The Friday evening just gone saw the coming of date #3.5. She'd decided that she'd wanted to go to the cinema again, this time to see Oz the all Powerful. Although it was a Disney movie the reviews weren't bad and the cast was pretty darn good so I bit the bullet and agreed to accompany her. In truth, by this point she could have asked me to do pretty much anything and I'd have agreed to it because I was looking forward to spending some time with her again.
It was an earlier showing than last time, with the movie starting at 9pm, so I'd called a taxi to pick me up at 20:15 to then swing by to pick her up around 20:20. The taxi was a little late and I didn't get to her until around 20:30, which was fine because that's the time I'd told her to be ready for anyway - I just like to be a little early under normal circumstances.
I seem to recall that the taxi had an unusual aroma to it when I got in. Not a bad smell, just an out-of-place one. It took me a few minutes to place it but I eventually realised that it smelt exactly like Love Hearts - you know, those little round candies with messages on them like 'Be Mine' and 'My Hero'? It was actually quite pleasant and reminded me of the Teddy Gray's sweet shop I used to frequent as a boy. It brought back memories which made me smile.
I pulled up outside her place and unsurprisingly she was ready. I'm starting to love this about her, she hasn't been remotely late for any of our dates so far, save for the first date mix-up which we can now laugh about. I'm not used to people being quite so organised and it's something I really appreciate. I can't tell you how many times I've arrived on time to pick a date up and been left waiting outside in a taxi for 5 or 10 minutes because she wasn't quite ready, which does rather irritate me. She got into the taxi and I said hi, the taxi driver rudely cutting me off before I could say much else as he asked which way he should go due to several road closures en route. I pointed him in the right direction and attempted to re-initiate conversation.
Once again we fell deep into chatter almost immediately. She'd spent the day with her friends and it seemed like a natural conversation path to ask how they were, what they'd gotten up to and whatnot so I posed the questions. She answered in detail in her usual enthusiastic manner which I'm starting to become so attached to, and we continued along the same conversational path until we ushered ourselves into the movie theatre, once again taking her favourite seats near the front in the centre.
The entire time I can't help but feel completely conscious of the fact that based on my 3 date rule, this is technically date #3, and those of you that have read my previous blog post will know that date #3 is ultimately decision date. Make or break, if you will. However, if truth be told I'd already made up my mind about her before we'd even agreed to come on date #3. Granted I haven't exactly spent a great deal of time with this girl in the grand scheme of things, but I've become very fond of her company in the short space I've time I've known her and frankly I'd be a fool to pass up on the opportunity to take this particular girl out of the shop window before somebody else came shopping. I had therefore decided that date #3 was to be the date I made it clear that I wanted to continue seeing her.
I sat thinking about how I could make it clear that she'd won me over. Put my arm round her? No, too uncomfortable in such circumstances. Those cinema seats aren't comfy at the best of times, and stretching out into an awkward position for a cuddle would be a mood killer. That was out. I figured making a move to hold her hand was the best and safest option. But how? She was sat there grasping her popcorn, and perched in the holder between us was a rather large drink, making it all but impossible for me to reach across. Blast… What to do? I'll give it some thought and bide my time. Half an hour into the movie I was still at a loss. Why was this so hard? I'm normally really good at this stuff, what's the matter with me!? Just then, what some might call 'fate' intervened. She'd reached for the drink and upon placing it back in it's holder between us had clumsily lost her grip, skewing the cup so that it almost fell into my lap, only for it to be caught precariously by the lip of the holder, preventing me getting a soaking. Reacting quickly I grabbed it to tip it back upright before it began to leak fluid, then the light bulb in my head lit up. "I'd better move this out of the way before you end up throwing it all over me…" I remarked cheekily with a smile on my face. She laughed and I moved it to another holder out of harm's way. As luck would have it she'd also put down her popcorn before picking up the drink - the hand holding window had opened. All systems go! Without hesitation I reached across, moved my arm under hers so that it was resting atop the arm rest and clasped her left hand in my right. She didn't punch me, this was a good start. I'm not sure she realised it, but I felt her breathing become deep and erratic, as if excited by the flutter of butterflies in her stomach. There we sat for the remainder of the movie, hand-in-hand, and I couldn't shake my smile.
Having predicted that the weather would be somewhat 'British' I'd anticipated rain and brought along my umbrella. She'd playfully mocked me for it earlier in the evening because she hates umbrella's due to previous embarrassing personal experiences, but she was walking home under it whether she liked it or not. I knew that she doesn't cope too well when cold and wet, so I wanted to do all I could to minimise the impact. We strolled home, my right arm clasped around her waist the whole way and my left arm holding up our little rain proof canopy, the arm round her waist serving not only to pull her under the umbrella but also to keep her close to me. It must have taken us the best part of 30-40 minutes to stroll home, but there were no breaks in conversation or awkward pauses, it just flowed freely, if anything it felt too easy!
We reached her front door and she turned to me to say goodbye. It was still raining and as a result she was stood a little closer to me than she perhaps would normally have been under the circumstances, in order to seek shelter under the umbrella. We both fell silent as if we knew what was coming, almost holding our breath in anticipation of the moment. I reached up with my left hand to gently touch the side of her face with my palm, stepped in a little closer to her and leant in for the kiss. My nerves bouncing all over the place, our lips touched and the desire to continue indulging in the first kiss feeling took over, I didn't want it to stop. It had been so long since I'd felt it. Alas, we couldn't stand out there all evening huddled under the brolly in the cold and wet, it had to come to an end eventually. We pulled apart slightly and I said the only thing I could at the time which was "I don't want to let you go in now…". We shared a glance into one another's eyes, exchanged a smile and said our farewell. That was it. She'd successfully navigated the 3 date rule with flying colours and I'd done it. I had officially staked my claim. For all intents and purposes I was now off the market. Perhaps the umbrella wasn't such a silly idea after all...
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