moving up

Chapter 29

Momo doesn't tell anyone about her plans with Shoto. She considers telling Kyoka ahead of time, but she decides that it would be better to see how things go before she talks to her about it. No matter how things go, she will tell Kyoka about it, if only because Kyoka trusted her with the details about her date with Koji, and she knows that she can trust her with it.

She tells herself not to get her hopes up, and not to think of this as anything more than what it is, but that's hard, when she has no idea what it is to begin with. He said that he only used talking about work plans as an excuse to spend time with her outside of work, but that doesn't mean that he has feelings for her. It could very well just be him wanting a chance to get to know her better, because he wants to be friends with her outside of work.

She isn't sure that it makes sense for him to risk getting in trouble just to be friends with someone like her, but that's more believable than him wanting to date her, and better to imagine than him taking her out just to tell her something negative that he didn't want to say at work. Not that she can even come up with what that could possibly be.

Rather than imagining what manner of harsh things he could say that would be too unprofessional for even the office, she chooses to believe that it isn't something like that. Even if it makes no sense for him to meet up with her for any of the other reasons either.

The fact of the matter is, nothing about any of this makes a bit of sense to her. She considers telling Kyoka a few times just to get someone else's insight, but she stops herself each time. Even if she did ask Kyoka, she has a feeling Kyoka would just assume it was romantic either way.

She would say something like, "I told you this could happen. He's definitely into you, so just go with it," which would be no help at all. In the end, she has to go in blind, doing her best to ignore all of her worries so that she can find out what it is that Shoto wants from her.

~X~

The two of them meet up at a restaurant that she notices is on the opposite side of town from the store. She appreciates this, even though that doesn't really lower the odds of running into someone that they know. Even if they're far from the store, she's sure that there are employees that live in this area of the city, or even just someone out at the same restaurant or shopping in the area. Still, it lowers the risk a little bit, and Momo appreciates that he thought about that, though it was more than likely just for his own benefit.

They greet each other before being taken to a table, and make it through ordering their drinks and looking over the food on the menu before they actually talk about their reason for coming. After Momo decides what she's going to order, she works on getting up the nerve to ask Shoto what he wants from her.

"So, um..." she starts, trailing off as she realizes she still isn't sure what to say. Shoto waits for her, so she starts over. "So...you said you wanted to talk to me outside of work. Was there...anything in particular you wanted to talk about?"

"Really, I just...wanted to take you on a date," he says. "I probably should have asked that more clearly, but this is what I ended up doing instead."

"Are you two ready to order?" Before Momo can even begin to process what Shoto has said, before she can overcome her shock and try to register the fact that he's just bluntly told her that he wanted to go on a date with her, the waiter interrupts, coming to take their order.

Shoto doesn't miss a beat, replying with his order, and Momo stammers out her own order, wondering what will be said once the waiter is gone. But when they are left alone, Shoto says nothing, watching her from across the table instead. It takes her a few awkward seconds to realize that she is supposed to respond to what he said before, but she doesn't know what to say.

"Can you...repeat that?" she asks, when she finds that she can't think of anything else.

"Sorry, was that too abrupt?" he asks, glancing down at the table. "I'm really not good at this, but...I like you. Romantically. I wanted to take you out because of that."

"You...like me?" She feels like she must sound stupid, repeating him like this, but she can hardly believe it. After spending all this time thinking it was impossible, and that liking him was too risky, he's taken the risk himself, asking her out and confessing to her.

"I do. I understand if you aren't interested, or if you'd rather not date a coworker. I will say that it's a lot more common than you'd think, and I don't think Aizawa cares as long as it isn't obvious, but..."

"I...I like you too," she confesses, meeting his gaze. "I didn't want it to get in the way of work, but I never thought you would...w-well, I wouldn't mind it, but I don't want you to put your job at risk. You're a manger, so wouldn't it be harder on you?"

"You have a point, but we could keep things out of work," he replies. "I do most of the scheduling, so I could try to make it so that we didn't work a lot of shifts together. If you really wanted to give it a try, we could just see where things go..."

"I've been interested in you for a long time. From the beginning, practically. I never thought anything would come of it, and now that you're...I-I really don't know what to say."

"You can think about," Shoto replies, offering her a slight smile. "I just wanted the chance to tell you."

Everything is happening so quickly that she has a hard time wrapping her head around it, or believing that it's real. They haven't even gotten their meals yet, and so much has already happened. But she doesn't want to let this chance pass her by, so she shakes her head.

"I don't need time to think about it," Momo says. "If we aren't working a lot of shifts together, I think it would be fine. We can just keep our personal life separate from work, and see what happens."

"I'm glad you feel the same way," he says. "I've...never done anything like this before, so it might take me a little while to figure it out."

"That's alright. I don't have a lot of experience myself," she replies.

But, as far as first dates go, she thinks that this one must be pretty good.