How to Love Again

Chapter Three: First Date

“What was I thinking to even agree to this,” Michele said as she pulled out of the health club parking lot on her way home to prepare for her date. “I can’t do this, not to Nicole. I have to call him and cancel, wait I don’t even know his phone number.”

            During the 10-minute drive home, Michele thought of every reason why to back out. But none were good enough to convince her to cancel.

            After showering again to ensure that she removed every hint of chlorine, Michele stood in front of her medicine cabinet mirror figuring how she got in this mess in the first place.

            If only I had listened to Nicole and moved out of the way, if I never had talked to him or even went into the training room for ice, none of this would have happened. But why I am torturing myself over this boy, a football player no less. I have gone on plenty of dates before this and I never struggled with it. Why now, why this boy? What was it that drew me to him? Maybe his honestly, which was very intriguing. No one had ever been that honest with me before. Was it an act just so I would go out on a date with him, or was he really too good to be true. Then my thoughts drifted to Nicole, what I would say to her. She is my best friend and I couldn’t lie to her, she would find out anyway.

            Knowing that Nicole was still at practice she decided to call anyway and left a message telling her to call back when she was done. After all, they did make plans to hang out, since Logan never called her.

            Thinking of what to wear was the next problem. It shouldn’t have been this difficult for Michele to find something out of her closet but this time was different. Agonizing over what they would do, she decided to go simple and pick out a pair of navy blue Bermuda shorts and a simple white laced tank top with matching flip flops, an ordinary summery outfit for any occasion, whatever that would be.

            The last details she had to figure out was what to do with her hair and make-up. Michele was one of the lucky ones, who was naturally pretty and didn’t need make-up to enhance her sun-kissed slightly freckled face. That was a blessing, since Michele wasn’t a big fan of make-up and only wore it for cheer and dance recitals. For her hair, Michele attempted to tame her wild head of hair by straightening it then adding a hair band to pull her bangs back. Nanny always hated when Michele’s hair was in her face, she always said it was too distracting.

            It was nearly noon when the phone rang, nearly causing Michele to fall off of the chair in the kitchen waiting for Logan to show up.

            “Hey what’s up, I just got your message and I am about to leave practice and stop at your place,” Nicole said as she ran out of breath. “You are never going to believe it but Logan called me this morning like around 6 a.m. and told me he couldn’t hang out but he would call me later to set-up something up.”

            “Yeah, that’s why I called you,” Michele said not knowing where to take the conversation, to be truthful or tell a harmless lie. “I actually ran into Logan this morning at the club while I was swimming and he gave me a hard time about not hanging out with him so we are going to do something this afternoon, I really hope you don’t mind. If you don’t want me to go, I would totally understand. I don’t want to make you mad at me or upset.”

            “I am a little bummed, but hey I can’t fight fate,” she said only half-joking this time. “Promise me that you will have a fun time, but if you don’t, can I have a shot at him?”

            “He’s just a boy, nothing special, you know that I am not looking for a boyfriend, I think he could be a cool new friend, so I won’t stand in the way of you and your “dream man.”