My Person

twenty

Naomi

"Nasim! We need to go shopping!" I say as I walk inside our bedroom. In the big Airbnb we were staying at, we all shared the room with someone, and luckily, Nasim was my roommate.

"I know, I know! You need to find a good outfit for tonight." She smirks at me and I laugh, "Something like that." I shrug.

Tonight was Mena and I's big date. Sure, we've technically gone out before, but this time it was different. This time he actually asked me out for real, and we were going to a fine restaurant.

Nasim and I left the Airbnb and went to the nearest mall. After a dozen stores, we finally found the perfect one. I tried on a gorgeous short red wine dress, and Nasim and I were both in love with it. After buying it, we went back to the Airbnb to get ready.

•

"You look beautiful! Relax, and be yourself." Nasim says as I take one last look at myself before I go. I sigh, "Alright, thank you so much, Nasim." I smile and kiss her cheek goodbye. I walk down the stairs, Mena was waiting in the living room. As he comes into view, I stop walking.

Wow.

God really took his time making Mena.

He looked so handsome. His hair was slicked back and his long sleeves were rolled up. I guess he was admiring me too because his mouth was slightly open as soon as he saw me.

"N-Naomi, you look...gorgeous." He says and I look at the floor, cheesing hard.

"And you look very handsome." I say and he chuckles. He extends his hand for me to take and I look down at it, interlacing my fingers with his. "Ready?" He nods towards the door and I nod with a smile.

We get a cab to take us to the restaurant and fifteen minutes later, we're there.

"Okay, close your eyes!" Mena says as we get out of the cab. For some reason, he didn't want me to look at the restaurant until we were fully inside.

He grabs my waist as he helps me walk inside and once we step foot inside the restaurant, he tells me to open my eyes. My jaw basically dropped at the sight. "Wow," I whispered as I looked at it.

"Mena, this is beautiful!" I face him and I see him grinning. "You told me once how you loved these types of restaurants, and what better first date than to dine in one of them?" He smirks and I roll my eyes with the biggest smile planted on my face.

"You remembered?" I asked, slightly surprised.

"Yep!" He popped the 'p'.

"You are something else, Massoud." I shook my head and chuckled.

Mena had reservations so he said his name and we were taken to a table in the back, secluded from everything else. After ordering, we started talking about everything and anything.

He shared some of his childhood stories, as well as high school and college stories. He was such an interesting person and everyday he made me want to learn more about him.

•

After a really special date, we decided to walk back to the Airbnb instead of taking a cab. The moon was falling and the streets were covered in raindrops, since it had just rained.

"And one day I was sitting in class and realized, I don't want to do this. I want to pursue acting. And as hard as it was explaining that to my parents, I ended up studying in theater college and landed upon this life changing role in Aladdin. I'm so, so, so incredibly blessed." He was telling me about how he ended up being an actor.

"Wow, that's intense. Your story is really empowering, you know that?" I said and he glanced at me with that same sparkle in his eyes, "You think so?"

"I know so." I smiled.

"Well, I'm really glad you decided to go out with me tonight."

"Did I really have a choice though?" I joked and he laughed.

"That's true, I was taking you out and you didn't really get to say no." He said and now it was me who was laughing.

When we reached the Airbnb, we walked up to our bedrooms. "Thank you again for tonight. I had a lot of fun." I said.

"I did too." He smiled.

He leaned in and I could feel my heart pulsing at the speed of lightning. As my lips were about to touch his soft ones, we get interrupted.

"Yo, Mena you're back a-" Will shouted until he realized what he had just walked in on.

We both glare at him jokingly and he stays quiet. "Well, don't look at me it's not like I interrupted something!" He said and we couldn't help but laugh.

"Sure, you didn't." I rolled my eyes jokingly.

"I'll leave you two alone so you can...you know...finish that." He says with a hand gesture and I chuckle.

"Now, where were we?" Mena mumbles as he gets closer to me, his minty breath hitting my face.

"Oh my gosh, N, how did it go-" Nasim walked in on us and we all laughed again.

"Oops." She said and now Will came back and started cracking up. "Nasim, quit interrupting them!" He said.

"Will, you walked in on them first!" Nasim countered back.

"I did not!"

"Did too!" She said and now we were laughing at them for behaving like five year olds.

"I think that's enough for tonight." I said.
"I agree," Mena said.

He leaned his head and kissed my cheek, letting his lips linger there for a second. "Sleep well, princess."