Finally Asking Her Out

Charlotte

I'm walking down the hall, texting my friend Caroline. We spent most of high school together, and she's taking a gap year while I'm going to college so we don't see much of each other these days. We're making plans to go shopping together after my classes are done, though. I'm in desperate need of new clothes.

"Charlotte!"

I turn to see Cordelia, smiling and waving. I put my phone away in the middle of texting Caroline and approach her. "Hey! I didn't expect to see you here. Well, I knew you went here, but—"

"Yeah, I know," she stammers. "Uh, pretty big school. Crazy. Look, can I ask you something?"

"Sure. Just hold on a second." I pull out my phone, which is buzzing like crazy. Caroline keeps asking me what time we should meet so she knows when to leave. "I don't know, Caroline," I mutter as I'm texting. "Leave whenever. I won't even be off for a few hours."

Cordelia eyes me. "Who are you texting?"

"Caroline," I answer. "Give me a few more seconds." Now Caroline's asking exactly how many hours because she needs time to stop for gas too.

Cordelia nods, but she looks a little nervous. I'm trying not to take too long, but I can tell the longer she's waiting the more it's torturing her. Finally, I type in a random time for Caroline to come and meet me and look up.

"Sorry. What was it you wanted to ask me?"

She rubs the back of her neck hesitantly. "Oh. Uh, you know what, maybe this wasn't true best idea. I should just go."

"No." I raise an eyebrow. "Now you've piqued my interest. It'd be kind of a bitchy move to just walk away, wouldn't it?"

"I'm willing to take that risk. Bye!"

"Cordelia, wait!" I place my hand on her arm to keep her from going. "You don't need to be afraid to ask me anything, okay? I know we've only been friends for about a month and really only see each other at your work in the morning, but I still think we should have some trust in each other."

She shakes her head. "It's not about trust, Charlotte. It's about... nothing," she finishes.

God. She's being so irritating right now. But I like her and I'm interested in what she has to say, so I cross my arms and wait for her to come around.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm waiting," I reply.

Cordelia purses her lips. "Charlotte, I told you. Never mind, okay?"

"I'm always going to mind," I tease. "Come on! Just ask me your stupid question."

"First you ask me what you were going to ask me."

Shit. Did I say I wanted to ask her something? Maybe I did. But hell, I'm not ready for that yet. We've only spoken a few times a week since we met. Cordelia's looking at me expectantly, and I hunch my shoulders in sudden embarrassment.

"Don't be shy."

"I didn't say I was going to ask you anything."

"Damn it." She huffs, glancing around the hallway. "Okay, fine. Do you want to go out with me or something?"

Oh. Ohhh. I'm speechless for a moment. It's kind of cute that she was so shy about it. Cordelia winces when I don't say anything.

"I knew this was a dumb idea. God, I'm so stupid. No, Whizzer gave me this advice. He's stupid."

"Wait, wait, wait," I say quickly. "No, I do want to go out with you. Of course I do. But why did it take so long for you to ask me?"

Cordelia looks back at me and smirks. "Why did it take you so long to ask me?"

Damn. She has a point. I'm about to say something to break the silence, but my phone buzzing does it for me. I pull it out of my purse, infuriated. It's not the time, Caroline!

"So what is this?" Cordelia asks. "Are we going out? Are we not going out?"

"Well, I sure hope we are," I tell her, tucking my phone away again.

"Oh! Great! I mean, yeah. No. That's great. I love that. Like that. That idea. Good idea."

I laugh. "And I thought I was nervous to do this."

"You did nothing," she shoots back. We're both smiling, though, and I'm suddenly relieved. "So... when do you want to go out?"

"Tomorrow?" I suggest. It's Friday, meaning tomorrow will be Saturday, meaning we'll probably both be free. Cordelia nods, and turns only to run into some random guy.

"Sorry," he's quick to apologize. Cordelia waves it off with a shrug. The guy looks past her to me. "Wait, is this Charlotte?"

I hold my purse in front of me. "How do you know my name?" I demand.

Cordelia laughs. "Relax. This is my roommate's boyfriend, Marvin. Marvin, yes, this is Charlotte." She lowers her voice to a whisper. "And I just asked her out, so don't even bring it up."

Marvin reaches out to shake my hand, and I let him, but still cautiously. He gives Cordelia a grin and says, "Congratulations," before moving along in the hallway.

I watch him leave over my shoulder. "Who was he again?"

"My roommate's boyfriend, remember?"

"I didn't even know you had a roommate," I remark.

She frowns. "Whizzer? I didn't tell you about him?"

"Ohhh." It's coming back to me now. "When you said 'Whizzer' I thought you were talking about the bicycle engine."

Cordelia laughs out loud.

"I take it Marvin's heard about me?"

"Yeah." Her laughter subsides and she glances off with a shrug. "Anyway... could I text you later? Maybe we could go over some plans for tomorrow."

I smile. "That sounds great."

"Great." Cordelia gives me a small wave and turns to leave finally. I stand there for a moment watching her. This encounter just made my day.

My phone buzzes, distracting me from my thoughts as usual. I check, and of course it's a text from Caroline.

Caroline: WHAT TIME SHOULD I COME

I don't know, you decide, I type back. I'm not really in the mood to text right now— unless Cordelia happens to text me, that is.

Caroline: You always do this :(

Cordelia

I did it. Oh my God, I did it. My hands are shaking. I look at them. They look normal, except they're not, because they belong to a girl who just got a date.

How did it even happen? I was almost sure she was going to reject me, or we would go on one date and then stop talking. But now I'm way more confident, because it turns out she wanted to ask me out too. Whizzer was right.

Oh, yeah, Whizzer. I want to tell him I finally did it, but he's out again. So I put a sticky note on the fridge saying, I asked her out!!! Just like that, with three exclamation points. This is a significant occasion.

Afterward, I work up the nerve to text Charlotte back. It's not that hard, since I did just ask her on a whole date earlier.

Charlotte: Hey I'm at the mall but can talk, what's up?

Cordelia: Should we pick a time for tomorrow?

Charlotte: Hmm

Charlotte: Ok here. How about I come by your place around noon and we go from there?

Cordelia: Sounds good :))

Cordelia: But if Whizzer's there DO NOT TALK TO HIM.

Charlotte: Oh he knows about me too?

Cordelia: Yes and he'll be extra cocky when he finds out he was the one who convinced me to ask you out

Charlotte: Oh no, lol

Cordelia: Yeah.

Charlotte: Well ig I'll see you at noon ;)

I'm resisting the urge to scream right now.

Cordelia: 👍