by Kaci Hart
Nick feigned being hurt by her comment and she giggled at him. On the drive there, they made light talk about a few things. Before the night started, Donna was concerned about how it was going to go but he had a way about him that put her at ease. She was sure that she was going to have a great time with him that evening and she was extremely happy to have a chance to let loose.
***
Nick and Donna had finished their movie and had made their way to a local Italian restaurant. Nick was surprised that she had chosen one of the latest science fiction movies that were all the rage in Hollywood those days. Most girls he had dated in the past only wanted to see romantic comedies and the like.
“I’m still surprised that you picked that movie.”
“Well, I’m not a typical girl you know. I didn’t prefer all of the overly untrue ideas of romance that’s often pushed on females these days.”
“Wow. That’s a little cynical, don’t you think?”
“Not at all. For example, I am having a wonderful time with you tonight. Better than I imagined and certainly better than I have had on a date with any man, ever. Even with that in mind, those movies coax women into thinking every relationship is going to end with some man rushing to stop her from leaving. He’ll profess his unending love for her and she will give in to him. They live happily ever after. The end. But my experience in life is just that it doesn’t really work that way. Not for most of us at least.”
“We’ll just have to see what I can do to change your opinion on that, wont we?”
“I don’t think you can, but I won’t stop you from trying. I think it will be fun.”
“Whatever. You just want to be wined and dined.”
“Of course. What woman doesn’t want to be treated special? I didn’t say I didn’t do romance--I just said that it’s not really something that is too realistic these days. That’s why I haven’t been dating for a while.”
“I don’t want to pry, but what made you ...like this? Let me start over because that sounds horrible. What I meant to ask is what made you have such a negative view on relationships?”
Donna hesitated and Nick could tell he had hit a sore spot.
“You know what. You don’t have to tell me. Giving me the chance to change it is more than enough.”
“Thanks for your understanding, but I don’t mind too much talking about it. My father was really abusive. Not physically at all but very much so verbally. My mother would love him to her core and put up with anything he said or did. When I would turn on the television and see all the romantic comedies and hear the love songs on the radio, it just didn’t correlate to the examples I was seeing in real life.”
“I can understand that. I never knew that about you.”
“Of course you didn’t. How could you. Women who are abused or deal with it don’t wear a sign saying to handle with care, we just have to either hope that we find the right guy or avoid them all together. I chose to always avoid it so I never even dated until college and then it was just to get my friends to leave me alone.”
“I imagine that must have been hard. Especially when there were guys you must have at least liked when you were younger.”
“Not really. To be honest, I have always been the type of person that could do anything I decided as far as my emotions were concerned. Plus I didn’t really find any guys I was really attracted to here in town so it was easy. What about you? Don’t tell me you are a hopeless romantic. Cute guy like you probably the town playboy.”
“Not quite. To be honest I have the worst time talking to women. I never really know what to say or what’s really cool. That’s part of the reason I never really asked you out back when you worked at the diner. By the time I got ready to make my move, you had left town.”
“Nick, I’m sorry. It sounds like you said you wanted to ask me out a few years ago.”
“Yeah. Even with all the flirting we did, I just didn’t know what to say to you...”
Donna looked at Nick with confusion and humor in her eyes. She waited for his punch line but there was none.
“You’re joking right? Tell me you are joking.”
“Of course not.”
“Nick when did we ever flirt?”
“When? Get serious. You used to flirt with me all the time. Aaron and I would come in and you would always come serve us pretty quickly. You’d be all like ‘How y’all boys doing today’ or ‘What can I get for my favorite customer today.’ That was me. The favorite customer.”
“Oh my God you are too cute right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“I wasn’t looking at you like that Nick. I told you that dating was the furthest from my mind at the time. Your timing was way off.”
“No way. Not possible. Even Aaron was sure you had a thing for me back then.”
She almost spat her drink out as she laughed at him.
“Well I’m glad you didn’t ask me out back then. I was much harsher about dating at the time and wouldn’t have cared in the least bit how you felt. You probably wouldn’t have been able to get the nerve to ask me out again and we would have missed out on this wonderful time. I would have definitely given you a no back then.”
“I really can’t believe that.”
“Sometimes the timing is just wrong.”
“Yep, but sometimes it right as well. Seriously though. Not even one date?”
“Nopers.”
“Then tell me. Why were you so unbelievably nice to me?”
