Meet Me at Midnight - Jessica Pennington Page 0,31
wearing.
You’ll never see any of these people again. The words remind me of Asher, of what he said to me as we stood outside the doors of that house just last night. Before I can stop myself I’m thinking about the kiss. As Caleb and I are led to our table, tucked away in a dark corner, I can feel Asher’s lips, warm and slow. The weight of his hand laid on top of mine. The scrape of the grass against my bare legs as I twisted myself toward him. I have a menu in my hands by the time I shake myself free from the thoughts.
“This is really nice,” I say, looking across the room at the small wooden tables topped with candles and white china. The long row of windows overlooking the lake in the distance. The light fixtures all glow amber, and everything about this place feels warm.
“It was my mom’s idea.” Caleb grimaces, as if he brought her with us. “I made the reservation myself.”
He smiles and when I laugh he does, too. And it feels like something inside me snaps, because I’m not nervous anymore. The waiter offers us a wine list, and looks nervous that we might actually take it. Caleb asks me if the fritters sound good as an appetizer, and when I nod he orders them. While we wait, he tells me about how his dad brought his mom here on their first date, and it’s both sweet and weird. Sweet that he tells me, weird to think that this could be the start of something. Weirder because he also adds that they’re divorced.
When the appetizer arrives, he awkwardly puts a few pieces on his plate with the little silver tongs they brought us. In my opinion, anything that is stick-shaped and fried is finger food. This isn’t what I had in mind when I thought of a first date with Caleb. I figured we’d be riding the little water bumper boats at the tiny amusement park on the edge of town, or going on a dune-buggy ride. Silver tongs and sea bass were not on my radar.
My sea bass is delicious, though. And as I pick pieces off with my fork, and Caleb saws at his steak, I realize we haven’t had to talk about anything real yet. We’ve had witty banter, and fun flirting, and quirky produce shopping, but we don’t actually know anything about each other yet. Except that his parents went on a first date in this very restaurant. So technically, I know more about his parents than I do about Caleb.
When my fish is gone I break the silence. “Do you play any sports?”
He shakes his head. “Not since seventh grade. It turns out it takes more than being tall to be any good at basketball.”
I smile and nod. “Yeah, I was the tallest girl in my class in seventh grade, and I was the absolute worst at basketball.”
“You swim, right?” He must catch the surprise on my face because he immediately offers, “Kara mentioned it.”
My heart swells a little at the thought of him asking about me. Good sign.
“Yeah, I’m swimming at Oakwood in the fall.” It still feels weird to say it. Weird that after all of these years of dreaming it, it’s actually happening. I always hoped it would happen, but maybe deep down I prepared myself, just a little, for my dream to end after high school.
“Cool,” he says, sticking another bite of red meat into his mouth. There’s a long stretch of silence and with every second that ticks by I deflate a little more. There’s something really shitty about someone not realizing when something is a big deal to you. That you spent thousands of hours of your life working toward something, and you’re in a small fraction of people that actually made it. It’s not that I need everyone to ooh and ahh about it, but he’s obviously not interested. At all.
“Yeah,” I say, sticking a forkful of rice into my mouth. I kind of want to ask him if he has any beloved pets, and then give a dismissive shrug when he mentions them. I totally wouldn’t do something that mean to anyone but Asher though, and the thought makes my lips quirk up just a little.
“What?” Caleb asks, eyeing me quizzically.
“Hm?”
“You were smiling.”
Was I? I just shake my head because words are hard right now. And maybe going on a date the day after that kiss wasn’t such