I exhaled as I looked down at myself. The front of my plaid button-up was hanging loosely over my tan cargo shorts. I smoothed out the front of my shirt and held my breath as I knocked on the door. There she was, smiling that radiant smile that kept my attention from the moment we met. "Hi, you ready?" She pulled me in for a quick, friendly hug and I quickly inhaled the familiar smell of her damp hair. Vanilla. I let her out of my embrace as she opened her front door wider. "Just about ready. Come in if you want, it'll be a minute. I'm just going to finish my hair really fast." "You look gorgeous, by the way." Her face instantly lit up brighter than I'd seen it before and soon turned a light shade of scarlet. "I'll be right back." She turned the corner and disappeared from sight. I stood in her living room looking around at all the pictures on her walls. From what I could see, she had one brother and lots of close friends. The way she looked like she was laughing in every picture was adorable. "Alright, I think I'm ready." She was still messing with a few runaway strands of hair when she just gave up and ran her hand through it. As I took in her beauty, I whispered under my breath. "What was that?" "Oh, nothing, It's just - you're so stunning. I'm sorry. I'm being weird." Her giggle put me at ease. "No, you're being sweet. And I love it." She gave me a wink and made her way out the front door.
"Are you ready to sit in a car for 6 hours with me? You should know, I can't sit still for more than 10 minutes. I'm like a puppy hyped up on caffeine." She put her arm around my bicep as I walked her around the side of Drew's car, helping her in. Because I had no reason to own a car and waste money on a car payment, Drew agreed to let me borrow her car for the weekend. "How are your driving skills? Can I trust that you won't crash if I fall asleep for a minute?" I clicked my buckle and looked straight ahead, trying to hide a smile. "Oh god, do you need me to drive?" I looked over and chuckled, nibbling nervously on my bottom lip. "Nancy, I need you to understand that I'm a New Yorker. New Yorker's don't know how to drive. My parents grew up in Brooklyn so they never drove. I'm a second generation bad driver." With that said, we quickly switched seats. "I feel bad having you drive me. I'm a man, I should be YOUR chauffeur, not the other way around." "Oh hush. Besides, you don't even know how to get there." I pulled my flip phone from my pocket bringing up my GPS application and tapped the screen. "Mmmhm. I'm sure I could find my way." She rolled her eyes and kept them on the road in front of her.
"Jimmy... Jiiimmmy..." I felt the car stop and listened to Nancy put it in park. "We're here, sleepy head." I rubbed my eyes and looked up through the sun roof, realizing the sun was almost down. "Jeez, you shouldn't have let me fall asleep. I wanted to keep you company while you were driving." "Well, you made it through the first hour and a half but from that point on, you were out cold. You're a heavy sleeper, huh?" I chuckled and reached to unbuckle my seatbelt. What I didn't know was that it was spring loaded. As soon as I clicked the button, the metal buckle flew up and hit my jaw at just the right angle to make me lay back down. "...Ouch." Nancy giggled as I tried to rub my cheek free of the shock. "Oh my gosh, I didn't think it hit you that hard. Jimmy, you're bleeding."
I pulled my now crimson hand away from my face into view and looked to Nancy who was staring at my cheek just as shocked as I was. "Hey, no. I'm fine. It doesn't hurt that bad. I'm just a bleeder." She opened the glove box and pulled out a couple of crinkled up Dairy Queen napkins. "You're lucky I know where Drew keeps everything." I reached for the napkin and she held her hand up. "Let me do this." I felt my face burn with frustration and embarrassment. Why I couldn't undo something as simple as a seat belt without hurting myself, I don't know. She lightly rubbed the blood from my cheek holding her eyes on mine. I winced more noticeably than intended and she pulled away. "I'm okay. It's just a little tinder." "You know, it really doesn't look too bad. It should cover up nicely for filming. You really are a bleeder though." She put the now stained napkin in an empty cup and brought her thumb back up to my cheek while holding just under my chin with her other fingers. I could feel a light sweat forming on my scalp and my legs started to tingle. Either I lost more blood than we thought or she was literally getting me hot. I shifted in my seat and she pulled away. "I'm sorry... Your skin. It's so soft." "Oh yeah. That's because I don't grow hair there. Or there. Or there." I poked around my jaw line. "I grow a patchy beard, if you even want to call it that." She gave me a sympathetic look and raised her eyebrow. "You poor thing, you. As long as you can grow more facial hair than me, you can grow a beard. And honestly, facial hair is a major turn on." With that, she got out of the car and started walking towards what I could only assume was the beach. I quickly grabbed our bag out of the trunk with all the picnic food in it and caught up with her.
