The Vamp and the Geek

Chapter 5 - A Date

“What do you want to eat?” James asked as we entered a small café on the corner of a busy London street. Surprisingly it was virtually empty, which I guessed was good because then there was no chance of James being mobbed by fans. I wondered how often that happened.

  

“Umm… I think I’ll have a cheese and tomato Panini… if that’s okay…” I replied bashfully. I felt bad that he was paying for my meal, even though he had offered to. We had only just met after all, it just didn’t seem right to me.

  

“Yeah, that’s fine… why don’t you go and find us some seats?” He suggested, turning towards the counter so that he could order our food. I nodded in response and scanned around the café.

  

As there were hardly any other people, we could have sat basically anywhere we wanted but I chose the seats nearest the window for some reason. I think it was because it was in quite a secluded spot and meant, even if people did come in, they wouldn’t spot me and James.

  

After a few moments of aimlessly gazing out of the window and mentally preparing myself to have lunch with James Mcvey, he slid down into the chair opposite me carrying a tray of delicious-looking food.

“Here you go” He beamed, gesturing for me to take my Panini from the tray.

  

“Thank you” I smiled, before hesitantly taking a bite.

  

For the first few minutes, it was incredibly awkward between us as we couldn’t talk through mouthfuls of food. But I soon started to relax more.

  

“Thanks for this” I mumbled, blushing slightly as he began to give me his memorised stare again,

  

“You already said that” He smirked, snapping out of his trance, “But it’s really no problem.”

  

I couldn’t imagine what he must be thinking. Why exactly had he asked me here? I wasn’t anything special. I wasn’t that pretty or funny or even the slightest bit interesting. He could literally get any girl he wanted and yet for some reason, he chosen me. A geeky, plain looking ex-intern. It was quite bizarre.

  

“It’s the least I can do seeing as I did knock you over and then get you fired!”

  

“Hey, that wasn’t you fault” I assured him, “I’m just clumsy and stupid.” I couldn’t believe he was blaming himself. Perhaps he just wanted to make me feel better.

  

“I feel like it was my fault though” He shrugged, looking regretful. It was cute how much he cared, when not really had before.

  

***

After approximately half an hour of chatting about fairly general topics, such as what our interests were and what our families were like, I noticed it was beginning to get dark outside.

  

“Whoa… it’s getting kind of late” I groaned, trying not to sound too rude, as though I was desperate to get out of there, because I wasn’t. I could have stayed there all night, but I knew my mum would be worried.

  

“Ah yeah it is… do you want me to drive you home?” He asked in a soft tone, a pink colour rises in his cheeks again. My heart skipped a beat at his level of cuteness and how nervous he was around me. Me and him really weren’t that different after all.

  

“U-um, do you mind?”

  

“Of course not” He said, standing up, “C’mon!”

  

I mimicked his actions and followed him sheepishly out of the café. Walking behind him, I found my eyes somehow scanning down towards his bum. I just couldn’t help it.

  

However now I wasn’t looking where I was going, I managed to bump into someone, smashing out shoulders together painfully. What was it with me knocking into people?

  

“Ow!” I whimpered under my breath, before I suddenly realised who I had ran into,

  

“B-Brad?” I said in disbelief, “I’m s-sorry!”

  

“Do you make a habit of bumping into people?” He laughed, raising an eyebrow.

  

I laughed nervously and looked over at James, who had now noticed I wasn’t behind him and turned around.

  

“Don’t worry about it” He winked, before facing his band member who had strolled over to us.

  

“So Jamesy, been on a little date, have we?”

  

James turned crimson once again, shooting me an awkward glance. I didn’t mind this being a date. In fact, I kind of hoped that it was.

“Shut up, you dick” He answered in an annoyed tone,

“Aw dude, that was harsh” Brad said, holding his hand to his chest.

  

I giggled at Brad’s humorous digs towards James. He really very cheeky and quick-witted, no wonder he was the main singer. Although I did feel a little bit guilty when I saw the look on James’ face.

“This is Mia” He muttered, formally introducing me to Brad. I smiled at James in attempt to make him less nervous. It was incredibly cute, yet weird for him to be acting this way. No one was ever shy around me.

  

“Nice to meet you properly,” Brad beamed,

  

“You too.”

  

The three of  us stood in the middle of the street for a while, awkwardly grinning at each other before I finally the courage to speak up.

“Um… my mum is probably wondering where I am…”

“Oh right!” James remembered, shaking his head and then beckoning me over to where his car was parked.

  

“Can I come too?” Brad asked in a childish voice, pushing out his bottom lip. I couldn’t help, but let a small smile grow on my lips despite the fact that I realised that James was getting quite annoyed by his best friend.

  

“No, you weirdo” James retorted, clambering into the driver’s seat of his car, “Get lost”

“Gosh someone’s on their period” 

I couldn’t stop myself from laughing at this point and sent an apologetic look at James, who was blushing furiously. Brad was definitely a very funny guy, I could definitely see us becoming good friends.