Chapter twelve

I am so sorry that it took me so long to upload guy's!

I moved, got sick, didn't have wifi for a few weeks and my laptop broke. So now I am currently using my sisters and trying to give you all updates worth having!

Thank you so much for the paintence and I hope you all enjoy my work! (:

Anyways, this is it!

Enjoy ~

-NickyMb <3

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I don’t know how I ended up here, standing in front of a sea of moving people, the wind rustling my hair , and my skin smelling like sweet coconut. My hand grips onto an empty clutch, the same one Kayla gave Mia for a date last year.

My breath comes out in fast little wisps and my hair keeps getting caught in my eyelashes.

Standing here, looking out into what is going to be the worst night of my life, you would think I would be nervous.

The truth was, I was angry. I can’t remember the last time I ever got nervous in front of a guy. Wait, correction, I don’t remember ever getting nervous in front of a guy unless his name started with a J and had an accent the delinquents in Mexico would be proud of.

Behind me, Mia leans against my car and Kayla is across the street, flirting her way into getting free gas.

If she continues on the whole blinking, arm touching, and laughing at everything the guy says route, she has to gas in the bag. Or should I say tank?

I bring the clutch under my arm, letting my armpit hold it up, and I turn in my golden indian sandals that go with my earrings toward my car.

Mia seeing the movement with her hands still crossed over her arms, raises her eyebrows.

“Did you ever hear of women rights?” I ask, the wind picking up. If I wasn’t so pissed off, I would probably be complaining about the cold.

But right now, my adrenaline was running so high I could of climb mount Everest naked and not feel a single thing.

Mia brings her hands to her neatly wrapped bun, which she still had perfectly made from work, and she snaps a hair tie and her hair flows down her shoulders; resting on her work uniform.

The little dating bullies decided to rouse me up out of my studying to send me on my first so called blind date.

I was so busy arguing about how I needed to focus on school, not love, that I didn’t even notice my ponytail and pajamas disappearing in place of some red ruffled dress and pinned back, natural wavy hair.

She smiles at me and I try to glare, I really do, but the wind makes it hard to hold the look for to long. She looks over to see if Kayla was okay, and when she sees her laughing, she looks back to me.

“Of course I heard of women rights. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a guy’s company. Plus, you got yourself into this mess. Do you want me to refresh your memory?” I sigh and tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear.

No, there was no point in her retelling me the whole thing.

I heard it about five times on the way here and was bound to hear it five times on the way back to my dorm. The wind blows harder and I wonder if this was a sign.

A sign that this whole date was going to be a disaster and someone will end up getting an eyebrow caught on fire. Or something equally horrifying.

Or maybe it was just bad weather.

I was hoping for the prior.

I walk over to Mia and I lean against the car next to her. We stand there, quiet and somber, as I watch people mull into the restaurant in front of me and back out.

The smell of the water and sand fills the air and I turn my head to the right and I can see lake Michigan right there, big and looming.

I sigh and turn my head back toward Mia. “What does he look like?” I asked for details on the way here, but Kayla and her weren’t forthcoming with them. They said the point of a blind date is to go in blind.

I mean, I’m not a girl who is all about the looks. I gave up that notion when every guy I have been with broke my heart. If I ever did get a guy, it would be about the way he treated me. Not how hot his hair looked slicked back.

Mia smiles a little and looks at me. When I just continue to look at her, she laughs and runs her fingers through her dirty blonde hair.

I know she was supposed to go out with Aiden tonight, some big thing he put together for her, but she said her friends life was more important.

“Fine, I’ll give you a little pointers. But if you tell Kayla, I swear the next guy we choose will be worse than.. well, the worse thing out there.”

I roll my eyes and look over the top of my car. When I see that Kayla was still busy with the guy by the gas, I turn to Mia.

“Okay, spill.” She turns toward me, one shoulder against the car, and she lets me have all the little details. In the matter of one minute, this is all I got.

He was twenty and on his way to being a doctor in pre-med. He plans on helping children around the world and has really nice eyes.

The whole thing sounded like some kind of sick joke, but Mia swore that this guy was the real thing.

