Calm down, Paige, I tell myself. It's just a date. Yet still, I have what seems like a million butterflies in my stomach and my palms are sweatier than me after a fight.
I hear a knock on the apartment door. He's here!
I hurriedly grab my things, walk down the stairs and open the door.
"Hey!" Alan says.
"Hi, Alan!" We awkwardly grab each other's hand and hug with the other.
"Ready to go?" he asks.
"Yup!" We head out the door and he starts driving to the pizza place.
After about ten minutes of laughing, talking, and not as much awkward silence as I thought, we arrive at the pizzeria.
"After me," Alan says as he opens the door.
"Aww, thank you." I step in. Besides a group of men playing some card game in the corner, it's empty. We order a pie with fresh mozzarella, basil, tomatoes, and pepperoni and then take a seat in a booth while we wait.
"So what's your favorite style of dance?" I ask Alan.
"Uh.. probably salsa. It's fun and energetic so I enjoy dancing it."
"Cool! Could you show me some of your moves?" I reply, smirking.
"Sure!" Alan gets up and starts doing fast salsa.
"Dance with me!" he says. I laugh and get up. Alan spins me around and then dips me. We're dissolving into giggles when one of the men from the card game speaks to the other men. "Hey, look at the wimp. He's dancing. That ain't a man's game, son." The other men guffaw at the comment.
"Who says?" Alan shoots back.
"Every man on the planet, except for you, clearly."
I can't take this anymore. "Why do you have to be so rude, can't you just let him dance? It isn't affecting you."
"I'm just informing him."
"Well my boyfriend doesn't need to be informed that he can't do his passion and talent." I reply with sass. Paige, what the heck?! You just called him your boyfriend! He's probably not ready for that yet!
The men look taken aback. "We got a diva here, I see..." one of them say.
"No, you have a girl who isn't afraid to stand up for someone she loves and won't accept idiotic comments."
He raises his hands up like I'm a policeman.
"Let's go." I say.
"Yeah." Alan and I get our pizza from the counter, and then we leave.
Once we're in his car, we start eating the pizza out of the box, me in the right back seat and Alan in the left, the box between us.
"Thanks for standing up to me before." Alan says.
"No problem. Those men were extremely rude and I wouldn't have it. Did I embarrass you?"
"No!" Alan says. "It makes me proud to know someone as fierce and not afraid to speak up as you. I guess we're boyfriend and girlfriend, right?"
"I guess!" I say.
We chat about DWTS, life, and random stuff for a while while eating our pizza. This date wasn't what I expected, but it turned out really great.
