All Yours

7. He's Closer Than You Think...

I took a quick look at myself in the mirror to adjust my ponytail before walking out. Griffin was in the kitchen in the middle of grabbing his keys when he looked up at me. The expression on his face before he saw me looked a little cold, like he was thinking about something that troubled him. But whatever was on his mind seemed to slide right off as soon as his eyes snapped to me.

Instead of his stony expression, his face now looked much softer as his lips moved into a gentle smile. My smile involuntarily matched his as I walked over to him.

"You ready?"

"Starving," I said in reply.

He rested his hand around my waist as he kissed the side of my head for the second time today. "I like your shirt."

I was wearing the blue shirt he had picked out for me in Drew's. And although it's button up, elbow length sleeves made it a little dressy to pair with denim shorts -which was all I had- it still kinda worked, giving it a casual yet dressed up look. My perfectly messy ponytail also gave it a more me-vibe.

I grinned as I looked up at him. "Thought you would."

He chuckled lightly as we started to walk out the door. "You know I gotta say, whoever picked it out has pretty good taste."

"Really now?" I teased through a chuckle of my own. "So have you been planning this this whole time then?" I slightly altered the subject as I thought of our long over-due date we were about to walk into.

"You could say that." He shrugged through a knowing grin.

He wore a similar style to mine, vouching for a half casual-half dressed up approach, as well. He had on a nice pair of cargo knee-length shorts, paired with a regular t-shirt. His hair, on the other hand, looked like it could use a little messing up.

"Hang on," I said as we stopped walking. Reaching up, I quickly ran my hand through his hair back and forth a few times until it looked stylishly messy. "There," I smirked.

He just chuckled. "What was that for?"

I shrugged, "It looks better this way." He just grinned and shook his head at me.

We ended up going to a nearby restaurant that was somewhere between a steakhouse and Friendly's. It seemed fairly family oriented with decent prices, but the whole left wall was a complete bar with a TV hung up above like in most steakhouses.

When the waiter came around, he took out a pen and notepad as he looked at us. "Can I get you something to drink?" he chirped.

"I'll have a coke," Griffin decided after a brief moment.

I was still looking at my menu as my eyes hit the alcohol list. But, oddly enough, I didn't want a drink. I didn't feel the desire to forget anymore, even if some crappy stuff had happened earlier. And I especially didn't want to forget anything happening now either. All I wanted was Griffin.

Looking up from my menu, I turned to our waiter with a smile. "I'll have a coke, too, please." I took a quick glance at Griffin who was smiling back subtly.

The rest of the evening at the restaurant only got better as time went on. This may have been our first date in a while, but it was nothing close to as awkward as real first dates usually are. We talked, about anything and everything; we laughed; we occasionally amused ourselves about inside jokes at some of the customers. And then there were moments we had of just comfortable silence as we ate. But it was perfect and I loved every minute of it. We were just being us.

After dinner, we went walking around the block for a little bit. The sun had long set by now, leaving the darkened blue sky only illuminated by the moon and stars and the occasional streetlamps here and there.