Write off the Fear

Chapter 10

They pull off the main stretch of road, onto a man-made dirt road and pass by a sign, but it's too dark for either of them to read. They drive for another two minutes before they see short buildings spaced far apart and then a house comes into view with the porch light turned on.

Mim stops at an intersection of the road and unplugs her phone from the system to make a call.

"Hey Mrs Taylor, just wanted to let you know that we're here." Mim says into her phone after a short pause and waits for a reply, when she gets one and sees a figure standing on the porch, she flashes her high beam a few times then says,

"Yeah, that's us." Mim replies

"Thanks again for letting us come here." Mim says gratefully

"Yes, we've got everything." She starts, "Thanks Mrs Taylor, will do." She waits, "Have a good night!" Then Mim hangs up and starts driving to the left, off the main driveway.

"I don't think I've been this confused on a first date before." Katelyn says into the silence and Mim barks out an unrestrained laugh, having not expected the comment.

"Sorry" Mim starts once she's calmed down, "I promise it'll all make sense in a minute." She says as she stops the truck by the edge of what looks like a dense forest.

Mim bends to reach under her seat for a big flashlight and climbs out the car, rounds the front and helps Katelyn out.

"Could you hold this for me please?" Mim asks as she hands the flashlight over to Katelyn once she nods. "Thanks."

Then Mim is heading to the back of the truck and unlatching the tailgate, climbing up and opening up a duffle and laying out a large thick blanket on the bed of the truck. She then takes out four battery powered camping lanterns, turns them on and places them around the blanket for better illumination. Then she grabs out some pillows from the box in the corner and places them on the big blanket. Once she's done she walks over to where Katelyn is still standing and offers her hand.

"You wanna come up?" She asks and Katelyn hands the flashlight back to Mim and takes her free hand to be helped up.

Once they're seated and settled down on the pillows, Mim grabs the picnic basket and starts laying out food as she talks.

"I know this isn't like a fancy restaurant on a first date, but I thought you might like this? I mean, it's okay if you don't. But I didn't want to do the typical dinner and movie thing," Mim stops what she's doing and looks over at Katelyn with a slight panic, "but should I have? Was this a bad idea? Maybe you don't like the outdoors or maybe this isn't what you had in mind."

"Hey. Hey." Katelyn interjects and places her hand on Mim's arm to stop the ramble. "This is great. This is perfect." She assures Mim with a light squeeze on her arm and Mim relaxes again and continues pulling out various food containers and a big flask.

Once everything is out Mim starts opening up the containers and telling Katelyn what each thing is, "Okay. So this is a Caesar Salad, a lasagna, some cheese and cured ham, strawberry cheesecake and for our drink, the Lee's famous hot chocolate!" As Mim pulls out some cups for them, she looks over at Katelyn and notices she's staring at her a little.

"What?" Mim asks curiously then adds, "Do you not like them? Should I order something else?"

"No! No. It's just..." Katelyn looks down at the food then back up at Mim, "How'd you know these were all my favorites?" she asks.

"Well, um. I had help from Nova and Nash...I hope that's okay?" Mim asks unsure if she'd overstepped for a first date

"Of course it's okay! Thank you. Seriously, everything smells so good!" Katelyn says excitedly and Mim hands her a plate while she dishes the food out.