Cloud nine (Romance)

Chapter 11: Skate & Date

(POV:Minh)

As I finish closing the store, shutting the lights, and locking the doors. I get a conveniently timed call on my phone. The ringing blared out the sound of classic rock beats. As I pull it out, I see Max calling. Excited by the call, I quickly placed the phone to my ear, and introduced myself.

"Hey, ya ready yet?" I ask excitedly yet jittery into the phone.

"Y-yeah, i'm just about to pull up." He says as I see a small, blue car draw near into the parking lot.

Max tapped the horn playfully at me. I turn off the phone as I quickly dash to the side of the car. The heat from the engine warmed up the chilly air around me. As I am opening up the door, I hear loud Christmas music blaring from the car. Max was staring back at me with a cheesy smile on his face. "I thought that I'd better get you into the Christmas spirit!" He exclaims jokingly over the blaring music, before turning it down. I give off a slight laugh before hopping in the car. "So, what's the game plan?" I ask Max while fastening my seatbelt. "Your choice." "If you want to eat, or go somewhere else." "It's all fine with me," I say shyly, not sure where we could go. We ponder on the question for a few seconds, the Christmas music being the only thing breaking the silence. "Have you ever been ice skating?" Max asks curiously. "I know a cool place uptown." I give a moment pause before responding. "Yeah, sure!" "Doesn't 'Uptown Skate' own that place?" I ask Max. "Yeah, they bought it a few years ago." "I think it has a food court there too if you get hungry afterward," Max says as he begins to drive off. I stare off for a second. "Yeah, I think this will be fun."

After singing Christmas music at full blast, he stopped and turned the volume quieter. He tapped me on the shoulder and pointed in front of me illuminating the sunrise. Shortly after looking away from my phone I realized that we were on the precipice of a bridge. My eyes widen, teeth clench as I cringe. This wasn't the first time I've been on this sad precipice of this bridge before. The realization sends a shock through my spinal cord. My ears begin to ring as I hear a mumbly voice echoing in the distance. After a few seconds, I snap back into reality. He occasionally taps me on the shoulder as if he is asking me if I'm okay. I then let out a little chuckle and reassured him, saying that I was simply amazed by the sunlight hitting my eyes.

After a couple of minutes, I saw a nice-looking building. It had a bright blue sign in neon light saying 'silver lined skating rink'. I looked back at him and he grinned at me lightly. We both looked at each other as we unfastened our seatbelts. We both came out of the car and looked at each other again. "Are you ready?" he said. "Yes, let's go," I replied. As we walk in we see a few people ice skating on a big layer of freshly coated silver ice. Simple chime music playing in the background quietly. And to the side of the ice rink, there are a few gray tables and food stands serving multiple assortments of foods and drinks. He then taps my shoulder again and asks me if I want some food, or if we should go straight to skating. I drift my eyes toward the stand where you pay for your ice skates. We both saw each other looking at the ice skates and smiled at each other slightly. I said very quickly, " Who asks for shoes last pay." I then continue saying very fastly "One, two, three, GO!" We start running deliriously and funnily until he starts to catch up. I will admit, I did start running before I said go but I didn't care. It was just too funny. As I heard his footsteps coming closer, they quickly came to quiet as he jumped slightly and pounced onto me.

"A-ah, let go!" "No Minh, You're the one paying." I'm just slightly back as he is pulling me down with his right arm. Shortly after trying to pull myself back up, I hear a slap on a desk affirming that he reached it before me. While he is slightly laughing under his breath, I let out a heavy breath and put out some money. We tell the woman our shoe sizes and I pay for the bill. "W-wow, I didn't really realize how small you are." We both had some silly banter about how they overpowered me and we put on our shoes. The chimes fade into woodwind instrumental giving an aquatic feeling. Looking at eachother again, the repetitive gazing is moving my heart. We then graze our hands together and quickly pull away. We let out quiet groans of pure awkwardness as Max's face is slightly red. "Minh, s-sorry..." I pull myself closer to him and hold his hand. "It's fine, it's pretty obvious we've only known each other for about a week." I keep saying "I know there was just one week where we barely talked within two weeks, but I feel like I'm ready for whatever, as long as we talk about it and communicate through it." "So with that being said Max, is it okay if i hold your hand as we skate on ice."