“Um hello. Waitress, living off tips to pay for school. Big tipper gets the most love. It’s waitressing one-on-one my friend. “
Nick looked away from her, slightly embarrassed.
“Don’t tell me that all that time, you thought I was trying to come on to you? Now that is a riot.”
“Hey, hey come on now. Man here with an ego and all. You can’t go laughing at my charms. At least not one date in.”
“Ooooh, I’m sooo sorry. If it’s any consolation, I did think you were cute back then. With your long beard and sideburns.”
“See. That’s what I’m talking about. The charms were working.”
“You could say that. In fact, you were the cutest guy in town so even though I never really had thought about dating anyone, if that had changed I am at least ninety nine percent sure that you would have been the guy. How’s that?”
Almost immediately he shouted louder than he had wanted.
“I’ll take it!”
They both laughed for a moment before he spoke again.
“Wait, you’re not just looking for another tip with that compliment are you?”
“No sir. We are well past that time now. Now you get to hold the title of the guy that got me to change my stance on dating. So you see, you are putting in hard labor there sir. Knowing everything that you know now, I hope you still feel like it was worth it.”
Their eyes met before he responded with a slight grin.
“Completely.”
***
Donna really enjoyed her date that with Nick. He had been the perfect gentleman all night long and really didn’t want the night to end; with him driving ten miles per hour below the speed limit, she could only assume that he was enjoying the night as much as she was.
“Nick you don’t think this is going to affect our work relationship, do you?”
Nick dismissed her concern with a hand waive.
“No way. Our jobs don’t even require us to interact and like I told you before, you don’t work for me.”
“You’re right. I’m probably being overly cautious since this is all so new to me.”
“Don’t worry Donna. I know you were concerned about dating me or anyone else. I promise you that I am going to make sure that you don’t get hurt. All you need to do is enjoy yourself.”
Donna didn’t say anything. Instead, she stared out the window, and tried to wrap her mind around the good time she had with Nick that night. She didn’t want to get too far ahead of herself si
nce she hadn’t been on a date in forever, but she knew they clicked well. The car stopped in front of her apartment before she realized it. He got out of the car, and walked around the front of it to get her door for her again.
A girl could get used to the royal treatment.
Donna got out of the car and walked casually to the front door of her apartment with Nick. It was late for a Sunday in Stanton Falls at nine thirty p.m. and he had made it clear that he wanted to get her home at a respectable hour. That was just the kind of guy he was, it seemed.
“I had wonderful time with you tonight Nick. Thank you so much for taking me out.”
“The pleasure was mine. I just hope that you’ll let me take you out again.”
“You won’t know unless you ask.”
“You know it’s coming. I just want to make sure that you won’t forget me by then.”
“Not possible. You have left an impression on me Mr. Dellinger.”
“Good. I’m happy to hear that. Well, I guess we are here.”
“Yeah. We’re here.”
Neither of them made a move, each apparently waiting on the other. Nick approached her, hugging her gently.
“I’ll see you at the office tomorrow Donna. Goodnight.”
“Goodnight to you too Nick.”
Donna turned around and unlocked the door. She looked back happily at him and then walked inside. She was holding her breath for a while when he hugged her--her heart pounded in her chest as she was really hoping that he would kiss her. His hug was still even sweeter than she could imagine. It showed her that he was about more than talk when it came to his desire to take care of her.
Chapter 9
“I don’t get why you insisted on driving Donna.”
She laughed. As sweet as Nick was, he could be kind of clueless at times.
“Nick, I think it’s cool that you always want to drive me every time we are together. I find it rather sweet but you know the times we live in. I don’t want you to feel like I can’t ever drive myself anywhere.”
“Oh I know that. I just like to do those things for you. One of the ways I take care of you. Showing you my love and all that good stuff.”
“Your love huh?”
“Well… uh… I didn’t mean that in the literal sense. I don’t really love you.”
“Wait. So now you don’t love me.”
A flustered Nick tried to backtrack on his words.
“Oh boy. That’s not what I mean either. I….Donna you know … are we there yet?”
She knew what he meant but it was fun to jab him. They had only been dating a few weeks so she wouldn’t expect him to say that he loved her yet. She did know that she was growing extremely close to feeling that way herself though. She wasn’t quite to that point yet but she wouldn’t be surprised if she ended up there soon enough. She thought back on the past few weeks and was surprised with herself. She never thought that she would be the one believing in love and a future but Nick was the kind of guy that could change the most skeptical of minds and hearts.