“How did you even find him? I mean he sounds too good to be true.” Mia smiles and reaches into her work pocket and pulls out a mint. She pops it in her mouth and talks around it.

“His little sister works with me. One day she came in talking about how her older brother needed to find a lady, and that’s when we started talking about you. I ran the idea by Kayla and she said it was a fabulous idea.”

“I’m sure she did.” I mutter under my breath. I open my mouth, to ask Mia if he was worth a date, when I hear someone clear their throat. I look over my shoulder to see Kayla standing there, the store worker across the street with her.

When she gets Mine and Mia’s attention, she smiles broadly. “Guys, this is Eric. The gas owner,” She looks over to me and her smile seems to get bigger.

“While you are on your date, Eric here will be filling your car up with the best gas here in Michigan!” I hear Mia laugh under her breath and I just kick off the car and run my hands down my dress.

Okay, so this was happening. There was no way this couldn’t happen. Unless I faked a heart attack, but since my date was trying to become a doctor, I’m not sure it would really fix anything.

I feel hands on my shoulders and I look up to see Kayla looking down on me. She half smiles at me and drops her hands.

“It will be fine. Mia and I will be out here waiting till the date if over. If at any time you want to leave, I already checked to see if the bathroom had a window.”

I laugh and she takes a step back and looks over at the restaurant. She sighs and her eyes land on my dress and then my face.

“Go get him babe.” She winks and I shake my head. Mia sends me an encouraging smile and even Eric, the gas owner, nods his head like it’s all going to work out. Without another look back, I take the first step to impending disaster.

Okay, it was a dramatic statement but I seriously have no idea what I was going to do. What I was going to talk about. Everytime I ended up dating a guy, the first month always seemed to be awkward.

It was that stage where we got to know each other and figure one another out. We usually didn’t go on a date date, till halfway through the second month of seeing each other.

This is why this whole blind date thing wasn’t going to work.

Like I said before, I am a girl of calculations. I want to know what I am getting into before I get into it. I’m not spontaneous. I don’t decide something at the last minute. Blind dates are for people who want something in their life again.

But what does that make me?

Did I want someone back in my life? Someone who could get so close to my heart they would be able to re break the already broken pieces?

Do I even want that kind of love? I have no idea. But when I see the door to the restaurant getting closer, I realize I’m nothing but a big mess.

A big ball of disaster.

I wrap my hands around the cold door knob and when I pull, I let in a deep breath to calm myself. I can feel Kayla and Mia watching my whole retreat and that gives me the motivation to continue inside.

Wooden floors and wooden walls meet me. Waiters and waitresses zig zag around people and tables caring food, bills, and drinks.

The whole place gives off a ocean shack kind of feel and the whole place is mostly wooden booths with dark blue padding's on the back.

“Hello, welcome to The Blue Crab. May I help you find a seat tonight?” The girl in front of me smiles and lifts a menu off a table the whole time she talks.

What do I do?

I end up standing there like an idiot. I have no idea what this guy looks like nor do I know his name. I guess Mia and Kayla forgot that little detail the whole way here. Now I was standing in front of this girl, looking like a complete moron.

When she just stands there, looking at me as if I was some weird creature, I realize she was waiting for me to say something.

I clear my throat and look around. Anything to avoid her odd look. “I’m, uh, here for a date. But, you see, I have no idea what his name is.”

When the girl just continues to stand there, menu in one hand and her face contorted into one of complete disbelief, I do the one thing I hardly ever do.

I blush.

“No, no, I’m not... okay, it was supposed to be this blind date and-”

“Oh!” The girl pipes out, her voice breaking off my sentence. “ You're the Mays girl. Yeah, your party called earlier for a reservation. Right this way.”

WIthout so much as another word, she turns on her dress shoes and heads toward the sitting areas.

I let out my breath and follow her blue polo shirt. When we get close to the outside deck, she looks over her shoulder and smiles lightly. “Your date is already here and let me say, good catch!” I’m glad everyone knew what he looked like but me.

