H2O | ✔

Chapter Four : Porcelain Doll

Sam

51 weeks before Mesi woke up...

"Are you cold?" I asked her. She and I were sitting on the dock, feet just touching water so that the bottoms of my shoes were wet.

It was our first date. That day at the beach, we all ended up going to get some pizza together—her, her friend Tammy, the guys, and me. When I was walking her to her car, she slipped her phone number into my hand. She'd written it on her cocktail napkin. Then she leaned in and kissed my cheek and left me standing there like an idiot.

Yep, that was me...an idiot. An idiot for not calling her sooner. It'd taken me days to gather the courage to call her. What if it's a fake number? I asked myself. The only way to know is to call it, I reasoned. But I might be better off not knowing. No girl like that would be interested in me. There's no way it's her number, right?

Eventually, Xander came over and snapped me off. He actually yelled at me, saying I she might have liked me before, but she'd probably given up when I didn't call. Xander sat there and watched as I finally dialed those ten digits.

"Hello?" She sounded just like I remembered her.

I cleared my throat so my voice wouldn't crack from the nerves. "Hi, um, it's Sam. You know, from the beach?" I could see Xander roll his eyes in my peripheral vision, so I shifted my body away from him.

"I was wondering when you'd call." I could hear the smile in her voice, and it made me giddy.

"So, uh, do you maybe want to go out with me sometime?" Mentally, I banged my head on the wall for being so awkward.

Mesi laughed. "I'd love to, Sam." Why did my name sound so much better when she said it? "When were you thinking?"

Shit. I hadn't thought this through. "Friday?"

"Pick me up at seven. I'll text you my address."

I let out a huge breath I'd been holding in. "Sounds good."

Neither of us was saying anything, so I blurted,"Well, I'll see you then!"

I was about to hang up when,"Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for calling."

"No problem."

She hung up after that. Xander simply stood up, clapped a hand on my shoulder in congratulations, and left. Said he had dinner with his mom or something.

"No, I'm good," Mesi said, bringing me back to the present. "I've got a sweater in my bag." She started searching through the cross-body she'd brought with her, but I placed my hand on top of hers to stop her.

Shrugging off my jacket, I said,"Don't do that again. You should let the guy do the gentlemanly thing."

We had just finished our dinner at this little restaurant on the bridge above us. It was Italian, and had some of the best pasta I'd ever eaten. My older brother, Alex, suggested it when I called to ask for advice. I wasn't so sure I could trust him with something like this, but it'd turned out perfectly.

Mesi laughed and took the jacket I held out to her. "Yeah, wouldn't want to hurt your fragile egos."

I covered my heart in mock-hurt. "'Egos'? As in, plural?" I turned so that I was facing her and tried not to smile. "Mesi Connell Markham, are you seeing more than one man?"