Falling For The Nerd

The Date.

   Melissa devoted most of her time on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday to nagging me. She was desperate to know what we would be doing. I don't question her behaviour. I had asked her to pack a weird assortment of clothes. "You'll see." I told her every time she asked about the date.

   Finally, it was Saturday. At four in the evening, I went to pick up Melissa. I was wearing a blue t-shirt with the superman logo on it with my favourite jeans. She waiting for me at her gate, wearing a white top with black leggings. She got into the passenger seat and I drove. "So where are we going?" Melissa asked. "Would it be enough if I said you'll find out when we get there?" I said. "Nope." she replied. "Fine. We're going to the skating rink." I said and Melissa grinned. Once I could see the rink in the distance, Melissa got out our jackets from the duffel bag. We put on our jackets and entered the rink. I paid for our skates. Melissa smoothly got onto the ice. She turned around and looked at me with a questioning gaze as I was standing at the edge, just looking at the ice. "Is something wrong?" Melissa asked. "No. It's just that I don't know how to skate." I admitted sheepishly.

   Melissa laughed and said, "That's alright. I can teach you!" She held my hand as I gingerly stepped on the ice. She showed me how to move my legs over the ice so that I would move smoothly. I fell a few times before I could move a meter without stumbling. As I learnt, Melissa stayed with me. As usual, she was an amazing teacher. Within an hour, my skating was deemed passable and I skated away from the edges of the rink. I was no master, but I could keep up with Melissa, who was extremely comfortable on ice.

    Around six o'clock, Melissa sat down. Her face was pink as she removed her skates and handed it back to the man at the counter. I followed suit, panting from exhaustion. We sat at the small cafe' that the rink had and devoured a hot dog each. As we left the rink, Melissa said, "I had an amazing time, Derek. Thank you." "You did? Then you'll love what's next." I said. "There's more?" Melissa asked, surprised. "Of course." I scoffed.

    I helped her into the car and we drove back into town. I was heading for the country club of our district. "Why are we going to the country club when it's closed?" Melissa questioned. The club closed at five and it was nearing seven at the moment. I merely smiled at Melissa. I parked the car and called Miles.

   Miles was a cousin of mine who was an instructor at the country club pool. He often had extra classes for which the pool stayed open after the club closed. Tonight, he had left it open on my behalf.

   I spoke to Miles to make sure the pool was open. I spoke using as little words as possible, so that it was a surprise till the last minute. After confirming that the pool was ready, I escorted Melissa inside. I shut the doors behind us. The pool was indoors, but it had a glass ceiling, so the pool was illuminated by natural light. "I should explain this." I said to Melissa, who was looking at me.

   "So last night, I saw this movie where a couple was dancing by a lake in the moonlight. And I did not want our date to end at the skating rink. So I thought maybe we could dance. Unfortunately, in this landlocked state of ours, there are no lakes close to home. So I thought that we could use the pool as a lake and glass ceiling can provide us with a bit of moonlight too." I said, "May I have this dance?"

   Melissa nodded. I held her left hand in my right. I placed her other hand on my shoulder and I wrapped my left arm around her waist. I played 'Thinking out loud' by Ed Sheeran on my phone and we swayed to the music. A comfortable silence surrounded us which was only broken by the song.
Maybe, we found love right where we are...
   The song ended and I whispered to Melissa, "Are you a good swimmer?" "I can manage. Let's do this." Melissa replied and took off her glasses. I grinned at her and pulled her into the pool with me.