Finally. after what seems like forever, she heads toward a table with a man sitting with his back to us. From here, I can tell that he’s tall. Really tall.

His light brown hair flows around his head and his black suit seems to be pressed. He sits straight, as if etiquette was a thing he valued in his life, and he seems to have his hands folded on the table.

I take in a deep breath, and I go to take another step to my fate, when I feel something vibrate my leg. I stop and look to where my dress was covering my thigh.

There, my phone goes off.

I curse under my breath and look up to the girl still talking while she heads toward the guy at the table. I look around to see if anyone was looking and wonder if it was polite for me to answer the phone or not.

For all I know, It could be Kayla, Mia, or something equally important telling me something bad happened. Or it could be nothing more than a false call by a wrong number.

When my phone finally stops vibrating, I decide that maybe it was a wrong number. I start to walk again, trying to find the girl, when my phone yet again starts to vibrate. Aggravated, I slap my thigh, and the phone turns off instantly.

Though, five seconds later, it goes off again.

Seeing that my hostess has yet to make it to the table, I take a few steps back and duck behind an empty both.

With no one around me, I lift up my dress fast and pull my phone out from between my underwear straps ( I know, stupid, but this was before I learned about the clutch.) And I open my phone to see an unknown number flashing across the screen.

I press the little talk button and when I put the phone to my ear, I am met to immediate talking.

“This is sexy talking,May I speak to Kelsey?” The voice on the other side seems to be holding in a laugh and I shake my head a little, looking around to see if anyone noticed I was gone yet.

But before I can ask who it is, the voice starts again. “ Or is this someone else equally thrilling? Though, I must say, I would rather speak to Kelsey. You see, me and her have this little arrangement and I thought-”

“Julio!?” I shout a little too loud and when a lady walks by me who seemed to be heading to the bathroom sends me a look, I turn around and bring the phone closer to my ear.

“I love it when you yell my name. It make it sound more enticing. Though, I can think of a few other ways I can get you to scream my name. If you are willing to try them out?”

“How the hell did you get my number?” I say, ignoring the innuendo he decides to throw at me. I also knew for a fact I never even let him know I had a phone to begin with.

Hell, I didn’t even know he had a phone. I hear something like a low chuckle on the other side and something like a roar of an engine.

“You know, your friends seem to think we are a perfect couple.” I let out my breath and lean my forehead against the booth. He didn’t have to say anything else for me to understand what he was saying.  I swear, I was going to kill Mia and Kayla when I saw them later.

“Or, it could be the fact that I said I needed your number to talk about our project. But, either way, I like to think they saw charisma in us and decided to give us a shot.”

“I really don’t care what they think. I can’t talk right now. I’m kind of busy.” Which, for the first time, was true. I can only imagine Kayla and Mia’s face when they realize that I was already ruining the blind date.

“Well, then get un-busy. You owe me tonight chica and don’t think I forgot about your promise so quickly. “

Looking back, that whole deciding to go with him deal was starting to get more and more idiotic. If I knew he would call me at random moments, challenging me to deny the fact that I promised him something, - Which I never go back on promises - I would have never of made the deal in the first place.

Though, by the way my stomach twists at the way Julio is breathing heavily into the phone, makes me want to find out what he meant by other ways to make me scream his na-

Okay, not going there.

I push off the booth and angle the phone further away from my ear. No need to combust in the middle of a restaurant due to some guy’s breathing.

“Look, Julio,“ I say softly, hoping that maybe if I talk to him like I cared, then he would just hang up. With Julio, arguing just brings him that much more enjoyment.

“ I really am busy. If you want to ... do whatever you wanted to do tonight , tomorrow, then I will more than willing to go. “

When he doesn’t answer me right away, I hold my breath.

The truth was, if he kept me on the phone, him throwing me all these little humorous comments, then I might be tempted to cancel on my date and go anywhere he wanted to go.

But, the fact was, I was my own person and a girl who upholds her honor. I told Mia and Kayla I would go on the date and I would. It was just Julio who was standing in the way.

“Okay, ángel . I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” He says quietly into the phone, the sound of an engine still in the background.