“You are so adorable when you get caught. I know what you meant. And I do appreciate you being so chivalrous to me. You have a different set of principles.”
“Thanks. I guess that I get that from watching how my dad took care of my mom growing up. I always felt like there was a certain way that a woman was supposed to be treated and there really isn’t any substitute for that. Probably part of the whole Christian upbringing and such.”
“I know what you mean. I know you know my mom from church so you know I grew up around all of that. I’m not as heavy into it anymore though, since the issues with my dad. Look at me going and being a downer again. I can turn anything into an issue with my father.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself. He was a really big part of your formative years.”
“You are probably right. Anyway, it looks like the answer to your question is finally ‘yes, we are there’. Are they here yet?”
“Oh I can guarantee they are. Aaron is one of those ten minutes early is on time kind of guys.”
Donna and Nick got out of the car, walked up to the front of the parking lot and sure enough, Aaron called out to them from the waiting area of the restaurant.
“Hey guys. We got here a few minutes ago. They gave me one of these cool flash things for when it’s our turn. I’d guess about five minutes left until we are seated.”
“Great. Aaron you already know Donna, but this is a first for Emily and Donna. Donna this is the woman kind enough to fall in love with my best friend.”
Donna extended her hand to a very pregnant Emily who dismissed it, opting to move in for a hug instead.
“You get over here and give me a hug Donna. Anyone who can put up with this one here deserves more than a handshake. He taking good care of you?”
“Could be better. That’s why I was excited for the double date. Hopin’ some of that goodness will rub off on my guy here.”
Not to be so easily outdone, Nick picked up on her joke and chimed in instantly.
“Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you meeting Em here.”
“Oh come on guys. I saw the smiles on both of your faces when you got out of the car and you aren’t fooling me at all. It’s apparent that you both are having a great time. It’s strange to me because I know this guy but, one man’s trash…”
Nick retorted quickly.
“Yeah, love you too buddy! Hey Aaron, I don’t know if it’s a new style but your pocket is blinking.”
“I didn’t even notice. Let’s get these ladies some food.”
Nick and Aaron held the double doors open as their dates walked inside. When everyone was seated, Donna and Emily got a chance to talk.
“So how did you meet Aaron?”
“You don’t want to hear our story. It’s boring. Childhood sweethearts. I met him in Sunday school actually and he’s been buzzing around me ever since. No way I could have come back here and married someone else with him around so I figured I’d go ahead and give in to him. The rest is history or rather our story as we like to call it.”
Emily gave Aaron a kiss on the cheek as he rubbed her shoulder.
“And now you are pregnant. Awesome. Are you excited about being a mother?”
“Yes, but I already am actually. Long story there. We can talk about it another time when we get together, but we have Ashleigh at home already.”
“That’s nice. I really didn’t like being an only child.”
“I get that. I’m sorry to change the subject so abruptly but I have been dying to hear about you and Nick from the horse’s mouth. I have all the inside scoop but these guys are pals, so they’re always ragging on each other, blowing stories out of proportion and such. Aaron has spent forever telling me stories of how you didn’t know who this guy was even though he was all goo goo over you.”
Nick looked at Aaron and shook his head in disbelief.
“What man? She’s my wife. Did you really think I wasn’t going to tell her about your mooning over Donna like a lonely puppy?”
“I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was mooning over her.”
“Well duh. I would though. You should have seen him, not being able to concentrate when he found out you were back in town. Then when you started at the company, like a girl at a rock concert. ‘Aaron, she works here. Can you believe it? How do I look? What should I do? What should I say’? I felt like I should have charged him a consultant fee just to talk about you. I even told him to see the therapist before remembering that it was you.”
“Yeah. I was like ‘dude, you’re not helping.’ I should have known better. I don’t mind admitting it I guess. So I might have had a little thing for her. When you find somebody nice, that kind of thing happens.”
The waiter brought back the food everyone had ordered and Donna was surprised as everyone prayed before they ate. Again, something that she had relegated to her mother and older church people until she had started dating Nick. That was all dif
ferent to her but it felt really nice.
The night went on with everyone sharing stories and laughing. Donna was having the time of her life as a result of dating Nick. She didn’t know where things were headed. She couldn’t predict the future, but she did know that she was having a great time with Nick and she couldn’t wait to see what the future held.
Recently, her life had been changing for the better and she was soundly convinced that it was all because of the man sitting beside her.
