it's a match | andrew siwicki

11. And They Met

After hanging up, Lexie began to panic. "Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit..." she began muttering to herself as she gathered her bag with her dress and heels to change into for the evening. She ran around her flat gathering things she needed, putting the finishing touches on her makeup, and trying to mentally prepare herself.

After 2 hours of getting ready and finally feeling like she looked decent to meet Andrew and his friends, she looked at herself in her full-length mirror. She straightened her hair today, beat her face to no end with a long, winged eyeliner and wispy lashes, and had on a pair of denim shorts and a white ruffle smocked tube top. Her white Adidas NMDs finished off her look. She knew Andrew was a fan of the whole sporty-casual look so she tried to cater to that.

Lexie screamed when her phone rang and Andrew's name popped up on her screen. She cleared her throat a few times before answering, "Helloooo."

"Hiiiiiiiiii," was his response with a small chuckle.

She laughed too and asked, "You outside baby boo?"

"Oh! Uh yeah! Uhh.. sweet cheeks?"

"We'll work on it," she teased.

"Gotcha. Come down whenever you're ready. Cameras all over the place, by the way."

They ended the call and she took a deep breath as she grabbed her duffle bag and headed outside. When she stepped out into the sunlight, her eyes made contact with the tall red-head leaned against the passenger side door of his car.

She felt her breath get caught as she looked him up and down. Oh, he was much more attractive in person. She slowly walked up to him and he met her halfway. Once they made it to each other, she dropped her duffle bag and let him bring her in for a big hug.

When they pulled away, Lexie quickly planted a chaste kiss on his cheek and greeted, "Hi."

She watched as his face turned a bright red when he realized what she had just done. "S-sup," he replied, trying to act cool.

Then they both laughed at how un-cool that was. Andrew reached around behind her to pick up her duffle bag and headed towards his car's trunk and put it in. "Oh! Hi!" he heard the girl say when Shane and squad came up behind them.

"Oh, Lex," he started. "Shane, Ryland, Morgan, and Garrett," he introduced going in the line they appeared in.

Garrett may have been the most excited to meet Lexie; pulling her in for a hug immediately and squeezing her tight.

"Oh Andrew, you need to watch your best friend because I think he's trying to steal your girl," Morgan joked when Garrett did not want to let the girl go.

"Aaawww what no!!! I'm just so excited for Lexie to join the rest of our lives!" Garrett said, still clinging onto the girl who was a good feet shorter than him. They could hear her giggling into Garrett's button up lobster shirt. "Lexie you are so cute. Please be with Andrew forever and get married and have cute little babies with red hair and-"

"Well considering Andrew is a red head and has a recessive gene and I'm part Asian, our babies will most likely look like me," Lexie explained freeing her face from Garrett's shirt.

The group got silent. "Ok someone paid attention in biology class," Ryland joked.

"I went to college!" Lexie proudly said, causing Andrew to nod approvingly. Morgan caught that on camera.

"Can't relate!" Shane exclaimed. "I don't think anyone else here can relate?"

Andrew perked up, "I went to college! Also, maybe it would be a good thing if our kids look like her instead of me."

"Well aren't you two perfect for each other," Shane snarled. They all laughed and Garrett let go of Lexie and pushed her towards Andrew. He underestimated how little she weighed and how hard he had pushed her as she stumbled and literally crashed into Andrew.

"Woopsie," Garrett shrugged, but also high key proud of what he did when he noticed Andrew's hand gripped on the exposed skin of Lexie's waist. Morgan zoomed in on the skin-ship and then at Garrett's knowing face before she started cracking up laughing.

"Ah, sorry" Andrew mumbled, realizing where his hand was resting and putting it back at his side.

"No you're not," Lexie teased, bumping her hips to his.

Shane coughed and interrupted, "Okay you two have all day to flirt. Let's head out. So Ryland is gonna drive ahead, and Andrew just follow in your car, okay?"

They all agreed to the plan and made their ways into the cars.

Once Lexie and Andrew were both sat and buckled in, Ryland began driving and Andrew followed suit.

"So there's a camera here," Andrew pointed at the vlog camera on his dash.

"I can see that," Lexie responded sarcastically. "I figured I wouldn't exactly get you alone just yet."

Andrew gulped, letting his mind wander to... other things. "We got the rest of our lives for that, Lex," he responded rather boldly.

She gasped and let out a small chuckle, "I like this side of you, Andrew." They smiled over at each other before she asked, "So where are we even going?"

"You know... I'm not exactly sure. I gave them suggestions for date ideas, but in the end they were the ones who planned everything. You know just about as much as I do."

"Hmmmm," she mumbled thoughtfully. "Hope I'm dressed for the right occasion then..."

"I think you look amazing," he complimented.

She smiled at him. "I think I'll be good as long as they don't make me do any jumping jacks," she gestured to her tube top.

Andrew smirked and replied, "Oh I hope they make you do jumping jacks."

She gasped and hit him playfully in the arm. They both laughed and let themselves slip into a comfortable silence. Lexie was genuinely surprised at their chemistry and how well things were flowing. She'd thought maybe it would be awkward or that they'd set too high expectations considering the premise of Shane's series... but no, this was all going really well.

Her train of thought was interrupted when Andrew's Bluetooth connected to his speakers and Shane called. His voice rang through the car, "Ok lovebirds, we see you guys having a great time." They looked ahead at the car in front of them and saw Morgan and Garrett waving at them from the back window. Lexie waved back at them. "So I was watching that YouTube series about getting strangers to fall in love in 36 questions..."

Shane then began to explain that throughout the date, he would ask Andrew and Lexie some questions - from 3 different sets - each set getting progressively more intimate. He gave some background about how it was based on a study done and the method behind the madness. At the end of the date, he's going to ask the two to stare into each other's eyes for four minutes.

"So we're almost at your date location. My first question before we arrive there is: Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why?" And then he hung up.

"Ladies, first," Andrew said, making a gesture with his hands.

Lexie smiled, "Ok. Yes. All the time. Before I call in sick at work, when I need to make an appointment at my gynecologist, when I call my dad back home... I think I do it because sometimes I clam up if I don't prepare what I want to say. I practiced saying 'hello' like five times before I answered your call earlier ago!"

Andrew smirked and said, "That's honestly the cutest thing ever."

"Nah, stop! You're just saying that," she giggled. "How about you? You don't look like the rehearsal type."

He nodded his head, taking his eyes off the road for a second to make eye contact with her. "Yeah, you're right. I don't feel like I need to rehearse what I'm saying if I know what I want to talk about. I only rehearse for the important stuff.. like interviews and dates with cute girls."

"Did you rehearse for our date?"

"Oh yeah. I barely slept last night."