I close my eyes and I listen to him on the other side for a couple of seconds and then I close my phone and slip it back away.

When I put the phone away, I run my hands down my dress and weave them through my hair. No matter how much I liked the way Julio called me is angel, the sound of his Spanish seeping through, I wouldn’t - Couldn’t - let him get to me.

When I step back into the avalanche of sound in the restaurant, I look around and try to figure out which way the waitress was going before I was interrupted.

When I finally see the blue shaped fish on a stand, I realize that was the way I was heading in the first place.

After taking a deep breath, I make my way around the ugly decoration and try to find my blind date again. Turns out, I should have stayed behind the booth.

At first, it seemed innocent enough. The waitress was sitting across from him, menus in one hand and the other on the table.

He was saying something I couldn’t hear and she was laughing at what he said, teeth and all.

But what really put my panties in a twist is when I saw him lean forward and set his hand on what I would guess would be her leg.

It shouldn’t have been a big deal. But he knew he was going on a date with a girl tonight, someone who wasn’t the waitress, so what gave him the right to flirt with someone else?

In a moment of pure anger, I do something that Mia and Kayla would be proud of.

I see a waiter pass by me and I reach over him and grab the two glasses he had in his hand and start to head toward their table.

“Hey! What are you-” I don’t even wait to hear what the waiter had to say as I finally make it in front of the table I was supposed to be sitting at. They were so into each other that I had to clear my throat to get their attention.

When the waitress looks up, at first she's startled. Then, when she sees it is me, she starts to grow red in the face. My potential date? Unconcerned.

“Oh, I-I,”

I watch as she tries to think of something to say. In turn, I set one drink on the table in front of her and leave her to stutter. She wasn't the problem, my date was.

“Excuse me sir, but do you know who I am?” He turns his eyes up toward me lazily and his glaze scorches over my body slowly. When his eyes finally meet mine again, he shrugs a little.

“Am I supposed to care? I’m sorry, but you are ruining an important moment for me.” When I just stand there, looking at him as if he couldn’t be serious, He sighs and opens his blazer and pulls out a wad of cash.

He puts his thumb in his mouth for a second and then brings it down to the money. “ Look, how much will it take for you to leave? Twenty bucks? Thirty? Oh, and we would like for you to bring us some more .. pleasing drinks. Water will simply not do.”

At least the waitress had enough decency to look embarrassed. I tip my mouth up into a strain smile and nod my head.

“Will this do sir?” I ask politely through clenched teeth and when he looks up, I bring the class of water up over his head and when his eyes widen, I tip the whole glass of water over his head.

When he jerks up and the waitress starts to talk quietly,trying to calm him down, I drop the glass on the table, turn on my heel with the whole restaurant looking at me, and make my way to the door.

A smile on my face the whole time. .

The adrenaline from doing something stupid, something not within the usual rules, makes me want to...

Halfway to the door, I stop to reach for my phone, press a button, and continue on my way. After about the second ring, the person on the other side answers.

“This is sex-”

I cut him off before he can even get the sentence out of his mouth. “I know this is sexy talking. This is the self acclaimed ‘thrilling’ Kelsey. You have time to talk?”

I shove open the restaurant doors and am met to the wind hitting me skin and hair. I see my car still in the spot where I left it and my smile seems to get bigger.

Finally, my caller speaks. “ Maybe I have a few minutes to spare.”

“Okay.” I say, my voice coming out more clearer than even I would have guess.

“Okay?”

“Okay. I’ll meet you tonight. Just tell me where and I will show up. Turns out, I got unbusy.” When I get closer to the car, I see that Kayla was still talking to the guy from the gas station and Kelsey was on her phone.

Thankfully, they haven't noticed me yet.

I hear Julio laugh a little and that makes me feel that much more better. Hey, I was riding on pure enjoyment at the moment.

“You just show up to Mia and Aiden’s place, and I will do the rest.”

“Right. Okay, “ I am about to shut off my phone, when I hear him talk again.

“Oh, and Kelsey?”

“Yeah?”

“Wear something sexy.”

And the rest was dial tone.