First date? ... oooh PIZZA!
Lights Out
Jay tightened his scarf around his face, 'it's freezing!' he thought trying to convince himself he was shaking of the cold not his nerves. He parked his car a few blocks away and made his way in the small road that led to the restaurant. Even though it was the weekend, there were only a few people walking pass him hurrying to get away from the cold not giving him a second glance. The city was still covered in snow that fell at the start of the week, but he thanked God it stopped snowing so much after that night in the elevator.
He entered the restaurant and looked around, there weren't many people, but that particular person he's been eager to see all week wasn't there yet. Of course she's not here yet; he's 30 minutes early!
He admitted to himself as he sat in a corner table where he had a full view of the door, that he was too anxious, and was afraid of being late, so he left his apartment way too early.
'Being early is better than being late' he thought as he told the waitress he's waiting for someone so he won't order now. All he could do now was wait while trying to calm his nerves down.
He was too immersed in playing a game on his phone to notice someone walking over to his table and sat across from him, "I'm not late, am I?"
He looked up to see a scarf-covered face, he could only see her eyes, but those twinkling eyes only belonged to one person; those eyes that indicated that she was smiling under her scarf.
He looked at his watch, "actually you're 10 minutes early." he grinned as Jessica took off her scarf and coat, and made herself comfortable on the old seat.
"I was afraid to be late so I left early," she looked up shyly at him. Though he was more at ease now she's here, it made his heart flutter that she was just as anxious to see him.
"Shall we order?" he said trying to relax.
"Yea, I skipped lunch knowing I'll eat here, so I'm warning you, I might end up devouring everything."
"Not a chance! Pizza is my specialty." he winked at her which made her blush and huff in indignation.
"Well as much as I'd like to prove you I can win, I want to indulge in my own heaven of pizza." She said looking at the menu.
He chuckled and waved the waitress that they were ready to order.
As they waited for their food the conversation flowed like they were two old friends meeting up to catch up. They talked about their upcoming albums, their concerts [which both invited each other to their own], their favorite TV shows they liked to participate, and many other things, except the one that Jay desperately wanted to talk about but didn't know how to bring it up.
When their order arrived, they fell into comfortable silence enjoying their precious pizza. Jay was brainstorming for ways to approach her about his feelings. Only a giggle snapped him out of his thoughts, "What's so funny?"
"You!" she said as she took a napkin and wiped his cheek then showed it to him. His eyed widened at the big stained of sauce on the white napkin.
"How did I not feel that," he muttered embarrassed and wiped his now clean face.
"I think you were trying to feed your cheek," she took a bite from her slice, "are you always clumsy when you eat?"
"Not really, that only seems to happen when I'm around you," he said quietly still embarrassed.
"Are you talking about the time you ate that cake off the floor?" she said casually.
He stopped chewing a little taken aback, "you still remember that?"
"Well it's not every day you see someone eat cake off the floor whiling filming a variety show,"
"Hey you ate from it too!" he exclaimed interrupting her.
"Well it looked too good to go to waste," she smiled lightly, "I know you probably don't like remembering that time since you were still with 2pm, but I really had fun that day."
"No, I had a great time too."
"But they were mean making me get picked up last," she said nonchalantly.
"Sorry about that, but my old boys wanted to respect my wishes I guess," he said taking a bite from his pizza trying to hide his reddening cheeks.
It was Jessica's time to stop chewing, "I thought it was scripted?"
"It was. But we had a saying about it, so the boys made the producers pair us up." he was looking at his plate as if it's the most interesting thing in the world.
She didn't say anything for a few minutes, so he chanced a look at her. She was nibbling on her pizza silently while staring into something he couldn't see. 'she really does that?' he chuckled inwardly, he has read many articles about her spacing out, but it was amusing to see her doing it in front of him.
He was a bit startled when she suddenly looked straight at him, "So you really liked me back then?" she asked so casually that made him squirm in his seat.
"I... I kinda still do." he said in a really low voice she had to stain her ears to hear him.
There was a heavy silence and was cut by her voiced that sounded like she was laughing, "You're sweating like you did that day,"
He cursed under his breath and started wiping his forehead with a clean napkin, this isn't what he was hoping for!
"Relax, I was just joking," he looked at her and a look of hurt must have crossed his eyes because her smile dropped, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," she looked down at her plate, "I'm always misunderstood when trying to make things less awkward, because according to people, I only do the opposite."
"I wasn't offended. It's my fault in making things awkward in the first place. And you shouldn't care what other people think, 'cause that's your own charm." he smiled at her reassuringly.
She looked at him with the innocence of a child and grinned, "It's weird that we barely know each other, but in those few times we met, you seem to know exactly what to say to make me feel better."
"That's another specialty I have." he puffed his chest and started sipping his drink glad he made a fast amend.
"This is our first date then?" she asked like she was commenting on the weather.
Jay almost spat his drink but choked instead and started coughing uncontrollably. Jessica looked at him concerned, "Are you okay? Drink some water." She handed him a glass.
He drank it hurriedly grateful for cooling his burning throat, "Did you just agree to go out with me?" he asked hesitantly afraid he misheard her.
