Meet Me at Midnight - Jessica Pennington Page 0,81
he doesn’t groan and complain about how they interrupted his book (which is with him at almost all times). Nothing seems to faze him. Except for me.
I wonder if I seem different to him, too, or if I’m just the same old neurotic Sidney I’ve always been. But then why would he even like me, if I was? I try to push that question away but it always seems to be there, right on the edge of my thoughts. Because I don’t feel any different. I still feel like me, just with one less enemy. And I suppose I’m not on the defensive or offensive, either. I’m not trying to think five steps ahead, unless you count right now, on this date.
Date. Oh god, the word makes me feel like I’m living in someone else’s skin. It’s not that I don’t want to be with Asher right now; I totally do. It’s just that when I think about dates, I think about what comes next, and then my mind is five steps ahead, and before I can stop myself, I’m thinking way too far down the line. No. I mentally slap myself. We aren’t even a couple yet. We’re dating. Barely dating. On our first date. It’s hardly time to start panicking about all of the repercussions of this little experiment not working out. I push the thoughts down as quickly as they surfaced.
I realize I’ve been panicking in silence for long enough that when my eyes refocus on the world outside this car, I don’t recognize where we are. Apparently there’s no blindfold needed when Asher has my brain to do all of the work for him.
I love mini-golf way more than any person should. Which is why I basically squeal when we pull into The Grove. It’s the strangest mini-golf course I’ve ever seen, and I’ve basically lusted after it since my parents took me here once the first summer we came up here. Dad was totally irritated by all of the weird traps in the holes, and Mom just hates miniature golf on principle, so we never came back. Plus, once Sylvie, Greg, and Asher joined us the next year, we didn’t need to find so many ways to entertain ourselves. Everyone had someone to keep them occupied.
“Do you have a notebook?”
Asher looks confused as we walk across the parking lot. My eyes are fixed on the giant windmill that’s fashioned out of twisted branches. Moss and vines twine over it. “You know, where you keep track of these things … my corn-eating habits, necklaces I’m lusting after. The fact that I’m basically obsessed with this place.”
“No notebook.” Asher puts his hands in the air as if I’m going to search for it on him. “I just remember things.”
“It’s freaky.”
He shrugs. “Not sure what to say, it’s just how my brain works.”
“Then I guess I like your brain.”
“Um. Thanks?” He reaches his hand out as he walks. It’s subtle. Casual enough that I could pretend I didn’t notice. Maybe I should, but I don’t. I take two quick steps to catch up to where Asher is about to step inside the whitewashed building, and I slip my hand inside of his.
* * *
The Grove doesn’t have the usual waterfalls and pirate ships. It’s agriculturally themed. At one hole, your ball shoots out of a fake cherry tree. That was when my dad had decided he’d never return—when he was almost pelted by his own golf ball. He just doesn’t appreciate the challenge of mini-golf like I do. When we take our clubs off of the old wooden counter, I don’t need a mirror to know I am basically beaming with excitement. Asher grabs a little clipboard with a score sheet attached, and two stubby yellow pencils.
I reach for a red ball just as Asher does. “Oh, no.” I grab a ball and point to the row of others. “I’m calling first-date dibs on this.”
Asher picks up a yellow ball and smiles. “First-date dibs, huh?”
We leave the amused desk clerk behind and step through the rickety wooden door and onto the sidewalk. “You asked me on a date. I get to call dibs on things like golf ball colors. And veto things. I also get to claim a bite of your dessert. I don’t make the rules.”
Asher snorts like I just told a joke. “Technically, you asked me to ask you on a date.”
“Technicalities are no good on first dates—you have a lot of rules to learn. You’ve