freak Derek out by going in too hard, too fast. This was casual. We were casual. That’s what I reminded myself, as I swiped my pits again with the deodorant stick I’d brought along, just to be safe.
Derek stood out on the street, wearing dark grey shorts paired with an open navy button down and a white tank underneath, a cooler slung over his shoulder. He looked ridiculously good and seeing him had a sense of calm washing through me.
As I pulled up, I rolled down the window, peering up at him through the open space.
“Have we met before? Because you look suspiciously similar to my hot date.” I called, leaning against the steering wheel.
Derek let out a short laugh, a huge grin on his face as he slid into the cab of my truck.
The urge to lean over and kiss him was strong, but the reminder of Mrs. Anderson’s nosy nature had me holding back.
“You look freaking good.” I said instead, turning to face forward and pulling away from the curb.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Derek giving me a long up-down.
“So do you.” His voice was laced with a heated undertone that had butterflies exploding in my gut.
The rest of the drive to Darby’s Wish was filled with chatter on how our days went. It was comfortable in a way that I’d only really ever had with him. I never felt like we ran out of things to talk about, even living together and seeing each other on a daily basis. Even with friends I’d sometimes be glad for a few days apart just so there would be new things totalk about. But with Derek? Conversation was easy and enjoyable even if it was about the dumb everyday stuff.