"Umm... Well you sounded really sincere, and you're really nice, I'd like to get to know you better. Besides, we're already out eating alone, so why not call it a date?"
It took him a few seconds to process what she said, then started grinning widely, he felt like a kid on Christmas, "Lady Luck is still on my side!" he said talking to himself.
"Lady who?" Jessica raised an eyebrow at him with a hint of a smile on her lips.
"Never mind," he looked at her still grinning like an idiot, "What do you say we finish eating here, and go somewhere else?"
She nodded at him, and the atmosphere felt a hundred times lighter for both as they continued eating and talking with more ease.
"Where would you like to go?" they were now walking out of the restaurant, huddled in their jackets and scarves.
"Well since I haven't gone in many dates since my debut, I'll leave that up to you." she said fixing her hat.
"Believe it or not, I didn't go on many dates either," he looked thoughtful for a minute, "do you like playing?"
"Playing?"
"Come on." he said mischievously, grabbed her sleeve And pulled her into the next right turn.
"Where are we going?"
"The arcade," he said turning another right, "me and the boys used to sneak out and go play there, I just hope they didn't close the place."
They stopped at a two-story building that had a small sign with the place's name on it. It looked small and empty from the outside but Jessica was surprised when they went inside, it was spacious and there were a few teenagers playing various games, though nobody paid them much attention.
"Keep your scarf and hat on, or we'll be in trouble," he turned to her and saw her staring at a couple playing the duck shooting game, the guy won a prize and gave it to the girl with him earning him a tight hug, "so you wanna shoot the ducks first?"
She turned to him and nodded her head vigorously, "I've always wanted to try that one!"
He let her shoot first, but she only shot 4 ducks, "let me show you how a pro shoots." he grinned and took the gun from her, and aimed at the ducks, but as luck would have it, he was only able to take 2 down, she laughed teasing him and he rubbed the back of his neck embarrassed, "I'm against weapons so shooting is not really my specialty."
"So you're not good at everything after all," her eyes showing she was smiling widely beneath her scarf.
"I'll show you my favorite game." he walked to the basketball machine, and started throwing the balls into the basket, he only missed one. He turned to look at her and was glad to see her awed expression; he finally succeeded in impressing her!
"You get to pick a prize." said an old looking man next to the machine. He was pointing to the shelves behind him that were stacked with various stuffed animals.
"Pick whichever you like." Jay was obviously proud he won her something. She walked to the shelves and looked at them for few minutes before pointing to a small grey and White dog.
They didn't notice the time while they were playing every game in the arcade, and talked about nothing and everything. Jay went to buy cotton candy, when Jessica came up behind him and took her share, "Jay-sshi it's getting dark, I think we should be going."
He hid the disappointment and smiled lightly, "Okay, I'll walk you to your car." they walked in silence while eating their cotton candy, and too soon for both, they reached her car that was parked only a few cars away from his.
"So I guess I'll see you soon?" he sounded hopeful.
She looked at her feet and started pulling at the poor stuffed dog's ear, "Hopefully we could find time between our schedules," they were quiet for a few minutes, neither of them knew what to say. Just then snowflakes started falling and Jessica's head shot up like she had an idea, "Do... Do you think you can drive me home?" she blurted out, "I can't drive well in the dark with the roads covered in snow." she added shyly.
Jay took the opportunity and nodded with a big grin, "Sure, I'll come back to take my car later." she handed him her keys and went to the other front seat.
The drive was quiet and since the streets were almost empty, they soon arrived at the apartment complex. Jay stopped the car and they got out dragging their feet to the building's door.
"I really had fun today, thank you." Jessica said smiling.
"I did too." He returned her smile.
"Are you going to take a taxi?" she asked feeling guilty for making him drive her home and leave his car.
"Yea, don't worry about it," he reassured her, "now get inside or you'll catch a cold."
She hesitated for few minutes but finally spoke up, "Why don't you call someone to get you, and we can go inside and drink coffee while waiting?"
"I don't want to bother you-"
"You won't," she interrupted and started pulling him inside the building, "it's the least I can do for making you leave your car behind."
It took a lot of self-control to keep himself from grinning like a fool all the way up the stairs, "I thought a building like this would have an elevator?" he asked as they climbed a second set of stairs.
"There is, but I rather take the stairs," she looked meaningfully at him, "besides, it's only on the third floor."
They finally reached her apartment and she was about to open the door when they suddenly were surrounded by darkness. Jessica reached for Jay and grabbed his arm so tight he thought she cut his blood circulation, "Do you think electricity has something against us?" he mumbled.
She relaxed her grip on him as soon as she heard his voice, "at least we're not in an elevator," she smiled despite the darkness, "and I'm glad I'm not alone this time too."
He thought wrong, Lady Luck was on his side from the start; if he didn't get stuck in the elevator the other day, he wouldn't get to see Jessica again and go out with her today, and today's electric shortcut is allowing them more time together. He knew he's probably the only person who's happy for the snowstorms that keep on messing with the electricity, but he's just lucky.
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